Repertoire: The BEST Shostakovich Ninth Symphony 

The passion that you put in every video, i hope you will have more and more subscriber because how you can describe the beauty of music is unique, great teacher ,bravo!

Shostakovich of course knew his Beethoven. I can't help thinking that no. 9 stands in the same relationship to the monumental and profound nos. 7&8 as the opus 135 string quartet stands in relation to the opp. 130-32 quartets. The way Shostakovich formally parallels no 8 made me think of the saying how tragedy is repeated as farce.

Thank you, David, for continuing to make clear to the multitudes that still need convincing why Shostakovich is one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all 20th century symphonists. I still find it odd that so many conductors, Salonen most prominently, pour such scorn and derision on the more popular symphonies, but then the Finn is not a particularly convincing interpreter of any symphony (his strengths lie elsewhere). Shostakovich in his Ninth is rather like Beethoven in his Eighth: the shorter, more compact works reveal the greatness just as much as the longer symphonies do. I note once again that Gergiev doesn't get a mention: in nearly everything outside the Russian repertoire he's never persuasive, but his Mariinsky performance of Number Nine (coupled with a magnificent reading of the First Violin Concerto with Kavakos) is really rather special. The sonics are outstanding too: clarity in a warm ambience.

Your comment: "the easy accessibility of complex musical ideas," is insightful and very quotable (with proper attribution, of course). A valuable analysis of this odd Shostakovich symphony. Thank you!

Thanks to you, David Horowitz, I am learning so much more about music than I had learned in the past. This Shostakovich symphony - I discover - is a great deal more than simply a theme with variations!

As others have mentioned here, I think the Kosler performance is available in a new Praga 30 year anniversary box set. I'm glad you said you would be making a video about it. I've been listening to the recordings and quite enjoying them.

You are enlightening. Thank you very much.

My favourite recording is Brahai with WDR orchestra by a long mile. It really hits home all those 'ironic 9th' elements with all its tragic, bitter sweet subtext. The second movement is faster than most but it shows the context of the material and the bigger picture is clearer. And the finale is absolutely marvellous, like a sad clown in a circus show. Tragic even.

The principal trumpet in Košler is the legendary Miroslav Kejmar.

my first lp of symphonies no 9 by shostakovitch is ...1...sir malcolm sargent with lso on everest, and 2...walter suskind with cincinatti orch. on vox...this is the first time i listen the symphonies with this two lp and i have a good memory who i liked....so mr hurwitz ,merry christmas,happy new year,take care to you,....and thank you mr the teacher,i listen you since 6 month ,and with you i listen the music differently,and i appreciate mutch and mutch

I am absolutely powerless over the invention, biting humor and sheer hutzpah of this work. It makes my head spin and my heart sing; the first time I ever laughed out loud with surprise (in the finale) was the time I first put this on. Shostakovich was miserable but what a genius. No wonder Bernstein picked this piece apart for his honorary Shostakovich instalment in his Young Person's Concerts. It's a gold mine. Or a perfectly cut diamond. Both.

David, I agree with you. I bought three years ago the digital Prague edition Edith This recording and had it ever since as the reference in Shostakovich's Ninth

I can’t think of a better way to ring in the new year. Such a great and fun symphony. I love the way he quotes his First Symphony and pokes fun at the Intermezzo of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra in the 9th’s finale! My two favorite recordings are the Petrenko, from which you played samples, and Jarvi. I particularly like the latter also for its couplings and have never heard a more delightful and funny Tea for Two than that one. Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year!!🌲

My first Shostakovich Symphony was Number 9 on a Melodiya Angel LP: Kiril Kondrashin and the Moscow Philharmonic. Back in the 60s, the Soviets had an agreement with EMI to press Melodiya recordings in the west (even American LP pressings were an improvement over Soviet LPs). I loved the symphony (still my favorite performance) and was blown away by the flip side of the LP "The Execution of Stepan Razin". I bought the LP at a used record store - it had REVIEWERS COPY - NOT FOR SALE stamped on it. I guess some critic wasn't as impressed with it as I was.

Kosler's performance is a live one, which is full of excitement and crisp, but there is really more than a few hiccups in those woodwind solo parts..

the Košler recording is on deezer and youtube available

Back in its day I think the old Malcolm Sargent/London PO on Everest was the only version available in the US, and it was the first one I ever bought, probably in the early 1980s for a dollar at Target on that good ole scratchy, warpy Everest budget vinyl. The Petrenko on Naxos sounds great and, FYI, the record company has posted the Kosler on RU-vid, and yeah, wow, it has so much character.

