Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 113 'Babi Yar'

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Aleksashkin's wordplay is also a feature of this rampage of a performance from Yuri Temirkanov, marred only by the muted quality of the recording, which sounds like it's been pulled back and... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 More…

Release Date: 7th May 2007
Catalogue No: 88697021632
Label: RCA
Length: 57 minutes

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 113 'Babi Yar'

Work length57:46

Album only

St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Sergei Aleksashkin (bass), Bass Voices of the St. Petersburg Television & Radio Chorus, United Bass Chorus of St. Petersburg
Yuri Temirkanov

I. Babi Yar (Adagio)

Track length15:29

Album only

II. Yumor (Allegretto)

Track length7:07

$1.30

$1.70

III. V magazine (Adagio)

Track length12:00

Album only

IV. Strakhi (Largo)

Track length11:07

Album only

V. Karera (Allegretto)

Track length12:03

Album only

Reviews
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Reviews

September 2008

Aleksashkin's wordplay is also a feature of this rampage of a performance from Yuri Temirkanov, marred only by the muted quality of the recording, which sounds like it's been pulled back and had the edge taken off.

2010

Of the many recent versions of Shostakovich's finest vocal symphony, surprisingly few employ a Russian chorus. And for all that Western choirs can now draw on superb language coaches and emulate the darkness of Slavonic voices, the difference is still decisive. Temirkanov's Petersburg basses speak and speak about their words, unencumbered by the basic need to get them right, and without having to take their expressive cue solely from the conductor. This helps the episodes in the 'Babi Yar' first movement to unfold with an inevitability that few Western recordings can match. Some may even find that the bel canto mellifluousness the chorus brings to Yevtushenko's verses compromises the poet's moralising tone, by comparison with the raw passion of performances from nearer the time of composition.
This is Sergei Aleksashkin's fourth CD appearance as soloist in this work, and he has never done it better than here. Apart from his familiar nobility of line, there are many fresh nuances, of a piece with Temirkanov's subtle interpretation. Temirkanov's most conspicuous intervention is to dash through the second movement in record time: pretty disconcerting at first, but he puts across the scalding quality of Shostakovich's take on 'Humour'. And although communicative urgency is again the watchword in the slower surrounding movements, Temirkanov actually finds a happy medium between Kondrashin (conductor of the fraught 1962 premiere) and broader modern accounts. Recording quality is straightforward and well balanced.
Overall then, this is the preferred modern studio version.

July 2007

This is Sergei Aleksashkin's fourth CD appearance as soloist in this work, and… I doubt that he has done it better than here. Apart from his familiar nobility of line, there are many fresh nuances, of a piece with Temirkanov's subtle interpretation.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 113 'Babi Yar'

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