Also available on Blu-ray

Jean-Christophe Maillot has re-worked Swan Lake with the writer Jean Rouaud (1990 Prix Goncourt winner) to bring a new drama to this pillar of the classic repertoire. This new adaptation, filmed in a special studio-setting at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, brings a modern-day relevance to the timeless story of Siegfried and Odette. Designed by leading visual artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest. with costumes by Philippe Guillotel, and performed to a specially conceived and mastered soundtrack of Tchaikovsky's score performed by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, directed by Leonard Slatkin. the production has been hailed as 'outstanding' (Le Figaro), while the Jerusalem Post asserted 'Swan Lake will never be the same after the tempestous Lac'.

Jean-Christophe Maillot LAC After Swan Lake

Her Majesty The Night - Bernice Coppieters
The White Swan - Anja Behrend
The Black Swan - April Ball
The Prince - Stephan Bourgond
The King - Alvaro Prieto
The Queen - Mimoza Koike
The Prince’s Confidant - Jeroen Verbruggen
The Archangel of Darkness 1 - Asier Uriagereka
The Archangel of Darkness 2 - Asier Edeso
The Five Candidates / The Conceited Woman - Simone Webster
The Indifferent Pretender - Gaëlle Riou
The Libertine 1 - Anjara Ballesteros
The Libertine 2 - Noelani Pantastico
The Insatiable Woman - Maude Sabourin

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Jean-Christophe Maillot, choreographer and lighting designer
Ernest Pignon-Ernest, set designer
Philippe Guillotel, costume designer
Samuel Thery, lighting designer

Music:
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky

Recorded live at Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, 2013

Bonus:
- Cast Gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 anamorphic
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 93 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

This is the fifth installment of the SWR Classic series dedicated to Hans Rosbaud. It contains Tchaikovsky's symphonies no. 4 and 5 - the only ones Rosbaud has recorded for the SWR. Especially no. 5 can be regarded as a reference recording along other famous interpretations. "He is not only a virtuoso pianist, but has more or less mastered nearly all orchestral instruments. That puts him in a position to provide the individual members of the orchestra with helpful advice, which-nowadays- hardly any conductor is able to do. As these qualities go along with striving for the ideal, a rare capacity for enthusiasm as well as with an iron will he does not hesitate to impose, Hans Rosbaud is an inestimable and somehow indispensable institution." (Bernhard Sekles, Rosbaud's former professor of composition)

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, TH 5 (Recorded 1954)

Lately, we are becoming increasingly aware of the generation of Russian (or Soviet) composers who came between the young moderns Prokofiev and Shostakovich and the post-moderns Gubaidulina, Denisov, and Schnittke. Composers such as Weinberg, Tischenko, and Boris Tchaikovsky were among those heavily influenced by Shostakovich and, while that influence is loud and clear, each of them seemed to absorb a slightly different aspect of the master’s style: Tischenko replicated his edgy sarcasm; Weinberg tapped into the “Jewish” Shostakovich, with its humor and pain; and Boris Tchaikovsky is perhaps the most interesting of all, because he seemed to progress from a sweet, melancholy lyricism—the Russian soul that united Shostakovich with Mussorgsky—to a multifaceted armory which included post-expressionist dissonance and post-modern irony. All these composers made stylistic journeys throughout their careers (inevitably) but, as far as recordings go, we “serious record collectors” are not yet in a position to fully chart those journeys. There are still too many gaps. Nevertheless, in the case of Boris Tchaikovsky (1925–1996), we are fortunate to have two releases of his music, each of which covers a wide chronological period: the recent Hyperion issue of works for string or chamber orchestra (CDA 67413) and this Naxos issue.

The earliest piece here is the Clarinet Concerto of 1957. Its three short movements comprise a gentle moderato in 9/8, lyrical and wandering, followed by a soft moto perpetuo based around rapid scale passages for the soloist, and lastly, a movement marked allegro, in which the clarinet dances along in a sprightly, jazzy scherzando. Overall, this work has a soft-edged quality very like that of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, premiered in the same year (which also uses scale-based themes), and a similar lyrical impulse drives Tchaikovsky’s charming String Sinfonietta of 1953, heard on the Hyperion disc.

