Sound: 3/5

"The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra plays beautifully throughout, and the woodwinds, so central to the sound of any Shostakovich symphony…do excellent work here. I feel that Petrenko’s sane, committed, detailed, and bombast-free reading invites repeated listenings, and I can’t imagine that anyone who has been following this series will be disappointed with it in any way." Raymond Tuttle

"Petrenko seems to have a firm grasp on the score’s structural elements, and to that extent, his reading gels and produces a cumulatively satisfying result. Overall, Petrenko’s Fourth is consistent with his approach to his previous releases in this cycle…exceptionally well-played and structurally sound. If you’ve been collecting the entire set, I can think of absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t acquire this one " Jerry Dubins 

"... Vasily Petrenko’s new version is as good as any around. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic play out of their skins—everything’s secure, but nothing sounds glib or slick.Petrenko’s percussionists make the Scherzo’s eerie fade sound effortless, but it’s Petrenko’s Finale which really stuns. Shostakovich’s nods to Mahler are everywhere—the introductory funeral march is terrific, as is the raucous, unsettling circus music which follows. All culminates in one of the loudest perorations imaginable and the most emotionally devastating of symphonic fadeouts, replete with a twisted reference to the major-minor triad motif heard in Mahler 6. Unmissable."!

"Shostakovich’s opening – super-high woodwinds, strings and xylophone – in Petrenko’s hands puts one in mind of an Edvard Munch scream; stylised expressionism, chilling to the marrow. And everything about this performance, from its marshalled rhythms and breathless, nervy pace to its lurid, nothing-behind-the-eyes orchestral colours, feels like hyped-up realism, which, of course, also means its slant on reality is artificial and twisted – a powerful metaphor indeed for trying to live a true artist’s life under the cosh of Stalin."

"Petrenko and the RLPO have recorded a dazzling performance that gets to the very heart of the piece, he has a sure feel for the composer and whilst driving the music on he brings out the ethereal quality and quirkiness of the rhythms to stunning effect. The recorded sound is superb and the orchestra are on top form throughout with transparent textures even in the most explosive moments. A must have performance to add to the other fine interpretations in this cycle."

Recording of the Month 

"The opening goes off like a cartoon alarm clock, shrill and insistent, the ensuing march more satirical, almost more Prokofiev than Shostakovich in Vasily Petrenko’s hands. This is less the child of Mahler’s Third, more death takes a holiday than summer marches in. Significantly, Petrenko comes to this piece—or appears to—without even scant acknowledgement of its structural anomalies, its weird and wonderful digressions, transformations and mutations. It’s a work teetering between the rational and irrational, the comic and tragic, the real and the imagined. Just when you think it’s slipping into abstraction, something happens to make you think otherwise. Petrenko makes following its thought processes, its phantasmagorical journeying between worlds, so much easier. He makes perfect sense of the seemingly senseless. The overriding effect of [Petrenko’s] performance is one of liberation and inevitability. Perhaps the best of Petrenko’s much-praised cycle, then, and a strong contender for ‘best in catalogue’. The skewed logic of the piece is made gripping, the disparate and the enigmatic reconciled."

Artistic Quality 10   Sound Quality 10

"There are a lot of performances of this remarkable symphony available now, but this one stands out as having a truly distinctive and persuasive point of view. …Vasily Petrenko more than compensates for any lack of sheer heft with an extra jolt of energy and a razor-sharp rhythmic attack. This is one of those performances that justifies purchasing yet another recording of what is becoming a relatively well-known work. It confirms the piece as a true classic, in the sense that a variety of approaches reveals an endless series of valid interpretive possibilities. The performance is also extremely well recorded, naturally balanced, and vividly present. Wonderful."

 

"... Shostakovich’s Fourth shows the tragedy of the human being in the machinery of dictatorship. Petrenko uses the dynamic forces of his as always excellent Liverpool Philharmonic to let us experience musically the implacability of such a terror" ***** 

CD of the Week

"... vivid performance"

"... There are perhaps fifty or so recordings already of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony, a number of them the subject of critical acclaim. The RLPO’s Shostakovich cycle under Vasily Petrenko for Naxos—this is volume nine already—has itself been highly praised. It is shaping up nicely as a contender among complete sets. In terms of clarity and detail, the recording is splendid—probably the best in the series to date. As usual, Richard Whitehouse’s notes are detailed and well written, providing both a cultural and a technical account of the work."

Critics’ Choice 2013

"... The symphony that Stalin’s Soviet Union was not ready to hear and would have consigned to oblivion given half the chance gets an absolutely stonking performance from Vasily Petrenko’s Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Never has the insane logic of the piece been clearer or more acutely felt. The thrills and surprises are many, but there’s also a tragic inevitability. This is possibly the star turn of this conductor’s Shostakovich cycle."

" No one collecting this cycle will be disappointed by the chiselled unanimity of the magically improved Liverpool ensemble The package is amazing value at bargain price ..."

"This is one of those rare symphonies, like Mahler’s Seventh, which has rarely had a less than committed performance on CD, possibly because the stakes are too high and the selective orchestral writing too exposed to let any laziness pass muster. Since Vasily Petrenko and Liverpudlian’s haven’t disappointing in any instalment of their Shostakovich cycle so far, the chances were they would excel here. And they do…in the long term it’s bravissimo all round."

Record of the Year

"... coruscating performance "

Critics’ Choice 2014

"... terrific performance by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko."