Your guide to classical music online

LSO Shostakovich 8 Remake Succeeds With Noseda

Jens F. Laurson

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

Snidely put, Gianandrea Noseda only conducts Italian and Russian works. (He’s musically and linguistically fluent in Russian after having lived and worked in St. Petersburg for years.) It’s a pretty limited repertoire, but one that he often does well. And when he does it well (like Shostakovich’s Words of Michelangelo Suite or Casella), he does it very well, indeed. Another case in point is this recording of Shostakovich’s Eighth with the London Symphony Orchestra. For starters, this greatly improves on the orchestra’s 2004 recording on the same label with Rostropovich (“a dull 68 minutes of music”). It offers a more natural flow in the first movement, better-judged dynamics, and a subtly and increasingly gripping dramatic arch.

The result is good, perhaps surprisingly good; certainly up there with first-class accounts like those of Slatkin, Berglund, Wigglesworth, and Caetani. What it hasn’t got is the teeth-first attack and bite of Rozhdestvensky, but then who does? What it’s got is a much more natural balance than Rozhdestvensky, but then, who doesn’t? The tempos are average for the opening movement and a bit on the slow side for the rest, but the numbers say awfully little by themselves in this symphony: Excellence can be achieved by the fastest (Caetani) and the slowest (Wigglesworth, Kitajenko, Maxim Shostakovich) alike, with almost 20 minutes difference between them. Noseda succeeds in his own middle-of-the-road way right down the center. It’s not a Shostakovich of extremes, but the play between patience and tension—never more important than in this symphony—is adroitly executed and the sound is good for a Barbican release. Makes you look forward to their Fourth that is coming out soon.

« Back to Search Results


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: Jansons (EMI/Warner); Rozhdestvensky (Melodiya); Haitink (Decca); Mravinsky (Alto); V. Petrenko (Naxos)

    London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda

  • Record Label: LSO - 0822
  • Medium: SACD

Search Music Reviews

Search Sponsor

  • Insider Reviews only
  • Click here for Search Tips

Visit Our Merchandise Store

Visit Store
  • Ideally Cast Met Revival of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette
    Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, NY; March 19, 2024—The Met has revived Bartlett Sher’s 1967 production of Gounod’s R&J hot on the heels of its
  • An Ozawa Story, November, 1969
    Much has justifiably been written regarding Seiji Ozawa’s extraordinary abilities and achievements as a conductor, and similarly about his generosity, graciousness, and sense of humor
  • Arvo Pärt’s Passio At St. John The Divine
    Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York, NY; January 26, 2024—When one thinks of musical settings of Christ’s Passion, one normally thinks of the