The challenge this set faces can be summed up in one word: Barshai. Since Brilliant Classics released that Russian conductor’s Shostakovich cycle, a supreme achievement that sells for around $22, the case for a less-than-fabulous series such as this one, even at budget price, is difficult to make. Its basic problem stems from distinctly second-rate playing from the Czecho-Slovak Symphony Orchestra, particularly feeble brass and steely strings, all coupled to indifferent recorded sound. Ladislav Slovák on the other hand, a colleague of the composer, remains a terrific Shostakovich conductor. He understands the music and knows how it should go. Listen, for example, to the way he builds the climax of the Sixth Symphony’s second movement (taken slowly, like Bernstein’s), or his confident tread through the spare textures of Symphonies 14 and 15.
There are very few actual slips, but the ensemble sound remains screechy, anemic, and tonally coarse way beyond the call of duty. If you collect Shostakovich on principle and don’t mind the rough-and-ready quality of the playing, then Slovák’s worth a listen for his way of shaping the music, at least to the extent that the orchestra gives him what he wants. With a first-rate ensemble, this might have been something special. To its credit, Naxos provides full annotations in an extensive booklet and includes all sung texts with English translations.
