Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

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

 

 

While I find the sound on this recording to be a ittle overbright, in terms of intensity I find this to be one of the most intense on record, particularly in the outer movements. Intensity is one of Janson's strong points, and it shows here. The first movement has an epic sweep to it which is appropriate to the score. Ditto the last movement. The Oslo Philharmonic responds to Jansons's committed direction with gusto! The inner movements are well conceived and played, although the third movement could use more of a sense of repose. Other than that, I would count this recording as standing very high on my list of recommended CD's.

I don't know how the guy from Maple Valley gets off as calling this performance "boring". It wasn't Mariss Jansons who was sleeping - it was that reviewer, although I don't know how anyone could snore through the supremely powerful 4th movement. The performance is excellent, with the right combination of drama and intensity, and there is a suitably dark, Byronic feeling, just like the score deserves. Same with the sound quality - the recording is masterfully engineered. Buy this now. And don't forget to read Byron's work, either.

Whoever wrote that this is a boring recording, should take a listen to Pletnev's erratic conducting of this piece. Janssons tempos are much easier to listen to and seems to convey what the composer intended. It is a somber but very melodic piece of music and only a conductor of great sensitivity could interpret it properly. Janssons fills the bill.

In agreement with Mr. Hurwitz, perhaps we're still waiting for a truly great

Manfred performance, however, Jansons rendition with Oslo Philharmonic is about

to get close to perfection. This is undoutebly a great performance, and perhaps

the best rounded of all available. Jansons conducts masterly and i admire his care on every details and balance. Of course, Oslo Philharmonic is not a LSO that is perhaps the best Manfred performer through Ahronovitch's, Prevín's or Markevitch`s

renditions, but Jansons approach go far beyond. If anyone want to have just one version, this is for sure the one to get.

I was just looking over this recording -- I've bought it about 15 times, to give to other people, and was contemplating buying it for someone else, even considering purchasing an mp3 download so that I could SIMPLY HEAR IT AGAIN, now, without having to go to my CD collection to fish it out. What to my dismay... not seeing 5 stars as the average customer review kind of shocked me. I don't have any idea WHAT PLANET some of the other reviewers have been living on. I could conceivably imagine someone entirely unfamiliar with the Manfred Symphony PERHAPS giving it less than a 5-star review simply because they are comparing it with their favorite recording of the Pathetique Symphony, which they may LIKE better. On the other hand, the reviews SEEM to be sincere and well-informed (?), so perhaps the best thing I can do here is offer my OPINION, having collected and listened (several times) to MOST available recordings of this work: THIS IS THE BEST RECORDING I HAVE **********EVER********** HEARD of the Manfred Symphony. Furthermore, it is the HIGHLIGHT of Janson's incredible, SPECTACULAR survey of the complete Tchaikovsky Symphonies. For me, there is simply no rival to this recording. Not only that, I place it up there among my favorite recordings EVER MADE (I have a huge collection, and have been listening -- rather than eating! -- to classical recordings for TOO MANY years...) So, for what it's worth -- These (five) are the most stars Amazon will allow me to add, as I attempt to counterbalance the reviewers who (apparently!) don't LOVE this remarkable recording as well as I do. ***ONE OF THE GREATEST RECORDINGS EVER MADE*** I believe this Magnificent recording of the Manfred Symphony is the first of its kind -- for me, at least, this was the recording that convinced me that the Manfred Symphony belongs up there with Symphonies 4,5 & 6 as one of Tchaikovsky's greatest symphonies.

Jansons is very much a Tchaikovsky expert, and could likely conduct this work in his sleep. Unfortunately, it sounds like that's precisely what he did during this session. I always thought that, given a bad interpretation, Tchaikovsky could be made to sound overblown, cheaply sentimental, or downright tawdry. But boring? Somehow, Jansons manages to do so. The overly-distant recording doesn't help matters, either.

The work, as presented by the Oslo Phiharmonic Orchestra, Jansons conducting, falls far short of this listeners expectations. It hardly represents the passion one believes Tchikovsky felt and intended that makes the same work exciting and unforgetable as played by the National Symphony Orchestra of Russia. I regret that CD was not available.