Product Description

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Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 1-JAN-2002

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36: 1. Andante sostenuto - Moderato con anima - Moderato assai, quasi Andante - Allegro vivo
2. Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36: 2. Andantino in modo di canzone
3. Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36: 3. Scherzo. Pizzicato ostinato. Allegro
4. Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36: 4. Finale. Allegro con fuoco
5. Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64: 1. Andante - Allegro con anima
6. Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64: 2. Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza - Moderato con anima - Andante mosso - Allegro non troppo

Disc 2:

1. Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64: 3. Valse. Allegro moderato
2. Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64: 4. Finale. Andante maestoso - Allegro vivace - Molto vivace - Moderato assai e molto maestoso - Pr
3. Symphony No. 6 in B minor ('Pathétique'), Op. 74: 1. Adagio - Allegro non troppo
4. Symphony No. 6 in B minor ('Pathétique'), Op. 74: 2. Allegro con grazia
5. Symphony No. 6 in B minor ('Pathétique'), Op. 74: 3. Allegro molto vivace
6. Symphony No. 6 in B minor ('Pathétique'), Op. 74: 4. Finale. Adagio lamentoso

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16626 in Music
• Brand: MRAVINSKY/LENIN
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .38 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
These recordings by Evgeny Mravinsky and his Leningrad Philharmonic, taped in the autumn of 1960 while they were on tour in London, are among the absolute classics of the catalog. They are readings of hair-raising intensity--the finale of the Fourth is marked allegro con fuoco, and if you want to know what con fuoco means, all you have to do is listen for a moment. No one else has ever had the nerve, or the ability, to play the music this way. The treatment is very Russian: the extremes are more extreme, the passions more feverish, the melancholy darker, the climaxes louder. In that department, the development section of the first movement of the Pathètique has to be heard to be believed. The sound is remarkably good for the time, a little edgy in the loudest pages but wonderfully present, just like the performances themselves. --Ted Libbey

Customer Reviews

Landmark Tchaikovsky
Evgeny Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra remain unsurpassed in their 1960 rendering of these Tchaikovsky symphonies. It's not a question of technical precision nor musical beauty, but these recordings create an emotional climate which is totally mind-blowing. Every time one turns back to them, even after having heard several other commendable versions of these Tchaikovsky symphonies, the impact of Mravinsky and his orchestra is as formidable as it was almost forty-five years ago.

A landmark recording which should be part of any serious self-respecting classical music collection.

Tchaikovsky's essence captured to the nth degree.
Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic have produced stunning and electrifying music. I am familiar with these symphonies (having heard them in concert and on other recordings). I had second thoughts about my familiarity, however, after hearing them played Mravinsky's way. Each movement of each symphony is sculpted in a dramatic and quintessentially Slavic fashion revealing a true Slavic sensibility. The Russian musical landscape comes alive in startling colors and textures--a tribute to the Romantic milieu in which these works were conceived. There are passages so deftly articulated that I felt I was, at some points, listening to the music for the first time. The rapid tempi are more than amazing; I doubt that any orchestra has ever played with such fire and at such crisp, break-neck speeds. By contrast, the darker and more tragic moments (second movement of IV; second movement of V; and the Adagios of VI) are alluring and even torturous in their melancholy. This is Russian sentiment and Russian romanticism as it should be heard. Mravinsky is a wizard, a musical magician with demonic incantations at every turn. These recordings are treasures.

One of the great sets of the latter Tchaikovsky symphonies..
...And possibly the most "Russian."