This "9th" (as opposed to "The Ninth") was one of the most fun pieces I've ever played. One of the other interesting aspects of its form is that it's a concerto grosso.

Thanks David, this will be my first time hearing this symphony, looking forward to it! Have been enjoying your videos a lot for the last few months, so thanks and happy holidays to you!

Terrific. I got to see this piece performed last month by Andrew Litton and the Colorado Symphony for the first time. It was delightful. It’s taken a while for his symphonies that aren’t numbered the fifth to make more headway into the concert repertoire (as opposed to the recorded) - I think the program said that this orchestra last performed it almost 40 years earlier.

Thanks for a very enjoyable video as always Dave! I’m eagerly awaiting your talk on Shostakovich 10. I definitely agree with your thoughts on biographical/extra-musical detail being a distraction from the music itself, but sometimes it is so so tempting. In the case of the 10th I would think it’s very hard to avoid as by using the DSCH and Elmira cryptograms the composer surely intended to write a certain extra-musical narrative quite literally into the music. I like the work but have found its emotional trajectory more confusing and complicated than the other big D.S. symphonies so hopefully your analysis can reveal more to me. A music chat on musical cryptograms in general could be fun, although of course it’s possible you personally don’t find it a particularly interesting topic. Perhaps you cover this in detail in your Shostakovich book? In any case, happy holidays!

“The experience of listening repeatedly and and listening carefully is going to give you all the [musical] education you will ever need.“ This echoes what DH emphasized in an earlier talk called “To Hell with Young People- Further Thoughts.“ Here’s an anecdote to further illustrate. “Beethoven, after performing one of his latest piano sonatas at an elegant soiree, was asked by a puzzled listener what the difficult music meant. As an answer, Beethoven sat down and played the work again.”

Dave, it's interesting that you refer to the third movement as a Scherzo, because the score doesn't - it's simply marked Presto. As you say, it functions as a symphonic scherzo, but to me it is no joke. In fact I find myself in disagreement with most (including Lennie) by finding very little light-heartedness or humour in this symphony. If Shostakovich was clowning around, then it's the clown of nightmares - the fixed grin is a maniacal one. I haven't heard most of your recommended recordings, but my own favourite, by far, is with Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra. This came in a Brilliant Classics box which is now deleted, but the performance is still obtainable in a Melodiya "twofer". The trombone in the first movement is wonderfully blatant, and the development section is hair-raising! The rest of the performance maintains the intensity. And I agree most strongly with your assessment of this symphony, and of Shostakovich as a symphonist. His 9th is an absolute masterpiece, and to me a much more substantial work than many think.

In his young person’s talk on Shostakovich 9, Bernstein noted Shostakovich was a great thumber of the nose, and that the trombone part among others are some awfully good thumbing, which is exactly right. The USSR was quite a place. The apparatchiks wanted a glorious, Beethovenian 9th to celebrate Marshal Stalin’s momentous victory for Mother Russia in the Great Patriotic War; instead, they got this Haydnesque foil for knowing wit and Shostakovich almost got frog marched to the gulag. Bernstein and the New York Phil is the reference recording and I don’t think there could be a more sympathetic interpretation. The Koszler is excellent as well, I am grateful I read a little review of this unduly obscure recording by a guy named David Hurwitz many moons ago. A sleeper I’ll recommend with a big, honking caveat: Malcolm Sargent paired with the 5th on Everest, recorded with their trademark 35mm tape. The catch is it sounds great for those who want to procure the audiophile-grade vinyl reissue from Analogue Productions/Acoustic Sounds. The sonics are mind-blowingly good. I have no idea what the original release sounds like, but I’m guessing nothing special.

As somene else pointed out, you are a great teacher!

The Kosler is on Qobuz. Looking forward to hearing. Thanks for recommendation.

It’s not easy to get this CD with Kosler. There is a recording, titled „In the Wake of World War II: Schostakowitsch“ with Symphonie 9, Trio Nr. 2 and String Quar-tet 3 with Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Zdeněk Košler / Igor Oistrakh Trio / Smetana Quartet. My Question: Is it the same recording? Thank you for all interesting reviews to Shostakovich, rich in content, helpful for acquisitions of CDs and with humor, Greeting from Northern Germany

Merry Christmas, Dave!

