Album

Edward Serov, we hardly know you! A Russian conductor trained in Kiev, Serov was the assistant of the great Yevgeny Mravinsky at the Leningrad Philharmonic, the winner of the Herbert von Karajan conducting competition in Berlin, and the longtime leader of the Odense Symphony of Denmark. In the West, Serov is best-known—if he's known at all—as the conductor of a superlative series of recordings of the symphonies of well-known Carl Nielsen and nearly unknown Ib Norholm. In those recordings, Serov showed himself to be as strong-willed an interpreter as Mravinsky or Karajan but with more warmth than the former and more humanity than the latter.

For the lucky few who sought out Serov's recordings on the Danish Kontrapunkt label, this disc of Shostakovich's theater music with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra will be a welcome addition to their Edward Serov collection. While one might wish the works were more substantial—for example, like the Fifth or Tenth symphonies—one cannot wish for more unusual repertoire. There are a handful of recordings of Shostakovich's music for his 1932 Hamlet and his 1941 King Lear, but Serov's performances achieve that unique blend of astringent irony, violent modernity, and passionate sentimentality that characterizes Shostakovich's best music of the period. There is, however, only one other recording of Shostakovich's music for his 1932 Human Comedy, a rapidly aging Melodiya recording by Rozhdestvensky, and Serov's performance equals it in irony and modernity and surpasses it in sentimentality. Listen to the opening "View of Paris": all the beauty and glory of the city of light is in Serov's performance. Northern Flowers' 2000 sound is clean and clear, but a bit shallow.

© James Leonard, Rovi

CD 1
Dmitri Shostakovich Composer Hamlet (suite from incidental music), Op.32a Work 15:08 Chamber Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Orchestra, Edward Serov Conductor
1	1.Introduction and Night Patrol	2:35			$0.99
2	3.Flourish and Dance Music	2:10			$0.99
3	4.The Hunt	1:42			$0.99
4	5.Pantomime of the Actors	1:39			$0.99
5	9.Ophelia's Song	1:43			$0.99
6	10.Cradle Song	1:23			$0.99
7	11.Requiem	1:46			$0.99
8	13.Fortinbras's March	2:10			$0.99
Dmitri Shostakovich Composer The Human Comedy (suite from incidental music to the play by Sukhoten, after Balzac), Op.37 Work 11:50 Chamber Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Orchestra, Edward Serov Conductor
9	View of Paris	2:25			$0.99
10	Police Office	1:20			$0.99
11	Gavotte	2:15			$0.99
12	Bank of the Seine	3:45			$0.99
13	March	2:05			$0.99
Dmitri Shostakovich Composer King Lear, incidental music, Op.58a Work 12:45 Chamber Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Orchestra, Nina Romanova Mezzo-Soprano, Edward Serov Conductor
14	Return from the Chase	0:48			$0.99
15	At the Hut	2:00			$0.99
16	In Regan's Castle	1:13			$0.99
17	The Camp	1:20			$0.99
18	March	1:32			$0.99
19	Trumpets	1:17			$0.99
20	Cordelia's Ballad	4:35			$0.99