Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich
Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, op. 40[a]; Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 134[b]; Piano Trio in E minor, op. 67[c].
Dmitri Shostakovich (piano), Daniil Shafran (cello)[a]; David Oistrakh (violin)[b,c]; Milos Sadlo (cello)[c].
Eclectra ECCD-2046. ADD mono. TT 76:16.
Recorded Moscow, 1946[a]; Prague, 1947[b]; Oistrakh's apartment, Moscow, December 1968[c].

Recordings of Shostakovich playing his own oeuvre have suffered rather ignominious treatment on CD-reissue. Revelation's own Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich series was a litany of truncated transfers, incorrect transfer pitches and over-zealous noise-suppression techniques.

Eclectra's new compilation has obviously been prepared with great personal commitment by producer Andor Toth, who has written the engaging booklet notes. His company is also helping to publicise and raise money for the Daniil Shafran Memorial Fund founded by Steven Isserlis. Nevertheless, Eclectra have reissued this première recording of the Cello Sonata in an abridged form, omitting the first movement repeat, from the third bar to Fig. 10-1. To be precise, the first iteration of these bars is missing. This amounts to a loss of nearly five pages and four minutes of music.

When informed of this problem, Andor Toth told me that Eclectra's sources were the original 78-rpm and later LP records, which he says have no repeat. Mr. Toth didn't know if the masters from the recording session included the repeat, but said that Eclectra had no access to such items.

That the original recording did include the repeat is confirmed by the fact that the complete performance appeared twice on Revelation: a 1996 Daniil Shafran compilation coupled with Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata (Yakov Flyer on piano; RV 10017); and Vol. 7 in their Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich series, coupled with the same Oistrakh-Shostakovich recording of op. 134 appearing on the Eclectra disc (plus Three Fantastic Dances and the Polka from The Age of Gold; RV 70008). The latter was one of Revelation's last releases before they ceased trading due to copyright-infringement proceedings, so few copies reached retailers. Neither it nor RV 10017 is in the current catalogue.

The complete Shostakovich-Shafran performance is currently available [deleted since this review was written], however, on a two-disc set entitled Dimitri Chostakovitch par lui-même from the French label Dante Lys. This issue also offers the Piano Trio recording supplied on Eclectra, a recording of the Piano Quintet with the composer accompanying the Beethoven Quartet, as well as a 1946 recording of Quartet No. 3 from the Tchaikovsky Quartet, sans Shostakovich (LYS 369-370).

Mr. Toth hypothesised that the repeat in the supposedly complete recording might have been spliced in from elsewhere. Simultaneous playback reveals both the Revelation and Lys versions to be exactly the same, weakening but not disproving his hypothesis; their common ancestor might still be illegitimate. More convincing evidence to the contrary is the fact that the performing styles of both cellist and pianist are the same in first and second occurrence of the repeat, indicating that if one is indeed spliced in from a different session, Shostakovich and Shafran are still the authors. Finally, I hear no audible evidence of a splice on either Revelation or Lys.

I suspect no intent to mislead on Eclectra's part, so it is with regret that I cannot recommend their new disc if what you want is the Cello Sonata - for that, turn to Lys. And yes, it is a worthwhile recording to hear, not only for its historic status. Shafran sounds rather slithery when set beside Rostropovich's 1957 performance with the composer (Russian Disc RD CD 15 005; Revelation RV 70005; both deleted), but he emotes with greater subtlety. Shostakovich is in finer pianistic form in the première than with Rostropovich. Furthermore, I find the earlier version more moving, not least of all because of the gravitas of its more expansive Largo, which lasts 8:59 to the later recording's 7:59. Shafran and Shostakovich also allot the three other movements substantially more time, rendering the sonata as less of a virtuoso showpiece, more of a contemplative discourse.

If, however, you are looking for the première recording of the Violin Sonata, then the Eclectra CD is your only current supplier. As noted above, this appeared previously on Vol. 7 of the Revelation series, but that would be undesirable even were it still available, as the recording was transferred to CD more than a semitone sharp. Even more unforgivably, Revelation used a noise-reduction method that inserts disorienting digital silence between notes.

