Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony; The Tempest

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ignoring the disasterous review by Mr. Hurwitz, this recording is in every respect a very fine performance. As for the complaints about the distancing of the brass section etc, I can find no real fault with it other than some minor blurring of details. Jansons on Chandos might have a better measure of this symphony but you can't beat the generous coupling with "The Tempest". This offers over 75 minutes of music and you very seldom find such generosity on a DG disc! The overture is not an exceptional performance but is well-played. Jansons and some others only offer the symphony with no couplings and at full price these single item recordings are proving to be rather unattractive in value. Mr. Hurwitz's statement that Pletnev continues to be a disappointment as a conductor is certainly one of the most naive comments made by any music critic/reviewer. Pletnev's recordings including his wonderful Tchaikovsky Symphony 6 and Sleeping Beauty are testaments to his excellence as a conductor. By the way this recording of Manfred was given a glowing review and a three star rating from the Penguin Guide! This is a highly recommendable recording!

This is one of the finest recordings of Tchaikovsky's works I've ever heard, period. The Tempest is masterfully played and conducted. This orchestra breathes a new hauntfullness into it that I have not heard else where. The Manfred has to be heard to be believed. Everyone should not hesitate to include this recording in their collection!

What's wrong with D. Hurwitz? Just listen to very end of 1st movement and you not only get good loud cymbal crash, but even the gong is quite clear in a HUGE tutti. The brass (particularly the high horns) come through brilliantly -- LOTS of drama! So a superb over-the-top ending to 1st movement.

Horns are consistenly clear throughout. Excellent presence: strings close and woodwind really clear (great in 2nd movement).

Overall, I find it an EXCELLENT recording.

Did DH review the wrong disc???

I imagine Keith Olbermann of MSNBC would refer to the Amazon reviewer as "well-known comedian David Hurwitz," whose broadside against Pletnev's Manfred Symphony prepared me for something special. And it is. First of all, contrary to Mr. Hurwitz, DG's engineering is demonstration quality, and the Russian Naitonal Orch. play with great skill and commitment.

As for Pletnev's interpretation, his style with Tchaikovsky is well known by now: elegant, unsentimental, perfectly voiced, but a trifle too studied and restrained. That mostly holds good here. This is one of the least bombastic Manfred Sym. readings to be heard. Tchaikovsky himself was doubtful about the work, and it's refreshing to hear it taken seriously with such meticulous respect for detail. However, a visceral reading this is not, so the listener should be prepared.

The Tempest, a 20-min. tone poem (or fantasy-overture to use the composer's peculiar term), needs all the help it can get, and I wish Pletnev hadn't been quite so understated with it, although the lyrical themes are beautifully phrased. Once again, however, the spectacular sonics from DG give the music great impact in the storm sections.

Having heard the Russian National Orchestra perform at Carnegie Hall last night, I know I can easily discount again yet another dismal review from Mr. Hurwitz. This young orchestra, founded by Mikhail Pletnev, is truly one of the world's greatest orchestras I thought they sounded better and played with more enthusiasm and precision than the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of its new music director, Sir Simon Rattle, when the Berliners visited New York City's Carnegie Hall last November.). I have not heard Mariss Jansons's electrifying account of the Manfred Symphony, but Pletnev's account has earned a glowing three-star review in the Penguin Guide.

Both performances on this recording are replete with ample brilliance and warmth. The only problems are technical, which is why this fine CD is earning four stars. To my amazement, the recording sounds not well balanced, and at times, distant. I am truly surprised that Deutsche Grammophon would make such a serious error. Yet despite this major error, Pletnev's interpretations are still worth acquiring.

This is a tremendously well-played performance of both pieces, but of the two I found the Tempest to be far more satisfying. Another reviewer referred to odd tempi decisions in Manfred- they troubled me as well, in places essentially stopping the forward momentum of the piece. I found this quite grating and I couldn't help but react out loud with a "NO!" while listening to these sections (a disfunctional reaction to be sure, but sincere nevertheless) because I felt cheated of some of the rewards of the score.

Also, as another reviewer noted there is little "bombast" to be found here. This Manfred is far too genteel. How in the world can anyone choose to end the 1st movement mezzo forte?! The brass exclamations are so underplayed that it's just bizarre, and the concluding note is almost an "oh, by the way". What a huge disappointment. This is supposed to be a big, intense ending, and instead it feels like all the air was let out of a baloon. Very very strange, aggravating at the very least, and no doubt not what Tchaikovsky wanted.

It's certainly possible to take a less strident approach to big warhorses and still make them exciting and satisfying- Gatti does it very successfully with The Pines of Rome- but it's not successful here at all.

So- very well played but too many ill-advised decisions for me.

