NOSEDA’S LATEST RELEASE OF SHOSTAKOVICH’S COMPLETE SYMPHONIES WITH THE LSO HAS BEEN WARMLY RECEIVED
«Noseda’s cycle of Shostakovich symphonies is shaping up well. After the expansive Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Symphonies, he tackles the contrasting Ninth and Tenth, the earlier work impish — even flippant — in tone despite darker broodings in the slow movement, and the later work a towering masterpiece with its alleged “portrait” of Stalin in the Scherzo, played with terrifying incisiveness by the LSO.»
The Sunday Times (UK)
«Noseda’s march through the Shostakovich symphonies with the LSO continues apace with a boisterous coupling of the Ninth and Tenth. Nothing better sets up the fullest impact of the latter, with its supposed dig at Stalin, than a Ninth that effectively elicits its tangle of barbed mischief and darker reflections. Noseda does just that, countering roguish urgency with an Adagio that almost terrifies, cut short by the puckish emergence of the finale.»
The Scotsman, Ken Walton (UK)
«Sparkling playing from the LSO, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, live in concert. And the winds in the third movement are outstanding. The melancholy bassoon before the finale is memorable as well.»
BBC Radio 3, Record Review with Andrew McGregor (UK)
«If you like your Shostakovich, if you like your symphonies exciting and wild, this release by the London Symphony Orchestra is for you.»
ABC Classic Radio, Classic Drive with Vanessa Hughes (Australia)
«Noseda’s Shostakovich is a reminder of how much we miss live orchestral music … the release gives us what we most crave right now — an experience, or at least a simulacrum — of live orchestral music in all its colours and frailties. You won’t be disappointed.»
Review by Norman Lebrecht. Appeared in Ludwig van Toronto (Canada), MyScena (Canada), The Critic (UK), Scherzo (Spain), OperaPlus (Czech Republic)
«Noseda impresses in Shostakovich 9 & 10. These are, by and large, excellent performances, very well played and conducted … I especially enjoyed the way that we can actually hear the timpani playing the DSCH motive in the final bars. No other version does it better.»
Classics Today, David Hurwitz (USA)
«This is a particularly accomplished version... the effects are carefully balanced, without adding distress or irony, without letting the decibels take over, and with neither expression nor emotion curtailed.»
ConcertoNet, François Petit-Louis (France / USA)
«Gute Shostakovich-Einspielungen mit Gianandrea Noseda.»
Pizzicato, Remy Franck (Luxembourg)
«an impactful new CD»
Camden New Journal, Michael White (UK)
«a gripping account. The ‘live’ audio recording is exceptionally good»
Classical Music Sentinel (Canada)
«Compelling Shostakovich double bill from the LSO and Gianandrea Noseda»
Adventures in Music (Finland)
«Conductor Gianandrea Noseda’s deeply committed performances with the London Symphony Orchestra catch all the subtle nuances in these deeply personal works, from the brutality that’s never far from the surface to the often blackly humorous episodes that permeate these often dynamic scores.»
Film Festival Traveller (USA)
«brilliantly executed interpretations of two of the most familiar works. The Italian conductor is especially convincing in probing their darker recesses, as in the First Symphony’s Lento or the Fifth’s Largo.»
BBC Music Magazine (Symphonies 5 & 1)
«It might be argued that the orchestra has never played the Fifth ‘better’ and, as the performance has been sitting unissued for a while, the clarinet of recently retired Andrew Marriner remains a special draw alongside the flute of Gareth Davies.»
Gramophone (Symphonies 5 & 1)
«Gianandrea Noseda's Shostakovich Fifth stands out for its strong rhythmic foundation.»
Stereophile Magazine (Symphonies 5 & 1)
«Noseda does exact a lovely and transparent homogeneity of tone from his players, sustaining the long lines in the strings and the now-established dialogue between flute and harp or strings and harp.»
Audiophile Audition (Symphonies 5 & 1)
«Noseda’s intelligent direction injects more than enough originality to make this a worthwhile purchase for an aficionado. Certainly, the participating members of the LSO (all of whom are justly named in the booklet notes) can be proud of a performance of high merit.»
DSCH Journal (Symphony 4)