SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO. 7 "LENINGRAD" - IVANOV, USSR SYMPHONY

Shostakovich Symphony No.7 ‘Leningrad’

USSR Symphony
Konstantin Ivanov

“But with Gilels and Rostropovich on their recent London visit was a new figure, the distinguished Soviet conductor Konstantin Ivanov. I gathered that he is not in love with the gramophone. I hardly needed an interpreter as he made the contrasting gestures of the ardent violinist inspired in performance (‘it’s the public that electrifies conductor and orchestra’): and the methodical fingers of an engineer snipping a tape, representing the ‘manufactured’ side of gramophone recording. So, although he is chief conductor of the U.S.S.R. State Symphony Orchestra, he has made few records (none in current British catalogues). ‘If only”, he said, ‘they could perfect a technique of recording an actual concert!’. (Gramophone, 1960)

1. WAR, allegretto 26.31
2. MEMORIES, moderato (poco allegretto) 10.36
3. MY NATIVE FIELD, adagio 15.14
4. VICTORY, allegro non troppo 19.00