This remarkable document was taped in David Oistrakh's Moscow home in December 1968, soon after his return from tour in the UK. Shostakovich had been so anxious to hear his new composition played by its dedicatee that he had mailed the touring Oistrakh the score, along with a tape recording of Boris Tchaikovsky and Moisei Vainberg playing a two-piano version, so that the violinist could be ready to perform it upon his return. Not only is the Shostakovich-Oistrakh tape the original instrumentation's first recording, it pre-dates the first public performance, 3 May 1969 in Moscow with Oistrakh joined by Sviatoslav Richter, and even the customary preview at the Union of Composers, which Oistrakh and Vainberg gave on 8 January.

The acoustics are not what a studio could manage in 1968, and in the second movement Shostakovich's quavers blur together. Nevertheless, the sound is usually adequate to reveal the specific qualities of the recital, and the friends in attendance are quiet as mice. Early on in the first movement, Oistrakh's clock strikes the hour in the background - Eclectra guess 8 o'clock, but I hear 10 chimes!

By 1968, Shostakovich's right hand had several times required medical treatment, being progressively incapacitated by poliomyelitis, and his ill health returned him to hospital a month after this taping. There is little finesse to be heard in his playing here, and he stumbles more than a few times. Then again, the first movement of the Violin Sonata is so utterly devoid of expressive markings, and indeed, humanity, that perhaps Shostakovich's wooden phrasing therein was an interpretative decision, not a technical limitation. Both Oistrakh and Shostakovich pound out the second movement like machines. Their playing in the third movement is more organic, and the repetitions of its long, chromatic main theme evoke sympathy.

Unsurprisingly, the Violin Sonata's May 1969 première by Oistrakh and Richter (BMG/Melodiya 74321 34182 2) is musically superior to the 1968 taping, and is essential for anyone interested in this opus. There is, however, something almost desperate about Shostakovich's own recording - a raw awareness of Death's implacability? - which makes it more than a curiosity.

The famous 1947 Shostakovich-Oistrakh-Sadlo Prague recording of the Piano Trio is an old hand at CD reissue: Supraphon (CO 4489; deleted), Revelation (RV 70006; deleted), Vol. 1 in Doremi's David Oistrakh Collection (DHR-7701), the Lys compilation, and now Eclectra. Revelation's transfer was significantly sharp, and Doremi's is very slightly flat. Such problems are not uncommon with masters of this vintage, because recording speed was frequently imprecise and/or inaccurate, thus requiring compensation at the time of transfer to CD. Lys and Eclectra seem to get it right.

This is a fast, straight-faced performance, and given the circumstances of war and personal loss surrounding the Trio's creation - not to mention the tragic potential inherent in the score - it is odd that the composer does not set a more mournful tone for the proceedings. As it was recorded in a single take, without editing, there are also errors of execution. Nevertheless, this is one of the better examples of Shostakovich's skill at the keyboard.

The original was recorded on shellac, so there is a fair amount of surface noise. Eclectra transfer the recording at a lower volume than do Lys, but the background hiss is similar on both once one adjusts the dial.

Eclectra's notes tell us that Shostakovich's friend Ivan Sollertinsky died in a concentration camp. This misinformation has surfaced before in CD notes. It presumably arises from the juxtaposition of the Trio's dedication to the memory of Sollertinsky and the Jewish "dance of death" theme in its finale, which reflects Shostakovich's revulsion at reports that Nazi death-camp guards forced inmates to dance at their own graves. For the record, Sollertinsky died of a heart condition while safely nestled in the bosom of Mother Russia. Drs. Laurel Fay and Nora Avins Klein inform me independently that Sollertinsky was not Jewish, based on conversations with his friends and friends of his family. In addition, Lys give an incorrect date of 1946 for the Trio recording. The composer's recorded legacy deserves better quality control.

W. Mark Roberts
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DSCH No. 14.
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