Unlike his Bruckner, Andris Nelsons seems to have real feeling for Shostakovich, and in the Boston Symphony he has far and away the best orchestra for the job. They play the living daylights out of the Fourth Symphony, taking Nelsons’ quick tempos in stride, and offering seat-of-your-pants excitement in the first movement’s insane central fugue. Will they make it, or won’t they? You bet they do. It’s one of the tightest and most cogent versions available of this sprawling behemoth of a work. The scherzo is aptly twilit but nicely flowing, and the ballet episodes in the finale are well characterized. It all culminates in a crushing account of the final chorale, and a perfectly paced, truly creepy coda.
The Eleventh Symphony is a tougher nut to crack, especially its repetitious first movement–you never do know quite when it’s going to end or where you are in it, and you get the sense that Nelsons hasn’t quite got it figured out, but it’s smooth sailing afterwards. There’s an aptly devastating “execution” scene in the second movement, while the elegiac third is deeply moving–I might almost say profound in this interpretation. Nelsons launches the finale with drive, and in the coda, with its clangor of bells especially well caught, creates a real sense of panic. The engineering isn’t perfect–the bass (timpani especially) can sound overly prominent, but the tension of a live event comes through vividly. If you’re collecting this excellent series, keep at it.
