Fanfare 6

*****
Fabulous performances in first-rate sound.


PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 6 SILVESTROV Quiet Music  Dmitry Matvienko (cond.); Aarhus Symphony Orchestra  OUR (50:54)

Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark, so it comes as no surprise that their orchestra is a fine ensemble, but I have to admit I was not expecting it to be quite this good. This is an outstanding new release.
In Fanfare 45:1 (Sept/Oct 2021), I was fulsome in my praise of the recording of Prokofiev’s 6th by Vasily Petrenko and the Oslo Philharmonic, and it seems another Scandinavian orchestra has now entered the fray with an equally impressive performance of this symphony, a work still perhaps unjustly overshadowed by its predecessor. As was the case with the Oslo recording, wind solos in this new version are also outstanding, but there is a sort of chamber music aspect to Matvienko’s interpretation here that does present something a little different. I am not going to say which of these recordings is to be preferred, as I feel there is certainly a place for slightly different views of this piece. There is also a greater sense of romanticism here, especially in the Largo second movement—than I had expected, and that I found remarkably effective. This is very different music to that found in Shostakovich’s 9th, which is roughly contemporary. At first the Finale strikes one as somewhat insubstantial following the first two movements, but, like Petrenko, Matvienko pulls it all together in the impressive final pages, creating a performance that lingers in the memory.
As suggested above, the playing of the Aarhus orchestra here is exceptionally fine, and the recoding itself wholly lives up to that standard. String sound is lustrous without losing detail, and the bottom end, the bass drum plays an important part in this symphony, is particularly impressive. Orchestra balance is as close to perfect as one could imagine. I listened to the Red Book version of the recording, but see in the notes that it was in fact made using a much higher resolution format than that, so perhaps in this case it might well be worthwhile to investigate the recording’s availability as a high-resolution download.
The other work on this new album is Valentin Silvestrov’s Quite Music, which consists of three movements and totals around ten minutes. This is just lovely, I have to say, and the playing here is so sophisticated and nuanced I immediately listened to it a second time right after the first. Gorgeous writing for strings, beautifully performed and recorded.
This is an outstanding release from OUR Recordings, proving that world class music making is not limited to just a few major capital cities around the world. First class in every way, and well worth investigating, even if you already have the Petrenko recording mentioned above! William Kempster