Shostakovich has not featured in my Blog prominently, and in fact this is the first time that this Symphony appears in this Blog, which is surprising since it's my favourite Shostakovich Symphony, somehow i've neglected this masterpiece over the last 2 years, it starts off fairly brisk in places, and loses some of the mystery because Jansons doesn't dwell on things, but gets better in subsequent movements, i went over the park to listen to this, i could feel the real heat of the sun, nicely warmed me up.
Mariss Jansons is Latvian, he's now 69, he recorded this disc back in 1987, i must admit is fairly short measure at just 41 minutes, most Shostakovich Fifths have another Symphony coupled with it, the front cover portrait [by Jan Greve] is excellent, a nicely composed study, the lettering / logo is perfectly placed.
It was so good to re-acquaint myself with this Symphony again, and i especially listened to the third movement Largo more closer, and i marvelled at Shostakovich's power of invention, he really does use a very varied load of instruments, and some juxtaposed with strange bedfellows at that,
Here's Gustavo Dudamel conducting the third movement on YouTube.
