Pyotr Il039yich Tchaikovsky Valery Gergiev StPetersburg Kirov Orchestra - Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 Pathtique Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture (5 tracks) +Album Reviews

Something in the Russian Soul ....

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 11/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though it is unfair to postulate that only Russian conductors can truly perform Russian composers, listening to this recording (along with many others) of Valery Gergiev conducting the St. Petersburg Kirov Orchestra (his own) in two works by Tchaikovsky creates an impression that Russian conductors best explore the soul of Russian music. And those conductors don't need to have all the experience Gergiev owns: at a recent concert guest conductor Andrey Boreyko, a very young and very gifted Russian conductor, drew from the LA Philharmonic all the drama and passion inherent in the 'Romeo and Juliet Overture Fantasy' that made the acoustically perfect Disney Hall shudder and weep and the audience explode with effusive response to what in other conductor's hands is merely a popular warhorse!

But whatever the alchemy is, here is a recording of the last symphony of Tchaikovsky that is as fine as any ever recorded. The orchestra sings under Gergiev's guidance, the strings are lush and sonorous and the brass and winds and percussion play from the core of Tchaikovsky's score. It is a radiantly beautiful performance.

And the same holds true for the Romeo and Juliet - a performance so rich in detail, so unified in arching concept, and so moving that this listener knows of no other to equal it. This is a rare recording, one that is recommended without reservation. Grady Harp, November 05

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A Probing Reading

D. A Wend | Buffalo Grove, IL USA | 11/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an interesting reading by Valery Gergiev of the Pathetique. The first and last movements are played with a slower tempo, effectively broadening the brooding quality of the music. The slowness, however, does nothing to make the music seem boringly slow, and the faster tempos are played at speed. The tempo brings home the conflict within the music.

The inner movements are well played but sound a bit underpowered, as if the orchestra was tired or uncertain.

The standard recording of the Pathetique has to be the 1961 DG by Evengy Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic. In some respects, the Gergiev recording compares favorably with the Mravinsky but the latter has the edge in the precision of the playing.

The CD also holds a marvelous recording of Romeo and Juliet, beautifully phrased by the members of the Kirov Orchestra and conducted with an eye for detail by Maestro Gergiev. While the Gergiev recording is not my first choice (in a very crowded field of excellent recordings) it is of interest for the space given to the music, as I noted, in the first and last movements where Gergiev nicely stretches the music to give full depth to the despair of the composer.

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Gripping Intensity

D. A Wend | 06/29/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gergiev has a magical way about his music. I can feel him -- heart and mind -- behind the sound, lashing it together and giving it a sure and sinuous spine of thrilling coherence and inevitability. This recording fulfills my every expectation in this regard. This 6th is an emotional experience from the beginning phrase. The sweep and dark intensity he draws from the Kirov (what a partnership! ) rides dangerously close to excess, but Gergiev guides the reins surely, staying just this side of that line -- a thrilling ride. Not for the faint of heart."

New Release A Must Purchase

Pater Ecstaticus | 04/03/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having purchased this new recording of Tchaikovsky's 6th (coupled with the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture) and listened to it four or five times, I must say that Pletnev and Jansons will have to move over and make room at the top for the Kirov Orchestra and Valery Gergiev's fine new interpretation. Without exception, recorded sound is clean and luxuriant, with just enough orchestral bloom; coloration is lush and inviting; the reading dramatic in the best sense of the word: contrasting tender moments of rapt melancholy and sweetness with moments of powerful personal exhilaration. I found the Romeo and Juliet overture particularly effective and appealing, the cumulative emotional effect of the work culminating in a finale that is inspired--especially in the tympani roll that carries the listener to the work's final chord. In short, buy this recording: you will not be disappointed!"

In just one word: Astounding!

Pater Ecstaticus | Norway | 02/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This must be one of my favorite recordings of any symphony ever. I bought it once just because I wanted to acquaint myself more intimately with this magnificent work and because I did not already own any recording of Tchaikovsky's (to me) most beautiful symphony on CD. Also, the fact that I thought (and of course still think) highly of Valery Gergiev as a person and as an artist, made me buy this recording. It is one of my treasured recordings now, as I value this recording even higher than the famous Jansons/Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra recording.

The playing of the Kirov Orchestra under this conductor is (to my quite amateur ears) so intense and so virtuosic - just that bitter-sweet, soft clarinet in the Adagio, litteraly rising from the depths of nothingness! - as to defy belief sometimes, Valery Gergiev really pushing the orchestra to the edge of their capacities (and thereby the music to the extremes of its emotional depths)! There is a kind of what I could only describe as 'tension' and 'astutely intelligent attention' in the playing of this particular orchestra here that - to my ears - really lifts the music to a higher plain of excellence. Maybe what I love the most, is that there is no added 'gloss' or 'shine' to this performance, no 'polishing' the orchestral sound to try to make it extra 'beautiful' (to gloss over the raw emotions), as it were, laying bare all of the raw nerves (could this be called typically 'Russian' or 'Slavic'?).

Anyhow, Valery Gergiev's muse must indeed have been one of fire, lifting him and the artists under his guidance to the highest heaven of invention and art! The same goes for the astounding 'Romeo and Juliet', whose tragically doomed love is as bitter-sweetly and as intensely evoked as can be ...

As of course with all great art, one simply has to hear and feel - to fully experience - for oneself, to be able to believe, but here we can experience true genius ..."

Search - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, Valery Gergiev, St.Petersburg Kirov Orchestra :: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique"; Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

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