Kurt Sanderling's representation on disc is patchy at best. Apart from a rigorous, rather dour Beethoven cycle made for EMI in London in 1980 and a Dresden Brahms cycle from the early 1970s (rather warmer in feeling), few of his important stereo recordings have been distributed widely in the UK. His recent Shostakovich Fifteenth (Erato, 2/93) was disappointingly bland, seemingly preoccupied with finer points of detail, and it certainly failed to impress DJF. Some of these tendencies are present in the Eighth, recorded in 1976 with his own orchestra in East Berlin. Again, it is massively slow and studied—only Maxim Shostakovich is more deliberate—but the fires burn that much more brightly. Some background may be helpful. After many years in the Soviet Union working primarily with the Leningrad Philharmonic, Sanderling returned to (East) Berlin in 1960 and until 1977 served as General Music Director of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra—not to be confused with the Berlin Staatskapelle (the orchestra of the state opera) or the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (of West German Radio). While Sanderling's orchestra may lack the tonal refinement of adjacent Western rivals, it responds to his direction with impressive commitment. Lest everything sounds too carefully rehearsed, the occasionally raw winds cannot help but sound spontaneous and indeed authentic in this repertoire.
After Ashkenazy's simple directness, the opening bars seem more powerfully arresting here, with a grainy quality to the strings which tends to characterize the sound-stage later on. It takes time to build tension at this tempo, but the mood is authentically bleak rather than merely blank and the central climax, carefully prepared, is awesome when it comes. Sanderling's scherzos are both heavy and menacing with much careful articulation by the strings, although the usually dazzling middle section of the second is not entirely secure rhythmically and some violins get momentarily ahead at 5'13''. The Largo is a long haul, profoundly felt. Sanderling explains his approach to Shostakovich and the Eighth in a valuable interview reprinted in the notes: ''The fourth movement is the most introspective of this symphony, and maybe of his entire symphonic output. It shows the author, the individual, in a state of solitary helplessness.'' The packaging is excellent and the disc is recommended to anyone prepared to try a radical alternative to the forward thrust of more familiar Soviet performances. More from this source please.'