By Christopher R. Guin
Whether you’re just starting to build a classical library, or adding yet another recording of these masterpieces to an existing collection, you can’t go wrong with this exceptional budget-priced selection from Deustche Grammophone.
The Berlin Philharmonic is at the absolute top of its form in this reading of Tchaikovsky’s towering Fifth Symphony, and Ozawa wrings every ounce of juice out of the orchestra; the winds and brass are especially wonderful in this recording. Tchaikovsky is perhaps the most masterful orchestrator of them all, and his skillful voicing has rarely been so beautifully displayed as it is on this outstanding disc. The 1812 is strong, as well, but (believe it or not) seems almost anticlimactic after one of the better performances of the Fifth available.
With most budget-priced CDs, you can practically hear every dollar you saved, but this disc would be a bargain at twice the price. At just under eight dollars, you’d have to be crazy to pass it up.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Masterful recording which belies the almost ridiculous price.
By Amanda Bartels
For me, Ozawa and Tchaikovsky go together like fish and chips. Ozawa’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Viktoria Mullova and the Boston Symphony is my favourite; this rendering of the 5th Symphony is equally enjoyable. Ozawa conducts the symphony at a lively tempo but at the same time giving time for quiet reflection in all four movements, and his changes of pace are quite masterful.
The first movement is played in a traditionally slow tempo. Ozawa’s timing is 14.44, close to Solti’s with the Chicago Symphony but nowhere near as breakneck as Daniel Gatti’s 12.46. The Andante’s clarinet theme is sonorous and almost funereal, and the march follows at a similar pace, allowing the strings to contrast and build intensity nicely with a sweet and poignant restatement of the motif. The pizzicato is delicate, the waltz balletic and the brass fanfares restrained, giving the entire movement a wistful quality, emphasized by the haunting and lovely double basses which bring the movement to an unresolved and doubting close.
The second movement opens with the famous horn solo, and the soloist really draws it out with great tenderness and melancholy and a very sweet tone. This is my favourite horn solo of all the 5th recordings I have. The emotion is really brought out here, but Ozawa never allows it to get away from him into mawkishness. The oboe introduces the counterpoint quietly and the orchestra gradually takes it up in full. Ozawa varies the pace without rushing or awkward changes, and builds the intensity in a measured way towards the climax, allowing the brass to drop in the Fate theme almost as a thunderclap. You can feel the audience hold their breath. A very dramatic moment, as Tchaikovsky meant it to be, and also very sad. The end of the movement has a contrasting pensive and very pictorial quality.
Ozawa keeps a firm hand on the pacing and intensity of the waltz, preventing the third movement from being a happy one despite the overtly positive character of the theme. Doubt, feelings of bittersweet joy, and even irony prevail throughout. You wonder if Tchaikovsky ever felt true happiness, or thought he deserved to. It’s an intensely personal passage which seems to alternate between happy and sad, as though neither emotion is free from the other.
The last movement opens with great grandeur and majesty, and the introduction is extended and processional. The movement is busy, introducing new mottoes and different variations which are all kept bubbling away nicely until the climax and false ending which are triumphant but again contain elements of irony. Fate’s theme appears again in melodramatic fashion with much drama and narrative. The coda is lively and triumphant, but leaves room for the overall doubting nature of the symphony to prevail.
I can’t help contrasting this wonderful interpretation of Ozawa’s with Herbert von Karajan’s DVD recording of the 5th with the Vienna Philharmonic, which is a tedious, unsympathetic and self-glorifying mess.
The 1812 symphony which follows is almost like an anticlimax. I’m not a fan of this piece so can’t critique it properly, perhaps other reviewers will provide better insights.
Ozawa doesn’t overdo Tchaikovsky, he allows great emotion without descending into tragedy, and allows his audience their own insights into Tchaikovsky’s music as well. The clarity of the recording is excellent and well-balanced. Overall a very enjoyable performance which made me feel I had re-discovered the 5th all over again. And the price is almost ridiculous.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
One of the better Tchaikovsky 5ths around, in a crowded field
By Alan Majeska
There are many recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony 5 in E minor on the market: I believe it is the most recorded Tchaikovsky symphony today, along with Symphony 4 in F minor, and 6 in B minor, “Pathetique.” Because of so many recordings, making a choice without reading a review on line or in a magazine or journal can be bewildering. There are recordings of Tchaikovsky 5 by (off the top of my head): Bernstein/New York (Sony and DG); Ormandy/Philadelphia (Sony, RCA, Delos); Wit/Polish National (Naxos); Monteux/Boston (RCA); Bohm/London (DG); Markevitch/London (Philips); Ashkenazy/Philharmonia (Decca); Previn/Royal Philharmonic (Telarc); Pletnev/Russian National (DG); Karajan/Berlin (EMI, DG: 2 different recordings);
Karajan/Vienna (DG); Abbado/Vienna (DG); Abbado/Chicago (Sony);
Szell/Cleveland (Sony); Muti/Philharmonia (EMI, or Brilliant Classics); Solti/Chicago (Decca); Litton/Bournemouth (Virgin); Abravanel/Utah (Vox); Sanderling/Berlin Symphony (Denon); Inbal/Frankfurt Symphony (Denon) and like another 30 others I can’t recall or think of at the moment. So Ozawa has alot of competition.
How does the Ozawa/Berlin recording here stand up in such a crowded field? Very well! Actually, I place Ozawa’s recording at the top of the field, along with Bernstein (Sony), Ormandy (Sony) and Wit (Naxos). Ozawa conducts with intensity and emphasizes a certain mysticism in the opening of I; the Allegro part of I fares well, and is very musical without being overly sentimental or schmaltzy. II has the proper intensity and longing without becoming maudlin; III is a relaxed waltz, a relief after I and II! IV starts with the triumphant “Fate” theme which appears in each of the 4 movements, and builds to a huge climax, ending in a blaze of glory. Ozawa’s total timing is about 45 minutes, and what he does with the 45 minutes is important: his phrasing, balances between parts, taking just the right amount of time to make a statement makes this one of the best Tchaikovsky 5s around today, and one of Ozawa’s best recordings.
The accompanying 1812 Overture is not on as high a level as the symphony, and is outclassed by other recordings: Bernstein/New York (Sony); Stokowski (Decca); Haitink/Concertgebouw (Philips: hard to find at present); Dorati/Detroit (Decca); Solti/Chicago (Decca); Karajan/Berlin (DG); Fiedler/Boston Pops (DG), among others.
Recorded in 1995, this is in DDD sound, and is balanced in all registers without a feeling that the sound was manipulated in the control room by the engineers. For the almost give-away price, about $5.00 (including shipping) from the least expensive Amazon offerings, this is a steal. Grab it before it’s no longer available.
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