Arvid Jansons - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 (2004)

one of the few recordings by the outstanding Soviet Latvian conductor Arvid Jansons. Mravinsky was also supposed to go on those tours to Japan, but for some reason he could not fly, and Jansons took over the entire program. Perhaps that's why, because it was necessary to rehearse urgently and a lot, the performance presented here sounds somewhat dry and academic, in the spirit of Mravinsky -- whereas Jansons, as can be judged by the ones available here on the rutracker, as well as on YouTube (including Shostakovich's 5th from England) He was a conductor of a more passionate, dramatic temperament. Anyway, any rare recording by Arvid Jansons is interesting, under whatever conditions it was made.