Beethoven / Shostakovich / Sanderling,Michael Beethoven & Shostakovich: Symphonies No 1 CD

With their symphonic debuts both Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) established their credentials as gifted symphonists. Beethoven's First Symphony was first performed at the Burgtheater - the Imperial Court Theatre - in Vienna in 1800 and was an immediate success, already revealing it's composer's characteristic imprint, with it's rapid interplay between dynamic and dramatic extremes. Shostakovich's First Symphony strikes a similar note with it's tempestuous uninhibitedness, combining musical modernism, unusual orchestral forces and classical form. The work was the eighteen-year-old Shostakovich's graduation piece at the Leningrad Conservatory and was first performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1926, proving his first international success and bringing to an end his financial woes. There is no mistaking the grotesque yet serious style and use of caricature that were later to permeate all of the composer's major works. By comparing and contrasting these debut symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich, the present recording by the Dresdner Philharmonie under it's principal conductor Michael Sanderling was hailed by the press as a fascinating exercise, receiving four stars from Fono Forum, which described the programme as a "delightful combination" of works.