Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Rudolf Barshai - Shostakovich: Chamber Symphonies 1-5 (2006)

There is no reason why Rudolf Barshai shouldn't continue making arrangements of Shostakovich's string quartets for chamber orchestra and calling them chamber symphonies. He's good at it, the composer approved of it, and performers seized on each as it came out. Nor is there any reason why Barshai shouldn't continue making recordings of his arrangements. He's a skilled conductor, the composer appreciated his dedication, and listeners collected his recordings.
There is, however, one catch: his new recordings have to be at least as good as earlier recordings, and that's a claim that can't be made about the performances on this two-disc set. Barshai seems to be feeling every one of his 81 years in this 2005 recording, and while his heart is in the right place, his tempos are flaccid, his textures turgid, and his attacks untidy. The Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi sounds not only ungainly and ill-at-ease in these modernist works, it doesn't seem quite up to the technical demands, either: the ensemble is sloppy, the rhythms are soupy, and the intonation is sappy. The only reason for hardcore Shostakovich fans to check out this set is to hear Barshai's arrangement of the First Quartet. Though the performance is no better than those of the arrangements of the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth quartets, it is the only one of the five arrangements that Barshai has not previously recorded with the more virtuosic and far more convincing Chamber Orchestra of Europe. But for those listeners who can live without Barshai's performance of his arrangement, this two-disc set will be entirely superfluous. Brilliant's live sound is a bit distant and gray.