The 9th was my introduction to Shostakovich (Bernstein/NYPO) and it's been a favorite for 50+ years. It shows up all too rarely in live concerts. Your analysis is terrific; I'll never hear it the same way again. It's pity that Ormandy never recorded it with his fabulous solo wind players.

The 9th is the only Shostakovich that Klemperer performed, as far as I know. A recording is kicking around from Italy. He makes it sound a touch like Weill.

I actually watched the "Young People's" concert when Bernstein talked about the Shostakovich 9th in the 1960s, and I first heard the 8th in 1969. After all these years, I never picked up on the parallels between the last three movements in these symphonies. And I really do think there's more to this than musical agility or what Soviet critics would have denounced as decadent formalism. In the 1930s, Shostakovich did a musical setting of a poem by Pushkin that was about a work of art being scribbled over by a "barbarian," only to later re-emerge in original form. The song is then quoted in the finale of the 5th Symphony. Translating that into a political statement (pro/anti-Soviet) is reductionist, so I prefer to think--and this applies especially to Shostakovich--that a composition is the total of what you hear and what you don't hear--and then you try to process both of those. I imagine that when the 9th was composed, shortly after the end of WWII, Stalin's regime would have probably preferred a grand symphony along the lines of Copland's 3rd--a work I find tolerable only because it was composed by an American. Aside from whatever the 9th meant on a personal level or to cognoscenti, I have to admit that it reminds me of drinking at a "Russian table" on New Year's Eve (which I've done in America and in St. Petersburg), and probably with people who can tell you about horrible things they or their relatives experienced during the war, or before and after it. But there would also have been some black-and-white film on TV with a madcap soundtrack and some brilliantly comical actors--not unlike music Shostakovich might have played at a movie house when he was a conservatory student. You could even say reading of the 9th conveys a very realistic sense of life under Soviet socialism, but without the propagandistic baggage of Socialist Realism. It wouldn't take much imagination to picture Shostakovich sitting with people at the table and drinking shots with them in a smoke-filled room.

it will be possible to obtain this recording of Kosler and Czech Philharmonic in the newly unexpensive (will be issue in january) 30 Years Praga anniversary box. I don't know if it will come out individually However, there will be a lot of great Prazák Quartet recording in this box too.

What is your take on the Kondrashin/Concertgebouw performance on Philips? Will Decca release a Kondrashin Concertgebouw box soon?

No one seems to mention Levi's Atlanta 9th on Telarc (coupled with a sumptuously recorded 5th). It doesn't miss out on the humour (the final is a hoot) but it's also a little menacing ( the 1st movement is scary and manic in places; there's a funny flute and clarinet passage that sounds like some of the music Bernard Hermann wrote for Citizen Kane) and the Moderato movement is a little creepy. The orchestra play wonderfully. Might be difficult to get hold of though

Yes, 9th. I was afraid that you skip it after your 12th,11th review was given 😏

Zdenek Kosler is included in the great Praga Digitals 30 years box, limited edition.

Shostakovich's 9th is true Ode to Joy: Ironic and fun. I have Mariss Jansons' account and i have listened to Sandeling's. Both awesome i think.

Love this symphony, one of the first I played as a kid (after Haydn 104 and Beethoven 1). I am not such a fan of 10 - I think you mentioned in another video that you consider it the best of all of his symphonies. I understand the structural merits and autobiographical importance but just cannot connect with it. I played it again a few weeks ago and was seeking out your suggestions for the best recordings but surprisingly you hadn’t done that yet.

Looks like the Kosler is available on Apple Music in a different pairing of the piano trio #2 (with Oistrakh) and the 3rd string quartet (Semtana Quartet). Bizarre, I know, but just for the pairing I must listen.

My fave version is- Leonard Bernstein conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker. The best part for me is the 1st movement

I recall reading or hearing somewhere that Stalin wanted an "out-Mahlerian Beethoven 9th" for the USSR's victory against the Nazi. And Shostakovich ended up giving the communist despot a 9th that sounds just like the music that Haydn wrote for the aristocrats. Oh, the irony.

Michael Sanderling is great! Slows down the first movement a bit - brings out a bit more of the dark humor to me.

23:45? Kreizberg actually died 2011.

I met several times an unfinished "Symphonic movement" that was assigned as the abandoned version of Symphony No. 9. Its nature is entirely different from the final No. 9, as it is very noisy and not funny at all. Its second subject resembles to the second subject of Symphony No. 10.

Dave, do any of your Classics Today t-shirts have chest pockets and are available in extra-tall sizes? I'm 6'5" tall and weigh 300 lbs.