Shostakovich 4 is a relative rarity in the concert hall. Scored for an enormous orchestra, formally more like a symphonic fantasy than a conventional symphony, bursting with more melodic themes and changes of mood than its structure can really handle, it is nevertheless an incredibly welcome and invigorating guest orchestral showpiece. Played for all its worth as it was by a wonderfully well rehearsed and responsive London Philharmonic Orchestra for their principal conductor Vladimir Jurowski, it proved to be a real blast, with levels of noise that would have had health and safety inspectors had there been any in the audience reading for their decibel meters. The sight of nine horns spread centre platform in the midst of 110 players gave us an inkling of what was to come!
Shostakovich was at work on his C minor symphony in 1935 36 when the famous Pravda article entitled Muddle instead of music appeared. Stalin and a group of top officials had just seen Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the message to Shostakovich was clear enough: produce music of a different sort or face the consequences. In the circumstances it is amazing that the Fourth Symphony was seen through to its conclusion had it been played in public on its completion, in 1936, Shostakovich would undoubtedly have had consequences, and severe ones at that, to face. But prudently Shostakovich withdrew the work, turned to his Fifth Symphony (a Soviet artist's riposte to just criticism) and triumphed with that work. The Fourth Symphony was not actually premiered until 1961.
The two twenty-five minute outer movements live and breathe the sound world of Mahler: tramping marches, quirky woodwind solos, eccentric and distorted waltz interludes, all building to enormous climaxes followed by extended orchestral diminuendos. Jurowski kept magisterial control of dynamics and tempo, allowing the virtuosity of Shostakovich's orchestration to shine through: the frequent interlude passages were translucent but crisply articulated. It is a big work in every sense big, broad melodic sweeps, big ideas constantly coming forward. If there was the occasional jerky transition (I noticed a couple) it lies probably in the nature of the piece rather than imperfect execution on the night: Shostakovich is at times wild and unruly in the sound world he wants created. But the warts give the work its own sense of visceral excitement, and the LPO created that par excellence. This was music making at its most thrilling.
As an intellectual counterpoint to the Fourth Symphony, the concert started with a performance of Five Fragments, written by Shostakovich as thematic studies for the massive work he was about to undertake. This was a clever piece of programming, each fragment in performance capturing perfectly the mood of the symphony that was to follow (although thematically they relate directly to the massive first movement only). Departing from the printed order in the programme, the Largo fragment for pianissimo strings was played last, its haunting mood taking us to the heart of the emotional credo of Shostakovich at that time.
Sandwiched between these two emanations of Shostakovich we heard the First Violin Concerto by Szymanowski, in a fine account given by the young German violinist Carolin Widmann. Cast in a single 25 minute movement, the work has an economy of expression singularly lacking in the Shostakovich, its shimmering orchestral textures reminiscent of Ravel or Debussy rather than of Mahler. Widmann played it straight, concentrating on purity of sound and of line rather than on any attempt to superimpose Romantic expression on the notes. If this made her sound slightly underpowered at times, it nonetheless ensured a good rapport with conductor and orchestra, and the work emerged as an inspired and assured piece of writing, the nobility of the soloist's melodic line always to the fore. Widmann took over the Szymanowski from the soloist originally billed for the evening, Julia Fischer, and it is gratifying to report that she did not disappoint. All I would say is that without sacrificing the fluency of line she achieves if Widmann could achieve more character in the actual sound she produces, her playing will become that much more memorable.
Shostakovich studies Szymanowski Shostakovich (relatively) rare symphony. If it sounds like a bold and imaginative piece of programming, that is what it was. And it produced music making and orchestral playing of a high order. The LPO is off to a good start in 2010.
Photo: Carolin Widmann
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