A bumper month for Shostakovich in immersive surround sound. Joining the LSO Live disc above, here’s another issue, this time with the Ninth in a lively reading that may be set against the Pentatone conducted by Kreizberg, even if the rowdy trombone passage is more civilised here than in the enjoyably uncouth earlier disc. The Fifth Symphony, in Keller’s reading, is often reminiscent in its urgency of the classic CBS recording by Leonard Brownstein, even down to the very brisk approach to the finale with its ironic triumphalism (though, Keller, unlike Bernstein, characterises the final cataclysmic bars in the customary steady fashion rather than increasing the tempo as in the Bernstein recording). The customary Tacet recording places the listener in the middle of the performance.
Barry Forshaw<< retourner