What are the best recordings of Shostakovich’s mighty Fifth? <\/p>
Whether written as propaganda or with bitter irony, Shostakovich<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Fifth Symphony reflects the terror of Stalin\u2019s rule like no other work.<\/p>\n Probably the most-performed modern symphony of the past 75 years, Shostakovich\u2019s Fifth was a crucial work in his development and an act of historic resonance. Written at the height of Russia\u2019s Stalinist terror by a composer at risk of his life, it seeks to reaffirm the grand Beethovenian tradition of constructive symphonic power and has gripped audiences since its 1937 premiere.<\/p>\n In the wake of the notorious Pravda\u2004newspaper attack on his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk<\/em>, Shostakovich produced a newly disciplined structure that unfolds with classically remorseless inevitability. On one level the Fifth imitates the favoured Soviet symphonic pattern of progress through struggle to victory.<\/p>\n But the pattern is subtly skewed. The finale is partly adapted from one of his Pushkin songs, \u2018Rebirth\u2019, about a \u2018barbarian artist\u2019 defiling the work of genius with scribbles that only time will wear away.<\/p>\n Here are a selection of the very best interpretation of this great and multifaceted symphony.<\/p>\n We chose Shostakovich as one of the 50 greatest composers<\/a>, and named his Symphony No. 5 as one of the 20 greatest symphonies of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Since he conducted the premiere in Leningrad, Shostakovich\u2019s Fifth has been indelibly associated with the name of Yevgeny Mravinsky. He recorded it several times, mainly in mono versions available from companies such as Russian Disc. But it\u2019s only his late 1983 live performance with the Leningrad Philharmonic that is in good stereo.<\/p>\nShostakovich Symphony No.5: best recordings<\/h2>\n
The best recording\u2026 Yevgeny Mravinsky<\/h3>\n