Comparison Recordings of music by Tchaikovsky:
Romeo & Juliet, Hermann Scherchen,
LSO. [AAD mono] TAHRA TAH 415
Piano Concerto #1, Janis, Menges, LSO
[ADD] Mercury Living Presence
Piano Concerto #1, Scherbakov, Yablonsky,
Naxos DVD-Audio
5.110051
Symphony #5, Stokowski, New Philharmonia
Orchestra [ADD] Decca 433 687-2
Symphony #5, Herbert von Karajan, BPO,
EMI CDM 64871
Of the eight symphonies
by Tchaikovsky, #1 is considered a student
work because, even though its ideas
are wonderfully original, it tends to
make use of textbook models; #2 is considered
"immature" for reasons I can’t
fathom, since to me it seems to be in
every way a perfect work, even in its
original, unrevised form; #3 is considered
to be "experimental," I guess
because it tries to go off in all directions
at once and doesn’t actually arrive
anywhere — I bet you can’t hum a single
tune from it. When we arrive at #4 we
have the "first mature" Symphony.
Number five, Tchaikovsky’s
"second mature" symphony is
the most difficult of the set to bring
off because of the evanescent shifting
colours which require the performers
to follow convincingly abrupt changes
in mood while keeping reasonable forward
motion—rather similar in manner to the
Franck Symphony. Those conductors,
such as Monteux and Stokowski, who are
able nevertheless to retain focus on
the long melodic phrases are the most
successful, and the Fifth does
have some of the longest melodic phrases
in all Tchaikovsky. But there is a particularly
difficult moment in the march-like transition
to the coda in the last movement which
is my touchstone for a great performance.
Only Stokowski, von Karajan, and Odd
Grüner-Hegge(!) have been able
to bring it off as well as Monteux does
here. This is a splendid performance!
The music is focused in the front channels,
the surround sound effects being quite
subtle, amounting only to an opening-up,
a sense of air, until the work ends
and the applause bursts from all around
you, proving that this is a real 4+
channel master recording.
Karajan’s performance,
brilliant, cool, transparent, a little
brisk but more than acceptable, was
once available on a quadraphonic LP;
hopefully we will see it on a high-resolution
surround-sound disk soon from EMI. I
will need that one in addition
to the present, disk of course.
Monteux and John Ogdon
give us one of the most genuinely sensual,
un-maudlin, yet musical and enjoyable
performances of the First Concerto
I’ve ever heard. Ogdon barely gets through
the incredible first movement octave
cadenza by holding the pedal down and
praying. Listen once to Byron Janis
zip through it, he who has it for lunch
every day, so you know what it sounds
like, then don’t worry about John Ogdon
who does such a beautiful job with the
rest of the Concerto, even (almost)
the third movement octave cadenza. In
the midst of beauty like this who cares
about a bunch of dumb old octaves anyway.
For incredible bravura in both sound
and performance, the Naxos DVD-Audio
with Scherbakov and Yablonsky can hardly
be equalled, but where is the soul?
Although fewer and fewer people seem
to agree, there is more to life than
just violence.
The Romeo and Juliet
is the equal of my all-time favourite
performance, Hermann Scherchen’s 1953
version with the LSO, making a point
that the LSO is (or at least was between
1953 and 1963) surely the finest Tchaikovsky
orchestra in the world! Fine as the
monophonic sound of that earlier performance
was, in this high resolution surround
sound master we hear smoother strings
and cleaner percussion, if a little
less impact. The engineers have had
the courage to leave the sound relatively
un-processed (the bane of live recordings
— there is some limiting of the climaxes,
but it is not overly obtrusive) so there
is none of the artificial brightening
that has marred a few of the Silverline
releases. And remember, you can play
it on your DVD player. Everybody has
one by now, don’t they?
Paul Shoemaker
John Ogdon, piano 
SILVERLINE
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