Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 / Francesca da Rimini (Royal Edition No. 91)

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

 

 

I doubt I've ever given a CD five stars for the iller alone, but this account of 'Francesca da Rimini' burns the roof dwon. I only noticed it becasue I wondered if Bernstein could equal the passionate accoutns of this masterpiece of a tone poem given by two Russians, Igor Markevitch (Philips) and most especially Yevgeny Mravinsky (Erato and also EMI's Great Conductors series). Bernstein is fully their equal in passion and excitement. The NY Phil. plays with total involvement, and only the somewhat grandiose sound might be considered a drawback.

I have no idea why Bernstien didn't feel the same passion for Sym. #4, but his reading is rough shod, much too fast in the Scherzo, and bombastic in the finale. It's one of his rare misses in Tchaikovsky -- as the other reviewers point out, we still have a great reading from LB dating back to 1958, when he was newly appointed to the Philharmonic.

(If you don't want to buy the whole CD, the Francesca can be downloaded from Real Rhapsody. )

Leonard Bernstein performances never warrant a mere two-star review. Save the deuce-eggs for Britney Spears, big-hair heavy metal glam-rockers and live classical historic recordings made on your grandfather's old mic-in-hand tape recorders. I will agree with the previous reviewer that this 1975 account of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony does not stand up to his earlier 1958 account (currently available in the "Bernstein Century" series). But I found it more audacious that CBS/Sony originally included the '75 recording in its "Great Performances" series than in the "Royal Edition" series, which made no claims towards greatness and made possible the release of other obscure pieces from the Bernstein catalog. Actually, the most offensive thing of all (though I guess I should expect it by now), is that I worked like a dog tracking down Bernstein's Tchaikovsky Cycle, via the "Royal Edition" titles, only to have it recently reissued in the French "Columbia Legends" line at half the price. Now that is a subject on which I'd like to give Sony my "two-stars" worth.

"Lenny" recorded this work three times. His radical rethink on DG done in the 1980's is an exercise in the most bizarre musicmaking. In THAT rendering of the score, he stretches phrasing beyond the breaking point and the interpretation is full of the most unusual idiosyncracies. This 1975 recording is a straightforward account and is not a "bad" recording, merely an uninspired one. Every musician does his job, but that's ALL one can say about their playing...It's like reading yesterday's newspapers...okay, but nothing new here. It's a shame that Sony did not release Bernstein's first (1958) recording of the Fourth. He had just taken over the reins of the Philharmonic and this was one of the first recordings of the stereo era. Lenny had his troupe playing like 105 Satans on hallucinogens and it was a visceral and very heady experience. THAT recording is probably the all-time best Tchaikovsky Fourth. As a second choice, Abbado and the Vienna is a stellar choice.