Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester/Kurt Sanderling
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, opus 77[a]; Symphony No. 5 in D minor, opus 47[b]; Symphony No. 10 in E minor, opus 93[c]; Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1, opus 19[d]; Violin Concerto No. 2, opus 63[e]; Stravinsky: Violin Concerto in D major[f]; Beethoven: Romance No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra G major[g]; Schubert: Symphony No. 2 in Bb major, D125[h]; Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde[i]; Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Haydn, opus 56a[j]; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K491[k]; Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D minor, opus 120[l].
Kurt Sanderling[a,b,d-f,i-l], David Oistrakh (cond.)[c,g,h]/(violin)[d-g], Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, Igor Oistrakh (violin)[a], Mitsuko Uchida (piano)[k].
Harmonia Mundi HMX 2905255.59. AAD[a-i]/DDD[j-l]. 5-CD boxed set TT 5h:59min.
Recorded live Metropoltheater Berlin, 3 October 1966[a,b], 8 March 1965[e,g,h], 6 April 1970[i]; Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, 29 September 1972[c], 19 April 1971[d], 7 March 1972[f]; Konzerthaus Berlin, 19 May 2002[j-l].

This boxed set commemorates last year's fiftieth anniversary of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (not to be confused with the more illustrious Berlin Philharmonic), and the partnership with Kurt Sanderling that put them on the map. Most of the radio broadcasts assembled here were taped during Sanderling's tenure as principal conductor, from 1966 to 1977.

It is fitting that Shostakovich occupies two of the five CDs in the set, not only because it is with his music that Sanderling and the Berliners are most closely associated in the minds of many record collectors, but also because of the personal connections between the composer and conductor. As a Jew, Sanderling had to leave his native Germany in 1936 for Moscow, and six years later was appointed permanent conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic, sharing the post with Mravinsky. He first met Shostakovich in Siberia during the War.

While Sanderling credits the USSR with saving him from the Nazi Holocaust, it was Shostakovich who, in the early fifties, saved Sanderling's career from the Communist Party. Attacked by an official at a Party committee meeting for a supposed ideological transgression, Sanderling was for a time barred from performing, and was in danger of losing his career ... at the minimum. Shostakovich intervened with higher-ups on Sanderling's behalf, and the conductor was soon able to return to work.

The first performance of a Shostakovich work marking the composer's rehabilitation following the 1948 Zhdanov affair was a 1949 Leningrad concert featuring the Fifth Symphony, with Sanderling at the podium. The performance of opus 47 in Harmonia Mundi's set, with the conductor back home in the German Democratic Republic, comes almost precisely midway between then and his justly praised 1982 recording for Berlin Classics (BC 2063-2; deleted).

Despite the close quarters in which Sanderling and the exalted Mravinsky worked, Sanderling's approach to the Fifth Symphony is distinctively his. As on Berlin Classics, in the Harmonia Mundi release we hear him omit the work's final cymbal crash, something Mravinsky never countenanced. More striking yet is his flight through the opening pages of the finale, which in both recordings he takes at a supersonic crotchet = 150. Compare that to Mravinsky's crotchet = 100 in his first recording of the symphony (Doremi DHR 7810/11; reviewed below), or even his faster approach late in life, still under crotchet = 140. In an interview in DSCH No. 6 (pp. 11-15), Sanderling recalls "one of the first performances of mine of the Fifth Symphony in Moscow - [Shostakovich] was there with Khachaturian. And I played the beginning of the finale a little bit more quickly, more aggressively than most of the other conductors of the time - as in fact Shostakovich actually asks for himself. And after the rehearsal, the two of them came to the conductor's room. Khachaturian had very friendly words in general, but he asked me, 'Isn't the beginning of the finale a little bit too fast?' But Shostakovich interrupted him: 'No, no - let him play it like that.' So, you see that he was open to various different interpretations of his works. He was not stuck with one tempo or one style."

The new release also demonstrates that Sanderling was not stuck with only one version of this symphony. In the approach to the Finale's climax, he drops to F instead of rising to Ab at Fig. 127-2/8:01, an infelicitous relict of an earlier version of the score, which has the effect of dissipating tension just when it is most in need of winding up. Sixteen years later, on Berlin Classics, F is out, Ab is in. Mravinsky, on the other hand, never saw fit to update this detail.