Fourteen years later, the composer seems to have lost that innocence, although it is clearly the same hand at work. His Piano Concerto begins harshly with a strong repeated G above middle C from the soloist, and the grim toccata never lets up. This is uncompromising stuff: pointed, almost defiant. Of course, Tchaikovsky had to function under a repressive regime but, even so, I don’t think his music is some sort of internalized autobiography (as Shostakovich’s entire output is simplistically regarded as being). Rather, what we are hearing here is the liberating influence of young composers like Schnittke and the angular late works of Stravinsky, which were at last becoming known in the Soviet Union. The Piano Concerto’s five movements are indicated by Roman numerals. Movement III plays with varied repetitions of a simple motive in the piano against a rocking accompaniment. It could be a lullaby, but a non-committal and oft-interrupted one. The going becomes fiercer in the following movements, IV and V. A snare-drum makes its presence felt, bursting in with an explosive attack that the piano imitates in fourths. The interval of the fourth dominates the thematic material all the way to the work’s sad close: while the bluster finally wears itself out, the sense of unease remains. This is one of those works where you take a breath when it’s all over.

What these two concertos have in common is Tchaikovsky’s individual and fastidious ear. His instrumental colors are employed the same way a painter uses “highlights”: for example, notice the exposed solo French horn throughout the piano concerto, adding a staccato passage here and a nasal muted utterance there—and played on this disc by a real old-style Russian hornist with a fat tone; at first I thought it was a high trombone. Tchaikovsky’s string-writing is terse and rarely used as a harmonic “wash.” The composer does, however, use strings for that purpose in the 1974 song cycle Signs of the Zodiac (a practical help to the vocal soloist, no doubt). A cycle of four songs, plus orchestral prelude, for soprano, harpsichord, and strings, Signs of the Zodiac is a setting of Russian poems in chronological order from the mid 19th century to the late 20th century. All four are in some manner concerned with death and regeneration. The string writing in this work is full and expressive, with the harpsichord typically used for color rather than for its historical connotations. The instrument turns up often in Russian music of this period, notably in Weinberg’s Symphony No. 7 and several works by Shchedrin and Denisov.

I have listened to this magnificent song cycle many times now and found new wonders with each hearing. Naxos supplies translations of the poetry, too. Bravo! Tchaikovsky’s setting mirrors the quixotic changes of mood within the poems—sardonic, introverted, contemplative, or emotive—while, at the same time, developing a series of musical themes first presented in the prelude. Not since Britten’s song cycles have structure and mood-painting coexisted with such mastery. Listen, for example, to the poisonous little dissonances in the overtly straightforward accompaniment to Alexander Blok’s poem “Far Out” (about how cozily we are protected from life’s vicissitudes once we are inside our coffin—such a Russian idea!) Or the fourth song, Nicolai Zabolotsky’s “Signs of the Zodiac”: it begins with the simplest, folklike theme in the harpsichord’s treble to accompany what appears to be a light-hearted poem about life, but, as the poetry gets darker, Tchaikovsky’s strings become increasingly chromatic and restless. In the final stanza—every living thing eventually sleeps beneath the earth, even potatoes, and so must we—the composer achieves a synthesis of Shostakovich-like irony (matching the tone of the poet) with the hard-won finality of a blissful major chord. Shostakovich comes to mind occasionally in this work, namely his Fourteenth Symphony, but Tchaikovsky is more overt, less despairing.

Recording is close-up in the house style, but not uncomfortably so. In fact, the acoustic suits the music, particularly in emphasizing the aggressive side of the Piano Concerto. Performances are excellent from all concerned. Soprano Yana Ivanilova has a lovely voice; she sings with total commitment and pure tone, and the Slavic vibrato is always under control. At Naxos’s price, every music-lover should give this CD a try. (PS: The Clarinet Concerto, Chamber Symphony, and Signs of the Zodiac are performed on another new release, with Eduard Serov conducting the St. Petersburg CO, which I have not yet heard. Also, Albany has released two volumes of a Boris Tchaikovsky edition, showcasing solo piano and chamber music. Evidently his time has come!)

