Title: mesmerizing Shostakovich
Product review: This is my favorite recording of the great 'Babi Yar'. John Shirley-Quirk sings the score with an unbridled reach of passion and musicality. He and conductor Shallon cast the symphony with a liturgical pallor that gives the mighty thing cohesion and a strange calm. The Dusseldorf Symphony is recorded beautifully. Shallon's musicianship is front and center - he's a superb center of calm. It shines in his work. The reason for this recording is of course Shirley-Quirk's audacious, heartbreaking, utterly musicianly singing of a great score, a great symphony. The Dusseldorf players are elegant in the long singing passages of Im Laden, even witty. Shallon sets them loose to soar with the great baritone in the performance of a lifetime. This is a great recording. (Interestingly, I find the few 'live noises' actually enhance the listening experience.)
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