It is always a delightful dilemma to be faced with recordings of the same works that are of almost equal caliber. That is the case here. André Previn’s recordings of Shostakovich symphonies made for EMI in the early 1980s found the conductor and his London Symphony musicians communicating as one, and they were afforded superb engineering. The playing in the fast movements of the 10th Symphony is always of virtuoso standard, and Previn consistently maintains an equal balance between broadness and propulsiveness. In the 13th symphony, which adds bass soloist and men’s choir to the very large orchestra, Dimiter Petkov makes a solid impression in the solos, while the men of the London Symphony Chorus make an even better one with their choral declamations. Chorus director Richard Hickox has these men sounding like an authentic Russian ensemble, dark tone and all. When all is said and done, however, I still give a slight edge to the reference recordings listed above. But you can’t really go wrong with this Previn release; I would surely not want to be without it, and I suspect most fans of this composer will feel similarly.