FANFARE: Phillip Scott

Boris Tchaikovsky, a pupil of Shostakovich, enjoyed a long and illustrious career. Rostropovich once remarked: 'I consider him to be a genius... one day people will come to know that two great Russian composers bore the same name'.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Includes work(s) by Boris Tchaikovsky. Ensembles: Volgograd Philharmonic Orchestra, Saratov Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Conductors: Eduard Serov, Kirill Ershov.

Tchaikovsky miniatures intimately played.

A Tribute to Tchaikovsky is a very attractive CD compilation of short, tuneful pieces highly characteristic of the composer. I suppose it’s not what you would call great piano music, rather a collection of pleasant miniatures that delight the ear. Mr Feltsman calls it intimate salon music and that’s a very good description. The general style is very much in the same vein as Tchaikovsky’s more well-known work The Seasons; if that appeals to you so will the contents of this disc. Most of the items presented here don’t plumb any great musical depths but it’s all very melodic and charming. The Thème original et variations opens the recital in splendid fashion - there’s clearly an innate natural feeling for the idiom, sparkling technique and the playing is beautifully understated as befits this kind of music. There are some similarities to Schumann in this opening piece as the sleeve-note suggests but it’s also unmistakably by Tchaikovsky. The final flourish is tremendously exciting. Two minor masterpieces bring the disc to a conclusion, the Méditation Op. 72 No. 5 with its memorable opening theme and dramatic central climax and the enchanting, Liszt-like Chant élégiaque Op. 72 No.14. The rest of the programme really does enter the world of salon music. There are echoes of Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Liszt to be heard throughout this disc. It would be harsh to suggest that the works contained here are stylised or derivative. The recital is well planned with notable mood-changes from piece to piece - romances, waltzes and tender nocturnes all have their place alongside more lively, technically challenging numbers.
 
Vladimir Feltsman performs the whole programme in a gentle introverted fashion and this approach sounds absolutely right. The playing is first rate with tasteful rubato and excellent control of dynamics; every detail and nuance shines through. This isn’t really concert hall music as such and at no time does the playing become hectoring, over-emotional or virtuosic for the sake of it. It’s all very natural and enjoyable. The pianist’s programme notes state that the pieces in this recording were selected to be heard as a single composition. I personally fail to make any such connection but that’s not really important. What matters here is that we have a marvellous recital on our hands and it deserves to be successful.
 
The piano sound is good rather than outstanding. It’s typical of many modern digital recordings, sounding a bit top-heavy and thin and lacking a true, deep resonant bottom end. It doesn’t have the thrilling resonance of a live concert grand. At least the image is set slightly back, making it a comfortable experience and the music-making has a natural impact. This disc is very much for Tchaikovsky enthusiasts and lovers of tuneful, romantic piano music. I hope nobody is put off by the CD cover which features a rather grumpy looking Feltsman. The image doesn’t quite sit well with the tuneful gems included on this disc.
 
-- John Whitmore, MusicWeb International

UKRAINE AND UZBEKISTAN



The Places
Starting in St Petersburg, once the capital of Russia under Peter the Great, our tour takes us to Ukraine and to Uzbekistan before returning first to Moscow and then to St Petersburg and the famous Marïinsky Theatre, where Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker were first performed.


The Music
The Russian composer Tchaikovsky had a mastery of the smaller forms demanded by ballet, with its series of relatively short scenes. Excerpts from his three famous ballet scores, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Nutcracker, provide the music to accompany a tour of Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.


Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 59 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

First released in 2006, Julia Fischer’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, alongside other gems by this composer has proven to be a reference recording. It not only highlights Fischer’s exceptional skill, but also her unique congeniality with the late Yakov Kreizberg, who leads the Russian National Orchestra and accompanies her on the piano on Souvenir d’un lieu cher. After having been re-released in 2016, as well as on vinyl in 2019, this legendary recording now returns in a more affordable Stereo version. One of the world's leading violinists, Julia Fischer is a versatile musician also known for her extraordinary abilities as a concert pianist, a chamber musician and a violin teacher. Julia Fischer holds numerous awards including the Federal Cross of Merit, the Bavarian Maximilian Order, the Gramophone Award and the German Culture Prize. She plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1742) as well as an instrument made by Phillipp Augustin (2018).

While we associate Tchaikovsky with music of virtuoso power and difficulty, sweeping up audiences with the fire of the Violin Concerto and First Piano Concerto, he also applied himself to music for the ever-growing market of amateur music-makers during his lifetime. Like many other great composers, he knew how to write for musicians of moderate ability without compromising or simplifying the individuality of his voice as a composer. Also like many great composers, regularly finding himself in grim financial prospects, he tapped into a reliable source of income by supplying publishers who had a seemingly limitless market for music composed with amateur musicians in mind, especially by the acknowledged masters of their day. Both of the cycles recorded here by Yuan Sheng were produced for this market, comprising short pieces, most of them quite simple on the page, but thoroughly imbued with quintessentially Tchaikovskian qualities.

As part of his Piano Classics discography, Yuan Sheng recorded The Seasons – Tchaikovsky’s best known solo piano cycle – in 2017. The album was widely welcomed for its serious approach to music which is too often treated trivially. Likewise, he invests these cycles with an authentic delicacy of touch and gravity of expression – in Tchaikovsky, tears are never very far away.

The second half of the 19th century witnessed a proliferation of significant works for strings alone including the Serenades for Strings by Dvorák (1875) and Tchaikovsky (1880) and Grieg’s Holberg Suite (1884), followed by a trio of works for strings in 1892 from Suk, Wolf and Elgar. Tchaikovsky’s music for string instruments is notable for its range and consistency – and this culminates in the magnificent Violin Concerto and one of the greatest works ever conceived for string orchestra, his Serenade of 1880. Earlier, in 1873, Tchaikovsky wrote incidental music to Ostrovsky’s three-act drama The Snow Maiden. Though he abandoned the idea of adapting it into an opera, when Rimsky-Korsakov composed one on the same subject, he retained affection for this little-known work. Judging by the beautiful Melodrama of Act II, its neglect is unjustified. Eight years before that, as a 25-year-old student at the St Petersburg Conservatory he composed a String Quartet in B flat. If, as some authorities believe, it had four movements, only one has survived. Such is the inner power of the music that it takes on a more expressive hue when performed by a full string orchestra as on this recording.

Towards the end of 1884, the Moscow Society of Artists wished to honor veteran actor Ivan Samarin’s 50-year artistic career, and Tchaikovsky enthusiastically contributed a musical entr’acte. Tchaikovsky’s publisher Jurgenson persuaded the composer the music was worthy of publication, under the title Elegy, as Samarin died the year after the celebrations. When Tchaikovsky suddenly died near the end of 1893, the slow movement of his Third String Quartet was arranged for string orchestra by Glazunov for performance at his funeral service. Glazunov’s subtle and sympathetic arrangement of this fine music for full string orchestra honors his friend, the great composer, in truly noble fashion.

REVIEW:

This attractive program includes Tchaikovsky’s familiar Serenade for Strings along with four shorter works, the last of which, the Glazounov-arranged Andante Funebre e Doloroso from the Third Quartet, was played at Tchaikovsky’s funeral in 1893.

The chamber orchestra's playing is full and warm, rich in vibrato and expression. If you like Russian music played by native musicians (I’m thinking here of the old Leningrad Philharmonic, which became the St Petersburg Philharmonic in 1991) you’ll enjoy this. It’s some of Tchaikovsky’s most attractive music, richly played and beautifully recorded.

