Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4, Op. 43

Chronique

It is odd to see the Red Star is still flying and odder still to see it flying on the cover of this 2004 recording of Shostakovich's Fourth by Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischen Rundfunks Sinfonie-orchester. The Fourth, as Shostakovich aficionados know, was the symphony Shostakovich withdrew after he and his modernist music were denounced on the cover of Pravda, marking Shostakovich and his music as anathema. The Fourth, while not a virulently anti-Soviet work like the Thirteenth, is still a glowering piece of musical modernism that would certainly have gotten Shostakovich liquidated by the government had it been premiered when it was composed instead of a quarter of a century later.
These days, with the USSR a fading memory even to Cold Warriors, the Soviet as well as the modernist implications of the work are lost on the younger generation of listeners. Thankfully, Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony bring all the frightful terror, all the hideous irony, all the bitter despair, all the aggressive rhythms and the angular structures and the agonized themes of the work back to life. Jansons, one of the finest living conductors and an old hand at Shostakovich, turns in a massive, monumental, and maniacal interpretation and the Bavarian Radio Symphony plays with polish, precision, and apparently in absolute fear for its life. EMI's sound will crush your bones to paste and your brains to jelly. In the Fourth, this is appropriate.

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