Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4/Romeo & Juliet (Fantasy Overture)

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Abbado's Tchaikovsky recordings are often criticised for lack of slavonic passion and too much restraint. He is not interested in sentimental and often hysteric dramatisation of the music, but trying to represent the music as it is in sober nobility. But that does not mean his performance lacks fire and energy.

Romeo & Juliet played by Chicago SO is one of the most exciting and powerfully moving accounts on record, and the sound is sumptuous and every part of the score is articulated and vividly captured.

4th Symphony is not top-recommendation if you seek truly exciting performance, but very persuasive and eloquent with some magical moments in the slow movement and in the pizzicato section.

Claudio Abbado's Chicago Tchaikovsky Symphony 4 is not as bad as some music critics say, but it is not the best, either. Abbado's earlier Tchaikovsky 4, recorded for DG in 1975 with the Vienna Philharmonic, was better in sound and playing. But Sony gives Abbado decent sound for his Chicago Tchaikovsky 4.

The slow tempo Abbado takes for the Allegro part of mt.I is what does his interpretation in: the playing is fine, and in many passages quite beautiful. But I never catches fire, and becomes appropriately stormy as do Beecham (EMI), Bernstein (Sony), or Solti (London). The rest of the symphony seems more conventional. Something about Abbado's conducting sounds dull, or as if he's holding back and trying to avoid an "over the top", emotional atmosphere so necessary to make Tchaikovsky convincing. Abbado tries to conduct this symphony with too much finesse and restraint, thereby losing it's power and punch which should grip the listener on an emotional level.

"Romeo and Juliet" is not the worst I've heard, but is too restrained in the battle scenes between the Capulets and Montagues, like I of Symphony 4. While the slower, sustained woodwind sections are nicely done, I can't really give this a recommendation. For the low asking price, I suppose this is worth a listen, but I would check out Ormandy (Sony), Bernstein (Sony), Beecham (EMI), Adrian Leaper (Naxos), or Solti (London) for Symphony 4; Ormandy (Sony), Bernstein (Sony), Ozawa (DG), or Munch (RCA, if you can find it) for "Romeo and Juliet".

La interpretación de la cuarta Sinfonía de Tchaikovsky, por la orquesta de Chicago bajo la dirección del Maestro Claudio Abbado, está llena de hermosos colores orquestales bajo una concepción correcta de la obra, no hay detalle que le falte, todo en su lugar. Buen sonido de Sony, la orquesta responde a la altura de sus antecedentes. Para los más exigentes versiones mejor logradas que esta, son las de Karajan con Berlín o con Viena, igual que la famosa versión de Leonard Bernstein de 1.958 con la New York Philarmonic, ahora disponible en Sony en la edición "El siglo de Bernstein". Un buen Tchaikovsky de Abbado tanto en la Sinfonía como en el Romeo y Julieta.

Francisco J. Muñoz