COMPOSERS: Mendelssohn & Liszt,Shostakovich,Tchaikovsky
LABELS: VoxBox
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Cincinnati So
WORKS: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 9; Piano Concerto No. 2
PERFORMER: Shura Cherkassky (piano)Cincinnati SO/Walter Susskind
CATALOGUE NO: CDX 5139 ADD (1979-82)
A musical statesman to the end, the Czech-born Walter Susskind (remembered for his many fine postwar recordings with the Philharmonia) spent his last years in America as music advisor of the Cincinnati SO. Quite brilliantly catching the youthful prophecy of the First Symphony, his Shostakovich is precise, detailed and alive. And, with Cherkassky in limpid, aristocratic form (even more so in the solo fillers) he finds a heroism and poetry in the Tchaikovsky refreshingly free of rhetoric or banality. Honest, responsive music-making without pretension. Ates Orga
Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn & Liszt
A musical statesman to the end, the Czech-born Walter Susskind (remembered for his many fine postwar recordings with the Philharmonia) spent his last years in America as music advisor of the Cincinnati SO. Quite brilliantly catching the youthful prophecy of the First Symphony, his Shostakovich is precise, detailed and alive. And, with Cherkassky in limpid, aristocratic form (even more so in the solo fillers) he finds a heroism and poetry in the Tchaikovsky refreshingly free of rhetoric or banality. Honest, responsive music-making without pretension. Ates Orga
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:38 pm