Chrisopher Rosevear wrote:

>Sadly, I can find little to enthuse about in what I perceive as a cold,
>angular work with mockery, derision, repetition and deliberate
>triteness as its central tenets.

I'll grant that all these qualities are apparent, as they are in other
works by Shostakovich, but I don't regard them as negatives.  I too had
trouble with the work when I first heard it, but I now regard it as one of
his finest, and urge Christopher to give it another chance.  I also agree
with Bill Strother about the quality of the Ormandy version, which has the
added attraction of an equally good version of the 10th as its coupling in
a Sony Essential Classics package.

Richard Pennycuick
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