ARTIST / COMPOSER Kirill Kondrashin: Shostakovich TITLE: Symphony No.13 for Bass Solo, Male Bass Choir and Orchestra in B flat minor, op.113 COUNTRY / YEAR: Russia, 1997 LABEL / CAT.No.: Moscow Conservatory, SMC 0018 TRACKS: Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin conductor V.Gromadsky bass Bass Group of YURLOV Capella Total time: 56.10
Which version of the piece is this -- the recording from the second performance (1962) or the third (1965)?
Some of the details are of little use. A friend who is a major Shostakovich fan e-mails me:
According to Derek Hulme in his Shostakovich catalogue, Aleksandr Yurlov was the chorus master of the RSFSR Academic Russian Choir which is the one singing on the Everest LP. [But "Yurlov" is also mentioned on the back cover from the second performance: http://www3.telus.net/~mjq/misc/009.jpg.]
The time is also of not much help, because both the second and third performances by Kondrashin are very close to this time.
By the way, in their DS overview a while back, American Record Guide says the Kondrashin performance with John Shirley-Quirk should be avoided at all costs ... is there anything seriously wrong with this? (I actually own this performance, but I only listened to it once a long time ago.)
I've downloaded and compared carefully the offered files with the Russian Disc content - there is no doubt that it is one and the same version. No need for computer analysis, just for listening. ( :
The Russian Disc source seems to be better, the Everest (offered by Mr. Mike slightly nosier and more distant) but everything else is identical.
By the way, this Kondrashin connoisseur kind of doubts there are indeed four (as opposed to three, including the Philips LP) versions of Babi Yar.
The collective intelligence of rmcr contributors seems to have confirmed the doubts. Now I am convinced there is only one version Kondrashin/Gromadsky.
> kind of doubts there are indeed four (as opposed to three, including > the Philips LP) versions > of Babi Yar.
> etc.
Well, I've compared files offered by Mr.Mike and my Moscow Conservatory SMC 0018 disc, and the performances are identical, don't have to go very far - same coughing at 0:16 and then again at 0:26. Moscow Conservatory disc is more aggressively de-noised and maybe even slightly sharp (could explain trifle shorter playing time) but it's definitely the same performance.
So I'm also inclined to think there is only one Gromadsky/Kondrashin recording. Probably right after the premiere using censored/altered text of first poem. Same altered text uses Kondrashin in his 1967 studio recording and no one else. By the time of Rozhdestvensky recording it seems using original text was no longer a problem.
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