Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 / Glazunov: Violin Concerto

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

 

 

Tchaikovsky's 5th, brilliantly played and realized by Stokowski. The score is filled with ammendments that add to the excitement. The emotion is turned on, and the sonics are glorious. After hearing Stokowski's version, the others, by Dorati, Karajan and Bernstein seem tame in comparison. Hear for yourself! The Glazunov was recorded live for Stoky's 90th birthday celebration. The playing by violinist Marcovici has a sweet tone and conviction that makes for a sterling performance. Highly reccomended!

Here is one of Stokowski's signature stereo recordings from late in his career, recorded from a couple concerts in Stuttgart in 1966. For years this was my favorite recording of Tchaikovksy's 5th Symphony on LP. The addition of the minor violin concerto did little to add value to the CD but correspondingly did nothing to diminish the overall bloom of the great symphonic concert recording.

This recording was famous for three reasons:
-- Stokowski's relatively hands off handling of the score, especially in contrast with the score rewriting he did in his Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony recording with the American Symphony Orchestra recording of 1970.

-- His use of tenuto in the opening movement that causes minor pauses in the momentum of the musical waves. This frustrated some critics that like a metronomic pathway through the music and stamped Stokowski's personality on the performance.

-- The way he rolled the timpani through the famous pregnat pause at the fourth movement's coda, where hundreds of conductors have been unsure what to do with this empty spot in Tchaikovsky's score. Stoki's way here, while contrived, also seems perfectly natural.

Otherwise, only a couple minor cuts you won't miss and probably won't notice amend the agenda in this majestic Stoki-izing of the late Romantic Russian symphony. After listening to this rendition continuously for three decades, and tsting dozens of others, it finally yielded first place in my collection to the then-new and marvelous recording by Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Still today, Stoki's account holds a spot near the pinnacle of my collection and will never be too far from my heart. I'd recommend it to anyone that loves historic musicmaking on a grand scale. The sound -- originally recoreded in London's Phase 4 technology -- is perfectly acceptable for both its era and ours.

I can see loving or hating Stokowski's Phas four Tchaikovsky Fifth, recorded in Decca's patented multi-mike, cinematic splashiness. But to be objective, Stoki is far over the top here. There is a great deal of goopy, soupy phrasing in the first movement, but the Scherzo is wildly pulled around. The Andante cantabile comes off relatively unscathed, but the finale is overblown in the ripest Hollywood style. I was fairly amused when the Gramophone reviewer was so repelled as to be almost phsically ill. As for myself, if I am in the mood for Tchaikovsky in carnival mode, Stoki's Fifth is one CD to grab for.

This preccording has been reissued as part of Decca's two-box Stokowski omnium gatherum in their Original masters series.

Voici un très bel enregistrement (réalisé en concert) de ce concerto de Glazunov. Il y a dans cette interprétation toute la passion et la fraîcheur d'une jeune violoniste roumaine lauréate de plusieurs concours internationaux. Malgré quelques défaillances et une prise de son assez mauvaise, une version de référence! Il est dommage, cependant, que cette violoniste ait presque disparu de la scène musicale...