This Shostakovich Eighth is one of the greatest exemplars of Mravinsky’s art, not to mention a sensational performance of a work that often bogs down in dragging tempos and consequently comes across as merely miserable. This is nowhere more evident than in the fourth-movement passacaglia. After a crushing account of the Toccata, Mravinsky shows that it’s possible to convey gravity without yielding to total stasis. The finale also moves at a lively basic tempo, which makes the emotionally exhausted conclusion all the more affecting. The (then) Leningrad Philharmonic plays sensationally, those grainy but hugely powerful strings effortlessly sustaining the opening movement’s long, dark musical paragraphs–but then every section seems to have been in top form. Happily, the audience is very quiet, and the 1982 sonics are quite good considering their provenance. This is a classic, now available hopefully forever, on-demand, from Arkivmusic.com. [11/29/2007]
