Inbal's Shostakovich is cool, wistful and deracinated, very much an acquired taste – although those who have acquired it will find plenty to satisfy them in this latest instalment. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra (on less than top form) produce a thinner, more generalized sonority than one is used to in this repertoire, with the low-level Denon recording not quite as lustrous or flattering as some in the series. Instrumental solos vary unpredictably in quality: the orchestra's leader has a rather intense vibrato and lachrymose style whereas the principal cello is outstanding. Sensibly paced as it is, Inbal's Fifteenth lacks vehemence, contrasting sharply with a performance like Kondrashin's. Nor does the First fare quite as well as I'd expected. Its Allegretto cannot entirely avoid the charge of blandness, despite some intrusive expressive nuances and an almost laboured treatment of the second theme, while the beginning of the scherzo is surprisingly rough and imprecise. Sanderling's (East) Berlin Symphony Orchestra, also not in the virtuoso class, make a better showing in an outstanding account newly available on Berlin Classics. Inbal's finale benefits from properly tuned timpani but important lines are not always ideally clear.
The insipid rapture of his Fifteenth is not enhanced by some unreliable execution, as for example in the second movement where harmonic sense is lost thanks to a misreading in the brass (4'21''ff). The first movement is well paced yet anonymous, the second effective enough in its reticent way, the third lumbering and heavy-footed, with an unconvincing pay-off. The finale is not greatly assisted by inexpert percussion, a charge that can also be levelled at Haitink's otherwise splendid Decca recording. Inbal's passacaglia steals in without ceremony (and definition), so that, cast adrift in the warm murk, the music loses its moorings. Kondrashin pushes on inexorably, the theme ever present. If it's the Fifteenth you're interested in, his version is much to be preferred.
Those attracted by Inbal's coupling might with advantage turn to Dutoit, brilliantly played and recorded, if scarcely any more 'authentic', and over-reliant on the virtuosity of a tried and tested team. Denon include their usual idiosyncratic notes and an abundance of index points (if your machine can decode them). Theirs is nevertheless a disappointing issue.
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