Kurt Sanderling's epic interpretation of the Fifth should appeal to those who responded positively to his Eighth (also on Berlin Classics—see above). Recorded in East Berlin in 1982, it is again overwhelmingly 'pessimistic' in tone, while the recorded sound (analogue) is rather more refined. As before, the conductor sets out his ideas about the work, ''one of the towering masterpieces of the 20th century'', in an accompanying interview. ''In the performances which I have directed I tried to avoid misunderstandings, driving home the message that the finale was not a rousing tribute to a party congress.'' Despite the warning, I was not quite prepared for the bleak immobility of Sanderling's closing pages. The movement sets out at quite a lick and its pacing is otherwise relatively traditional. This is post-Testimony Shostakovich with a vengeance. The first movement, though scarcely ardent in the Bernstein manner, so that passages like the start of the development seem strangely literal, is always carefully calculated. The baldness never turns into drabness. Perhaps the Berlin SO cannot match the glorious sonority of the Concertgebouw strings for Haitink, but with Sanderling the serene second subject never becomes a perfunctory trudge even when its return highlights deficiencies in the Berlin horn department. There is a potent sense of desolation as the music winds down.
I was less convinced by the Allegretto, deliberately prosaic in a Teutonic sort of way. In the notes, Sanderling refers to this music as ''a grim and biting parody'', yet in his anxiety to avoid any hint of boisterousness he comes close to mere heaviness. The Largo is deeply felt, albeit curiously un-Slav in feeling. It's not simply a matter of pace—even in the 1960s Previn was taking it slower than this (RCA, 5/66—nla)—but rather of manner. Sanderling's glacial stoicism is easy to respect, harder to love. Nevertheless, if such uncompromising rigour strikes any sort of chord, don't hesitate. Sanderling fled Nazi Germany for Stalin's Utopia in 1936: as he sees it the issues are too grave for easy point-making. This is music with the emotional power to weld an audience together, sweeping aside all intellectual reservations and needing no embellishment from him. Regrettably, Berlin Classics provide no coupling.'