Urlicht AudioVisual
Evgeny Mravinsky — the iconic Russian conductor born to a family of Petrograd aristocrats — fared far better than most of his high-born peers during the Soviet era, rising to prominence as arguably that nation’s greatest maestro. Mravinsky was the preferred orchestral interpreter of composer Dmitri Shostakovich — until the two had an acrimonious falling out over Mravinsky’s refusal to conduct Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony (“ Babi Yar “), a work which included poems by dissident Soviet writer Evgeny Ye
Mravinsky’s recorded legacy is fascinating for several reasons beyond the documentation of art music during the Soviet era. Mravinsky’s first sessions were committed to 78 sides in 1939, but he stopped making studio recordings in the early 1960s in a sort of “reverse Glenn Gould” decision; his legacy on record and CD is not unlike that of Sviatoslav Richter, who himself generally disliked the studio and rarely engaged in such sessions after the mid-1960s. Mravinsky’s post-studio discography, mostly with “hi
Several of Mravinsky’s recordings have (quite rightfully in this writer’s not-so-humble opinion) achieved cult status, including his studio recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth , Fifth , and Sixth Symphonies for Deutsche Grammophon (recently reissued by Alto ), his 1982 live recording of the Eighth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich, first issued on Philips (also reissued recently in an improved remastering by Alto ), and a searing live performance from 1980 of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony , originally issued by Me
Urlicht AudioVisual