Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 / Romeo & Juliet overture

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (Composer), George Szell (Conductor), Herbert von Karajan (Conductor), London Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: George Szell, Herbert von Karajan
• Composer: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
• Audio CD (October 26, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00002DDOD
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,977 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Symphony No.4 In F Minor, Op.36: I. Andante sostenuto - Moderato con anima

2. Symphony No.4 In F Minor, Op.36: II. Andantino in modo di canzone

3. Symphony No.4 In F Minor, Op.36: III. Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato. Allegro

4. Symphony No.4 In F Minor, Op.36: IV. Finale: Allegro con fuoco

5. Romeo And Juliet - Fantasy Overture

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Driven intensity, and legitimately so, September 8, 2007

By 

L. C. Gasper - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 / Romeo & Juliet overture (Audio CD)

David Zinman (when he was conductor of the Baltimore Symphony - he now conducts the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra) said he loved Tchaikovsky because "he will bear any interpretation." George Szell in this recording took interpretation of Tchaikovsky's fourth perhaps as far as it can go in the direction of driven intensity. Unremitting, hair-raising, furious, edge-of-your-seat - the list of apt descriptive adjectives is long. It is not the only interpretation one can put on the score, and there are certainly other fine recordings (a very good one: Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 4 Antal Dorati leading also the LSO, a year earlier than Szell's recording). But if you like Tchaikovsky white-hot, this is the still the standard, even after nearly half a century.

The "filler" on this album, von Karajan's reading of Romeo and Juliet, with the Vienna Philharmonic, offers another interpretation of Tchaikovsky: Lush, opulent, and insistent. It isn't white-hot, but it is muscular. You may detect some tape hiss in these older recordings, but the engineering puts many much more recent efforts to shame, and the music in any event is likely to sweep you past such minor considerations.

I have to speak to the notion that this recording of Tchaikovsky's fourth is in some strange way illegitimate or invalid because George Szell didn't want it released, having been somehow misled into the way he conducted it by Producer John Culshaw's deliberately lowering the volume on first playback.

That lowering of the volume - notice, only on first playback - is less than half the whole story.

Szell had rehearsed the fourth for some days, and on the night before the recording had conducted it in concert. His fury was due to his discovery at the opening of the recording session that many of the players he had been working with for those days had decided for the recording to send their deputies instead, which the players' contract allowed at that time. The recording session was, not surprisingly, very trying, as Szell had to work at largely rebuilding in hours what he had with substantial effort put together over several days. The situation was not helped by the recalcitrance of the understudies, who did not respond well to Szell's - shall we say - pointed criticisms and demands. We can fault John Culshaw for throwing gasoline on this fire but, beyond question, it was already blazing high.

As against that, it is true that the result was not good enough for Szell who, provoked by a mild and off-hand statement when the session was over that the disc would be on the market by a certain date, responded coldly with the phrase "Over my dead body!" That was not, however, because he considered, as some have imagined, that he had been driven into some rash conducting.

So far as I know, Szell never said why he refused to allow the release (which appeared nine years later, in 1971, in the year after Szell died, not, as another reviewer has it, 15 years after his death). What is sure is that Szell, and apparently Culshaw, too, considered that the understudies to the end resisted playing as well as Szell thought they could have. It is said that there is a notable fault by the clarinet in the first movement which Szell just could not get corrected, and he was such a precisionist that one can understand how that fault, coming on top of everything else that day, might have caused him to turn his back on what he may have thought a disciplinary and organizational fiasco but not a musical failure. I noticed, too, a very obvious tape splice in the second movement that I find surprising in a John Culshaw production.

Szell was a perfectionist and it makes complete sense that these flaws would be unacceptable, but there is no evidence that Szell thought the overall interpretation was faulty or somehow illegitimate because not really his. In the end, the work itself counts for everything. Pace the Maestro himself, this interpretation overwhelms any flaws that remain.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Szell makes his best Tchaikovsky recording, January 14, 2006

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 / Romeo & Juliet overture (Audio CD)

This 1962 recording for Decca found Szell straying from the corral--he had always recorded exclusively for Columbia--and it was a lucky detour. The sonics here are the best he ever received. This Tchaikovsky Fourth shows Szell's prime virtues of precision and ensemble. In addition, he seems more warm-blooded (or hot-blooded: the producer John Culshaw remembers that Szell was in a glowering rage on the day of the recording). The LSO are more relaxed than the over-disciplined Cleveland Orch., which also helps.

I have to smile at the Gramophone's description of this performance as "white hot." Sosmeone must have put Tabasco in their kippers. The first two movements are not at all fervent, but Szell certainly takes the Scherzo very quickly and with unusual intensity. The fireworks don't really go off, though, until the last movement, which is no more fiery than Mravinsky, but that's saying a lot. Szell far exceeds Mravinsky's classic account on DG, however, in terms of sound--the finale blazes with dramatic force. Five stars, withoiut a doubt.

Not to be overlooked is the filler, Karajan's 1960 performance with the Vienna Phil. of the often abused Romeo and Juliet. You'd never suspect it had warhorse status here, though. This is a performance of supreme beauty and insight, one of the gems from Karajan's vast catalog (all his Vienna Phil. recordings for Decca are remarkable and worth seeking out). Excellent sound, softer than in the symphony.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamite!, January 13, 2010

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Ray (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 / Romeo & Juliet overture (Audio CD)

It's performances like this that confirm the opinion of many of us that Szell was second only to Toscanini. This is exactly the type of powerful and dynamic interpretation that works so well for a dramatic piece of music like this. Not so sure that Szell's approach is quite as applicable for a more somber and melodious work, such as Tchaikovsky's 5th. But for the 4th, Szell's unemotional, precise, and brisk methodology is just right. Highest recommendation.