Even if you have the Kondrashin and the Rozhdestvensky complete cycles, even if you have every recording by Mravinsky and every Maxim Shostakovich recording, you'll still have to admit that this complete cycle of the symphonies of Dmitry Shostakovich with Rudolf Barshai conducting the WDR Sinfonieorchester is, far and away, the single greatest Shostakovich cycle. Barshai was a violist who gave the premieres of several of Shostakovich's string quartets and was also a close personal and musical friend of Shostakovich for many years, and his performances have the overwhelming conviction of the true believer. But better than that, they have the humility to be merely the instrument through which the music passes. The effect is extraordinarily affecting. One gets the sense of old Mitya sitting there in the room with you, telling the story of his life through his intimate, ironic, lyrical, monumental, dramatic, epic, excruciating, and ultimately despairing music. In other words, if you can have only one cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies, make it Barshai. Brilliant's sound lives up to its name.
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