First the blemishes: the Fifth is a bit "ratty." It's one of his weaker symphonies anyway to my ear, as though he is going through the motions more than he's convinced by his own symphonic argument. I've never heard ANYONE bring off the finale convincingly: the transition from the opening slow section to the allegro is...well, there is none, and it's hard for any conductor to make sense of the schizophrenic nature of the movement. Mravinsky is fine, though Koussevitsky with the BSO and (believe it or not) Previn with the RPO on Telarc are among the very best here. Mravinsky's Fifth is arguably the most dispensible recording on the set. The Fouth, however, is nothing short of glorious--the only better Fourth I've heard is another Mravinsky, part of Melodiya/BMG's "Mravinsky Edition," on Volume 18, now regrettably out of print. The sound here is better, however. Some may be put off by the harsh brass and the prominent use of vibrato by trumpets and French horns, but this was the style of Russian orchestras at one time, and may have even been the style in the time of Tchaikovsky himself. For those of you raised on Ormandy or Previn, don't expect lush pillows of Romanticism. This is Tchaikovsky straight up, 80 proof. But the anguish of the first movement puts one on edge--they really FEEL this music. The slow movement is appropriately sad. The pizzicato scherzo sounds like it belongs in the Nutcracker--it is so delightful and fleet and serves as a delightful contrast to the movement that preceeded it. The finale requires that you be strapped in and keep your hands inside the car until the ride comes to a complete stop. Only Bernstein is as wild with this symphony, but to me Mravinsky sounds more heartful and convincing. (Berstein is fun, but sometimes sounds showy for showman's sake.)

Under Mravinsky's baton, the Sixth takes on a tragedy as it does with few others. "Steam-rollered" describes it well. Forget Bernstein's 1988 DG recording with the twice-as-slow finale. Yes it has its merits and is an interesting intellectual conception, but while Bernstein's works *harder,* this one just works better, if you get the difference. And Mravinsky accomplishes his goals without resorting to extremes in tempo, dynamics, articulation or anything else. His first movement is as anguished and explosive as any on record. But for my money it's the second movement--often played with the least character and adventurousness--that stands out here. Mravinsky finds a *deep* streak of tragedy throughout this throbbing 5/4 "Waltz," and that is structurally important, because the second theme from this movement returns in the final bars of the finale, to devastating effect. Such an important moment, yet so many conductors overlook it and its emotional connection to *this* (second) movement, and thus it can sound merely tacked on. Yet so much that is key in this symphony happens on the last page-- the funeral gong; the coda containing the second movement's secondary theme (now played with devastating bleakness); and most fascinating of all, something I never find mentioned: the "Rest Him With The Saints" funeral quotation in the first movement has been commented on by critics many times, but they ignore the fact that it apparently returns in a variation (or a development) here in the coda to the finale, right after the funeral gong. To me that seems significant, whether you believe the composer took his life, was poisoned, or merely drank a pitcher of bad water. (And I don't really have an opinion. No matter what the answer, it doesn't change the notes on paper.)

The recordings range from good to fair, but there's nothing that should keep anyone from listening unless DDD sound is mandatory. (And if it is I feel sorry for you, because today's crop of Tchaikovsky conductors cannot hold a candle to Mravinsky, Koussevitsky, Ormandy, [earlier] Bernstein, and others.) Most important, these recordings have the electricity and spontaneity of live performances, especially the 4th and 6th. There is also a stunning Mravinsky 6th in the aforementioned BMG Mravinsky box set (volume 19), but the sound there is very bad and compressed and in this instance I would recommend this DG recording more.

All the performances feature orchestra coloration, particularly in the winds and brass, that is different from what we are used to from "Western" orchestras (or Russian orchestras of today, for that matter,which have become homogenized.) Apparently the sound--with a more distinctive character among the different sections of the orchestra, less blend, less cohesiveness--has put off some people who've reviewed this recording here, but I'd rather hear these war-horses played differently (and arguably more "authentically") than one gets with your typical Bernstein, Ormandy, Szell, Ashkenazy. This isn't meant as a slight to any of those conductors, but there are already plenty of recordings with well-blended, larger-than-life sound that's as pure as the driven snow--This is Tchaikovsky of flesh and bone. If you're interested in Peter Ilych or in 19th century Russian music in general, your collection has a big gap without this issue.