RECORDING OF THE MONTH     CHOPIN Waltzes and Impromptus Vladimir Feltsman £11 post free World-wide VIVALDI The four seasons London Mozart Players/Juritz £12 post free World-wide BEETHOVEN Symphonies 4 and 5 LSO/Yondani Butt £12 post free World-wide

BUY NOW  Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Peter Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, ‘Pathétique’ (1893). Orchestre National de France/Riccardo Muti. Live performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris on April 26th, 2003. NAÏVE V4970 [49’50]

Riccardo Muti, a stranger to these shores now, has a special relationship with the Orchestre National de France. He conducts them every year, and the present issue adds further interest to his discography. Of course this is not his first foray into the wilds of the ‘Pathétique’ (there is a famous Philharmonia EMI recording), but the live aspect might be thought to add an extra angle. In point of fact, instead of there being an added frisson of danger, this is a remarkably careful account almost as if rehearsal time had been limited. There are also some contradictory moments - the arrival of the ‘sighing’ theme at 4’52 is not as touching as the preceding perfect tailing off would seem to imply it should be, for example. This despite the fact that the woodwind/string dialogue at 3’18 onwards in the first movement speaks of careful rehearsal. In general, the orchestra seems unwilling to let itself go. The very opening is indeed from the shadows, but it is not a patch on the most recent ‘Pathétique’ to come my way before this one, Furtwängler’s 1938 Berlin traversal . The same could be said of the entire performance. The Allegro con grazia is suave, but not as elegant as many; the Allegro molto vivace third movement is simply careful for most of its duration. True, it does get grittier later, but never really takes off. If the very opening of the (in)famous finale is indeed a heartfelt cry, it fails to lead to a hyper-emotive statement. Under Muti, this flows along nicely, but Furtwängler it is not (and, some might argue, it isn’t Tchaikovsky either, not really). Even the perilously low horn stopping around the eight-minute mark and beyond is blunted here. There is no doubting the excellence of the Orchestre National de France, and the engineers have done a fine job in capturing this event (including the odd bit of audience noise, but nothing too distracting). Expectations ran high for this release, especially in the light of Muti’s Romeo and Juliet with the New Philharmonia that I reviewed early in 2002 . However, with the multiplicity of available recordings of this masterwork, it is hard to recommend this except perhaps to die-hard Muti fans. The fact there is no coupling just adds insult to injury. Colin Clarke   Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.