The music of Dmitri Shostakovich is more popular than ever. His daring use of the symphonic form, often blunt and emptional musicality, and bold orchestration challenged the status quo of Soviet art and arguably conveyed the secret (and not-so-secret) horror of the “glorious Socialist workers’ paradise.” Two of Shostakovich’s foremost interpreters, the dynamic conductor Kiril Kondrashin and legendary violinist David Oistrakh, join forces to present Shostakovich’s late concerto masterpiece, and Kondrashin leads an orchestra that was arguably “his” in Shostakovich’s final, sardonic statement in the symphonic form.
“Noting that this recording of Dmitry Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2 dates from 1967, and the performance of the Symphony No. 15 dates from 1974, listeners will still be immensely impressed by the high quality of the carefully preserved analog sound and find it is no impediment to enjoying what are classic interpretations of these late works. Hearing David Oistrakh play Shostakovich at any time is a thing greatly to be desired, and his penetrating performance with Kiril Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is required listening for any student of the concerto, simply because he received its dedication and gave its first recorded performance, heard on this Alto reissue. Both the Violin Concerto No. 2 and the Symphony No. 15 share the dark, desolate tone of Shostakovich’s output during the Brezhnev years, and Oistrakh and Kondrashin clearly sympathized with him in his final years of weakness and illness, to some degree communicated in the plaintive tone of both recordings. Granted, there may be recordings that are technically better than these, and there are undoubtedly some who will prefer different interpretations, but this disc is an invaluable document that offers moving performances contemporary with Shostakovich and should attract serious attention.”
AllMusic
