A thorough reading of the exceptional written booklet essay by Pauline Fairclough seemed important, because in a particularly powerful way, any fully successful performance of this Symphony must be rooted in the fury and disgust we feel at the work’s origins – the Babi Yar massacre. Shostakovich paints with broad brush strokes in bold, vivid colors, intent on making us feel uncomfortable and difficult emotions. The symphony is not, nor can it ever be, an easy listening experience.
In January 2020, the Chicago Symphony under Riccardo Muti released a recording of this symphony that has met with a considerable amount of acclaim. Muti’s performance is the slowest on record (68 minutes), but its white-hot intensity leaves the listener emotionally and spiritually exhausted, just as Shostakovich intends. One can also turn to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko; while the playing and singing may not match the exalted work heard in Chicago, the performance is deeply felt, poignant and often chilling.
So how do Karabits and his Russian forces compare? The first movement is certainly an important litmus test, being some of the most intense music Shostakovich ever composed. Karabits ensures that every note is executed with precision, and the melodic lines are shaped with care. The choir’s initial entrance (track 1, 1’03”), hushed and expectant, quickly builds to a powerful climax. Bass Oleg Tsibulko’s first entrance reveals him to be a thoughtful and sensitive interpreter as he utilizes a large dynamic range and varied colorings to communicate the poem’s denouncement of anti-Semitism. But it all comes across as cautious or overly manicured.
Take, for example, the passage where the bass sings: “Persecuted, spat on, slandered…women squeal and poke their parasols into my face” (3’12”). Shostakovich’s word setting is mostly syllabic, using a small-medium range, so that the soloist and choir can make us almost feel the spittle and wince at the sarcastic mocking. While Tsibulko sings with great tonal weight, he is almost too beautiful, as are the orchestral interjections. Just compare the same passage in Muti’s reading (3’33”).
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