-- American Record Guide

With this final volume of their Tchaikovsky cycle, Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich complete their exploration of the Russian composer's symphonies. Symphony No. 3, also known as the "Polonaise" (1875), is notable as Tchaikovsky's only symphony composed in the major mode. It is followed by another Polish-inspired piece, the Polonaise that opens the third act of Eugene Onegin (1879), his opera based on Alexander Pushkin's novel of the same name. The program ends with a work commissioned by the city of Moscow for the coronation of Tsar Alexander III, the Festival Coronation March (1883).

Review

This is the fifth release in the survey of the Tchaikovsky numbered symphonies by Paavo Järvi and the Zurich Tonhalle-Orchester (it is not known if the Manfred symphony will follow). The series has been well received but I have not heard all the recordings and was disappointed by the orchestra’s lack of familiarity and feeling for this Russian Romantic music in the First Symphony. However, I should advise that this latest release shows more emotional affinity with Tchaikovsky and the standard of performance and recording in general makes this a very fine series, so this latest release should be an obligatory purchase for those who have already acquired the other CDs in this cycle.

I much admire Järvi’s Beethoven and Schumann symphonic cycles with his Bremen Kammerorkester and his interesting talks on the music included with the series. Apart from being an outstanding orchestral trainer, he is a distinguished interpreter of a wide repertoire and his surveys of that will be of great interest in coming seasons. He has that magical touch displayed by his father Neeme Järvi - the talent to get the best out of any ensemble, a gift not granted to every conductor.

Uniquely, Tchaikovsky’s Third is the only symphony in a major tonality and is perhaps the most popular of the composer’s early symphonies, particularly for its dance-like movements heralding the composer’s great ballets. Yet with its five movements it is often argued that it is more of an orchestral suite than a real symphony. If I had some misgivings about Järvi’s handling of the First Symphony, my doubts are dismissed by the opening bars of this ‘Polish’ symphony. From the start, it is clear that he has a feeling for this music. He brings out all the glorious Romanticism of the opening movement, Moderato assai (Tempo di marcia funebre), with the marvellous shift to allegro brillante, in which the woodwind and the brass departments of the orchestra reveal superb musicality. I particularly like the playing of the bassoonist Matthias Racz and the clarinettist Michael Reid in this movement, and the glorious strings are beautifully cushioned against the colourful wind playing.

The second movement, Alla tedesca (German style) is based on an Austrian/Moravian folk theme. It offers stunning playing between strings and woodwind in the waltz of the third, middle movement and the Scherzo is delightful; Järvi gives us all the magical charm of Tchaikovsky’s score, while in the Finale, yet another beautiful dance adorns the polonaise that allowed August Mann to give its name to the symphony in one of his Proms concerts at the Crystal Palace in London. In all, this is an excellent interpretation and performance of Tchaikovsky’s symphony embellished by a superb recording.

Another polonaise decorates the dance from Eugene Onegin, which is just as well performed, as is the other ‘filler’, the rarely performed Festival Coronation March with the theme of the Danish National Anthem quoted in the Russian Anthem ‘God Save the Tsar’. The booklet notes are in English and German with informative articles on the music, the conductor and orchestra, and a useful list of orchestra members. This disc is an essential addition to those collecting Järvi’s Tchaikovsky cycle, and very much worth considering as a one-off purchase.

--MusicWeb International (Gregor Tassie)

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich continue their journey through Tchaikovsky’s symphonic works. This fourth volume opens with the Symphony no.1 (1866), subtitled ‘Winter Daydreams’. He wrote his first essay in the symphonic genre just after his appointment to a teaching post at the Moscow Conservatory, and it earned him lasting success. Indeed, he retained a lifelong attachment to the piece, asserting that it was superior in substance to all his more mature symphonic works. The program continues with one of the Russian composer's most famous pieces, the Capriccio italien (1880). Conceived as a musical travelogue, this symphonic poem is a genuine tribute to Italian folk melodies. The triptych offered by this volume is rounded off by the Waltz from the opera Eugene Onegin (1879).

Classical Music