Search - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Kurt Sanderling, Berlin Symphony Orchestra :: Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 4-6

Experienced but not inspired readings from a veyr old Sander

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 07/30/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Kurt Sanderling was born in 1912 and announced his retirement form conducting in 2002. If the date on these Denon recordings is correct, he made this Tchaikovsky cycle in 1998, at the age of 86. They are full of energy and commitment, and since he was an old-fashioned German maestro, we hear lots of rubato and tempo changes. Understandably, there are also occasional lapses of attention, but you'd never guess the conductor's ge hearing the fire-vreathing opening to the Fourth Sym., for example. Sanderling was a dedicated Communist, so his career in East Germany failed to win much sympathy in the West. These recordings are with the Berlin Symphony, a reasonably good East German orchestra that I don't think exists anymore since unification. Denon's sonics are quite good, as usual, but the orchestral execution is ordinary.



In the decade since these recordings were released, there have been a flood of excellent Russian interpretations of Tchaikovsky, so compared to Gergiev, Pletnev, and Temirkanov, the kind of Teutonic style heard here sounds a bit too retrograde. Still, listeners can take pleasure in the vigorous art of the octagenarian Sanderling."