Shostakovich 25th Anniversary Edition
Le Chant du Monde.
15 discs, only available separately.

NOTE: Since this review was written, several of the recordings reissued in this 25th Anniversary Edition have been identified as being reproductions of original recordings made in Russia and Vienna, not Prague. In some of these pressings, audience noises have been added to the original studio recordings. For reference purposes, my reviews are reproduced below unedited, but some of my comments have been invalidated by this discovery. Full details are contained in my report in DSCH No. 15 on misattributed recordings on the Praga label. WMR.

It was an astute marketing move on the part of Le Chant du Monde to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Shostakovich's death with a re-release of recordings from their Praga and Saison Russe subsidiaries, at reduced price. Many of these had been released just months earlier in other guises, including the organ works CD reviewed above by Louis Blois (which remains indexed as LDC 77781124), and all of the Shostakovich recordings in the Mravinsky in Prague boxed set reviewed in DSCH No. 13 (Praga PR 256016.19). Fortunately, the Anniversary Edition discs are sold individually, so the consumer can pick and choose which ones to purchase and thus avoid unnecessary duplication of recordings already owned in a previous incarnation.

Although one cannot buy the Anniversary Edition's 15 individual CDs as a boxed set, each jewel case is packaged in a cardboard slipcase bearing a consistent graphic design: Shostakovich's head from none other than the DSCH Journal's own logo, rendered in black on red! Lest I be accused of conflict of interest in preparing these reviews, I hasten to add that DSCH is neither sponsor nor beneficiary of the Anniversary Edition - indeed, we were unaware of Le Chant du Monde's design until we received an advance brochure for the set. The company's former director, Philippe Engammare, told me that he obtained the image from Emmanuel Utwiller, Secretary of the Centre Chostakovitch in Paris. We are happy to see it escape the confines of our pages!

Each slipcase is also highlighted by a different image of Shostakovich, including many delightful photographs given to Le Chant du Monde by Irina Shostakovich from the family archive. The booklets, however, are carried over from the previous releases, with new front-cover graphics to match the slipcase but no other changes; their documentation still refers to the original cover art, no longer present. There is no new literature for the Edition as a whole. The 25th Anniversary Edition is decidedly a mixed bag, as the reviews below reveal.

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