A few months ago I reviewed the new recording of Shostakovich’s last symphony by Vasily Petrenko, which is part of his Naxos cycle of the symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Orchestra pieces with cello solos
I was pretty enthusiastic, concluding that the recording “strikes me as being excellent both in terms of the interpretation and the execution.” However, my colleague, Dan Morgan, was much less admiring and his views found support in an interesting discussion on the MusicWeb Message Board.
One name that cropped up more than once as a comparator to Petrenko was that of Bernard Haitink. I’ve admired this excellent and deeply musical conductor for