The playing of the Estonian Festival Orchestra in these performances is pretty phenomenal. In the Sixth Symphony, after an aptly dark and probing opening Adagio, Paavo Järvi chooses blistering tempos for the ensuing scherzo and madcap finale, but the musicians take them in stride. There’s no evidence of strain or slipshod ensemble–not even from the strings in the galloping principal theme of the finale. At the same time, they hit all of the music’s hard accents with the necessary bite, and offer astounding top-to-bottom transparency of texture in the big climaxes. It’s really as fine a performance as we’ve got; right up there with the classic Berglund/Bournemouth on EMI/Warner.
The Sinfonietta is yet another arrangement of the Eighth String Quartet, this time by Abram Stasevich for strings with added timpani. Because the playing is so fine, I wish I could like it more, but the inclusion of the drums strikes me as wholly gratuitous. Even the ominous fourth movement, with its “bombing of Dresden” three-note thuds, gains little by having a loud pounding dwarfing the surrounding string textures. In other words, the transcription tends to throw the balance of tone in the ensemble out of proportion. It certainly vindicates Shostakovich’s original, strings-only conception, whatever the size of the actual performing forces.
Alpha’s engineering is impressive: clean as a whistle, sharp, and as naturally detailed as the playing itself. I can recommend this wholeheartedly for the Sixth Symphony, but I suspect only diehard Shostakovich collectors will be interested in the coupling, and even then only as a curiosity.