While I think Pletnev is great, this is not the best performance of this piece. I don't even think it's as good as the Maurice Abravenel version with the Utah Symphony. My main complaint is that the tempi are bizarre in places. Sometimes they seem rather quick and in many places, they are drawn out in a dramatic manner that makes you think you are listening to Bernstein do Mahler. This is most troublesome in the second movement where he seems to have things going pretty well then suddenly the tempo slows to a crawl and the whole thing just kind of falls apart.

I would agree with other reviewers here that this piece is one of Tchaikovsky's best and high in the list of great works. Like Mahler's Resurrection, each turn should tick off like a kind of dark, but inevitable clockwork. It doesn't need to be made more dramatic. It combines the insanely wonderful lyricism (as Stravinsky said, Tchaikovsky was non pareil in this realm) with a very modern, machinelike intensity that sounds like the next generation of Russian composers from the 20th Century.

Pletnev's version of the Manfred Symphony has been heavily criticized by several reviewers. Having heard a few recordings of this work I think that Pletnev's is a refreshing reading of the music. The inner movements could not be played more beautifully than the Russian National Symphony. The outer movements are well performed and do not lack drama and lyricism. My only complaint is that Mr. Pletnev takes the final bars of the first movement faster than I have heard and this lessens the tension of the music. I prefer Andrew Litton and the Bournmouth for their slower tempo at this point, which heightens the drama of the music. Mr. Pletnev's version has far better clarity than the Litton version (on Virgin). Altogether, Pletnev's version of Manfred is excellent and well-judged. The Tempest is also an excellent account of this dificult piece with excellent tempos and superb playing. I recommend this recording without hesitation.

I strongly disagree with the comments by the Amazon reviewer who is very disparaging of Mr. Pletnev's abilities as a conductor. I have had the privilege of attending concerts given by the Russian National and can vouch for their excellence, which is largely due to Mkhail Pletnev. The catalogue is full of marvelous recordings by this conductor and orchestra. Recordings like Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella have set a standard that few orchestras can match.

By 1868, Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev confronted Hector Berlioz with the idea of writing a musical treatment of Lord Byron's epic poem "Manfred", Berlioz refused due to old age and ill health (he died the next year, in 1869 at 66). Fourteen years later, Balakirev made the same offering to Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky was reluctant at first but decided to write the symphony in four tableaux and began sketching it by 1884, with the schemes provided by Balakirev. Tchaikovsky confessed to his patroness Nadezha Von Meck that "My thoughts have been very gloomy of late. Composing the Manfred symphony, so tragic in character, is so difficult that at times I myself become a Manfred. Still, I am consumed with the desire to finish." Tchaikovsky finished the score by 1885 and the Moscow premiere of the "Manfred" symphony took place on March 23rd, 1886 with success. Tchaikovsky proclaimed this work as his most successful orchestral composition.

I agree with Tchaikovsky's assessment of his masterpiece. With some exceptions to the Pathetique Symphony and his opera "Mazeppa", the Manfred Symphony is that of bold and pure honesty: the work Tchaikovsky expressed both his sympathy and his understanding towards Manfred. Manfred was the man, the hero, who was in the struggle to find inner peace, but continued to suffer from from torments. His memories of his beloved Astarte made matters worst from Manfred. He died, finally in peace and with redemption.

Thus, the Manfred Symphony is Tchaikovsky's autobiography. Therefore, in performing the Manfred Symphony, the greatest of advocacy, intimacy, vividness and passion are the key ingredients needed to carry out its' message. The performance need to capture the darkness, the romantic sentimentality, and the passion of the work and of Tchaikovsky. Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Symphony (RNO) managed to achieve the balance and the refinement in their performance. However, Pletnev and the RNO came up short on these key ingredients. They played with some enthusiasm, but unconvincingly so, and they were not effective in portraying the darkness, vividness, and the sentimental side of the work, and of its' composer (the Tempest was better played than Manfred incidentially). Furthermore, for a Deutsche Grammophon recording, the sound and its dynamic range is surprisingly distant and limited.

For better recordings (of better pereformances), try Svetlanov and the USSR State Symphony (Melodiya/BMG), Yuri Simonov and the London Symphony (Collins Classics), Rozhdestvensky and the Moscow Radio Symphony (Russian Revelation), or Muti and the Philharmonia (EMI/Angel).

The Pletnev/RNO recording under DG is recommendable, but is also a legitimate passer-by.

This is the BEST recording of this work available! The Russian National Orchestra is, IMHO, the finest orchestra in the world today -- just listen to the passionate intensity from strings and the dark, expressive but also immaculate brass playing. Pletnev has a tight grip on the structure of the Symphony (which it needs), and the first three movements are given examplary performances. Not even Pletnev can do much about the unfortunate ending Tchaikovsky gave this piece, though.

I admit that the recording of Manfred (though not of The Tempest) distances the horns and percussion rather unconvincingly. But even that cloud has a silver lining when it allows us to hear even more of those wonderful strings.

The Tempest is just as wonderful -- perhaps even better -- and the recording here is unexceptionable.

All in all, a wonderful Tchaikovsky experience