Sanderling's 1966 interpretation has the structural assurance of a score fully absorbed, perfusing the smallest capillary. Regrettably, this particular performance does not do it full justice. A consistent lack of incisiveness in the strings' attack is the fundamental problem. This is largely to blame for the muddy handling of the first movement's tutti (the overly reverberant acoustics don't help matters either). An otherwise powerful account of the third movement, its spaciousness triggering agoraphobia, is weakened by the strings' inability to really bite during the climax. The cheeky violin solo of the second movement is also found wanting in technique. Finally, the percussion often deliver only a dull thud, lacking in resonant power. Overall, this is a weak substitute for the Berlin Classics recording.

Orchestral playing is better in the performance of Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring Igor Oistrakh as soloist. This is the only currently available recording of Oistrakh fils playing any Shostakovich work. His taut, sinewy tone suits well the brooding first movement, and his vehemence in the second is impressive. I was disappointed, however, by what I found to be a lack of emotional engagement in the tersely phrased Passacaglia. The steely athleticism of soloist and orchestra in the Burlesque scores points, but overall the recital is not as involving as the best we've had from Oistrakh's father, David (RCA Red Seal 74321 72914 2; deleted).

Oistrakh senior is almost as well represented in this boxed set as is Sanderling. A prize here for DSCH Journal readers is the only recording of David Oistrakh conducting Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony. I cannot recall a more uncompromisingly bleak view of the symphony than this; Mark Wigglesworth comes close, though is more detached (BIS CD-973/974; reviewed in DSCH No. 12). All the life has been drained from the opening theme of the first movement, and this exhausted demeanour reappears in the reprise of this theme in the third movement. The clarinet and flute solos of the first movement are morose, seemingly sedated, and Oistrakh's slow gait makes the musical protagonist seem utterly defeated. The coda is ghostly to the point of transparency.

The concert is similarly praiseworthy for a shrill second movement, and for the desperation of the DSCH motto in the third. The various solos in the finale boast distinctive tonal personalities.

Sadly, there are less felicitous aspects. As in the accompanying Fifth Symphony, the strings are sometimes rather blunt edged and flabby, most detrimentally in the first movement's climax. One of the violins misreads the ottava marking at Fig. 10/4:40 as applying one note too early. Even more distracting is a strange recurring noise that sounds like a fingernail running along a giant comb, somewhere close to a recording microphone at stage left. This is especially startling during a quiet passage of the third movement. In sum, Oistrakh's interpretation is far better than either the orchestra or the recording deliver.

David Oistrakh remains at the helm of the orchestra for an affectionately nimble traversal of Schubert's Second Symphony, and does double duty in the Beethoven Romance (though it has to be said that his violin tone here is thin). He passes the baton to Sanderling and picks up his violin again for some commendable Prokofiev. A take-no-prisoners Violin Concerto No. 1 highlights the score's otherworldliness. Oistrakh is daring, though not always accurate, in the Second Concerto, where the Berlin strings shine, imparting a wonderfully ethereal atmosphere to the second movement. The Stravinsky concerto digs no pitfalls for soloist or orchestra, though inevitably it seems rather academic following Prokofiev's pair.

Sanderling and the Berliners are the furthest thing from academic in the oft-performed extracts from Tristan. The languid Prelude is followed by a swift-flowing yet achingly beautiful Liebestod, glittering with death-transcending emotion.

The three performances in the set that were taped just last year comprise Sanderling's farewell appearance with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the conductor having decided to retire with grace. Mitsuko Uchida took a sabbatical from her sabbatical to share a warm, capital-"r" Romantic stroll through Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 with her long-time collaborator. Schumann's Fourth Symphony receives a more relaxed and genial treatment than some might like, but I warmed to Sanderling's joyfully expansive take on Brahms' Haydn Variations. Harmonia Mundi have thoughtfully indexed each variation with its own track.

Perversely (from our perspective, anyway), the live audiences are in much better pulmonary health for the non-Shostakovich works on offer. Applause is edited out for all works.

The executive summary? The main draw here for DSCH Journal readers is Oistrakh's Tenth Symphony. Those serious about this opus will find the interpretation worth hearing despite the flaws of execution I mentioned. The two remaining Shostakovich performances on offer are less attractive, but the deal is sweetened considerably by desirable versions of works by other composers. At the cost of two full-priced CDs, the five-disc set offers good value.

W. Mark Roberts
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