Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony has fared well on disc, even on SACD. It doesn’t ask for much more than great playing and sound, and an interpretation that keeps the music flowing and lets the climaxes achieve the necessary intensity. Mark Wigglesworth certainly delivers in this respect. He captures the misty tension of the first movement, while the massacre on “The Ninth of January” is both crushing as well as musical (check out the audibility of the violins in the wild triplet passage leading up to the moment itself).
The third movement, “In Memoriam”, could move a touch more quickly (Lazarev is unbeatable here, and daringly swift), but the finale’s endless parade of march tunes comes across with plenty of vigor and instrumental color. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic plays very well, with impressive brass and percussion, and the SACD multichannel sonics have powerful impact without quite matching LINN’s brilliance for Lazarev. So if you’ve been collecting this series, which has developed handsomely over the years, you can purchase this release with complete confidence.
