April last year, Royal Festival Hall, London – Santtu-Matias Rouvali leads the Philharmonia in a Shostakovich Ten that compels attention from the off, the first movement Intense, dark and searching, brooding and raging, terraced dynamics a feature, although greater presence from the trumpet trills would have been welcome in the stormy development. The Stalin-portrait(?) Scherzo is fast and furious (if not as driven as Ančerl, thankfully!) with the third movement a standout, an uneasy knife-edge of contrasts (it can sag), and the Finale, opening forlornly, and including an especially incisive pizzicato (2’18”) that really means something, with allegro elements that, by a hairsbreadth, are too fast and forced, if exciting; excellent timpani on the ultimate page. However, Santtu screws-up (alliterative) by adding or allowing a bass-drum stroke to the final chord that is no more than gratuitous. A real shame for the recorded sound is A1, and the Philharmonia on top form, not least wonderfully eloquent woodwinds. Philharmonia Records SIGCD889 is released on March 14. Another sting in the tail… Kurt Sanderling, mandatory in this Symphony, with this orchestra: as revealing a performance as this Symphony has ever had.
https://signumrecords.com/?s=santtu