Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings

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

 

 

The previous reviewer talked about Souvenir de Florence on the CD, which is indeed very good. However, I am less familiar with Souvenir than the Serenade, so I'll comment on that instead. At the risk of sounding trite, the performance here is among the best available. Vienna Chamber Orchestra does a wonderful job trying to maintain the clarity of the work, allowing the listener to hear the individual parts of the work. For example, I've never really noticed some of the beautiful countermelodies in the Waltz until I listened to this recording. The interpretation is also first-rate. Entremont brings out the warmth of the music well, plus the tempo never drags. The result is a finely performed work that will captures the listener's attention throughout the piece. Oh, did I mention that the recorded sound is VERY good?

At this price, this is a deal not to miss. If you are looking for one recording of the Serenade, this is it. Even if you already own the Serenade, chances are that you don't yet have a recording of the rarely recorded Souvenir. Definitely give this CD a try.

Performances of the orchestral arrangement of Souvenir de Florence are rare, as it seems are recordings. The work however is quite lovely and evocative and suits a string orchestra capable of playing as both an entity and a collection of fine soloists. Look no further therefore than this recording for an excellent interpretation.

The more familiar serenade is also a fine example of the work of one of Europe's leading Chamber Orchestras.

I play this disc frequently, most especially the Souvenir and have only a minor quibble and that is with a rather fast take up of the opening of the work. Otherwise this has to be one of the best quality recordings I have heard from Naxos but then they used an interesting recording venue, Casino Baumgartner in Vienna, and presumeably Austrian engineers.

Take it to your desert island!

Philippe Entremont may be better known as a world-class pianist than a conductor. As a pianist, he collaborated with prominent figures including Leonard Bernstein and Eugene Ormandy, but he himself turns out to be a very good conductor.

This album, with Maestro Entremont leading the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, features Tchaikovsky's two best-known and most beautiful chamber works: Serenade for Strings and Souvenir de Florence. Although not as painstakingly emotional as Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, nor as sensual and passionate as Ormandy as his "Philadelphia Sound", Entremont and his ensemble offers an highly respectable performance, with great control without any flamboyance, and above all the lush, moving strings comprised of members representing the music capital of the world.

Naxos is known for offering recordings done by less-than-prolific artists at a budget price, but this is an absolute winner. A stunning performance with only little money out of one's wallet. Simply put, an excellent bargain!

I was listening to a biography of Tchaikovsky on cassette and
the instructor mentioned the 2 pieces on this CD as relatively
unknown masterpieces of chamber music. I was very happy to see that
I could get both of them on one CD. I am not qualified to give any sort of analysis
of the performances (by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, 1990) because I
just listen to music, but the 5-star rating I give the CD says enough,
and the instructor who praised these pieces so highly was absolutely
correct! The liner notes are sparse yet complete.

How hearty do you like performances of these two works to be? Whatever reservations anyone may harbour, I would not expect to find a charge of understatement or excessive gentility to be among them. These are, in my own opinion, excellent renderings of the full-blooded variety. The players play with gusto, and the 1990 recording engineers seem to have entered into the spirit of the thing by providing a full-toned sound projected at quite a high volume-level. To sum up my basic reactions, the approach works for me in the Serenade, but not quite so much in the Souvenir de Florence, and there are several reasons for that.

To avoid misunderstandings, I am not suggesting that you would think you were listening to an orchestra of rugby players. The Vienna Chamber Orchestra are sensitive and accomplished musicians. The third movement of the Serenade, for instance, is called an Elegie, and its specifically elegiac sequences are expressed with eloquence, inwardness and restraint. Again, in the adagio of the Souvenir there is a cello solo with a descanting violin part, and all this is treated with affection and lyric delicacy. To me, this came as something of a relief after the slightly strenuous handling of the first movement, and I suppose I need to distinguish carefully between two factors, one of which is not something that can form part of my assessment but the other of which, closely related, is.

The basic issue is that the Souvenir is given here in its version for string orchestra. In origin the piece was a string sextet, with two violins, two violas and two cellos like Brahms's. It is perfectly legitimate to play the orchestral version, and while I in turn would be within my rights to prefer the other version and say so, I would have no right to take this preference into account when rating the performance. On the other hand it is still reasonable to expect the orchestral version to be treated with a certain amount of caution in performance, otherwise the effect can be just slightly wearying for the listener, and this listener was in danger of being just slightly wearied here. To use a metaphor, there are different ways of cooking the Souvenir, and if the richer recipe is employed the dish can be rather indigestible for some consumers. Balancing these considerations as best I can, I would not feel right about awarding the full 5 stars to what I am offered here, but I can perfectly well understand that other listeners may not feel any such qualms.

As regards the Serenade, I have no reservations of any significance. The start is slowish and rather grandiose, and that suits me down to the ground, the rich recorded sound being an added plus. I love the way Entremont handles the waltz that forms the second movement too. Once again his tempo is moderate, and there is a beautiful relaxed feel to it all. The Elegie has a grave and sad remoteness about it, and the finale is splendidly vigorous until the end, when of course we have the opening material from the first movement again, still grandiose and rightly so. The tone of these strings gave me especial pleasure, and I ought to say that no misgivings that I have about the general approach to the Souvenir affect my appreciation of the strong and bracing sound in that work either.

There is a liner note, and it is not a bad one in general. However it is incomprehensibly silent about the issue that I wanted most to see discussed, namely the circumstances under which the original string sextet was given its makeover as a piece for a full string band. One matter of great interest is however addressed, namely the way the composer met his death. The legend, until recently accepted sleepily by many including myself, was that he had for some inscrutable reason drunk a glass of unboiled water during an outbreak of cholera in St Petersburg and fallen victim to that disease in consequence at the age of 53. The real lurid story is set out with great clarity and respect for the evidence in Anthony Holden's excellent biography of Tchaikovsky, a piece of reputable scholarship that is more involving and exciting than many a whodunit when it deals with this issue.

I would not want to end without my customary word of appreciation to Naxos for the great benefit they provide in bringing such a diverse range of musical works to so wide a musical public at so reasonable a cost. Would it be appropriate this time to propose three hearty cheers?