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Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4 / Gergiev, Wiener Philharmoniker

Release Date: 03/08/2005
Label: Philips Catalog #: 4756316 Spars Code: DDD
Composer:  Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Conductor:  Valery Gergiev Orchestra/Ensemble:  Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Number of Discs: 1
Recorded in: Stereo Length: 0 Hours 43 Mins.

In No 4, recorded live in the Musikverein, the performance again captures the qualities JS found so magnetic. The opening fanfare compels our attention, but the start of the main Moderato con anima with its lilting compound time is surprisingly relaxed – when set against the Jansons version – yet very convincing. Typically, Gergiev raises the tension when the balletic waltz-rhythms develop into the movement’s big climaxes.

Here, and throughout the performance, Gergiev’s subtle tempo changes sound totally idiomatic and spontaneous. The oboe theme at the start of the Andante slow movement is expressive rather than chilly, and leads to a satisfying broadening at the fortissimo peak, before the main theme returns delicately Read more decorated by the woodwind. The Vienna Philharmonic plainly love working with Gergiev, for the pizzicato playing is wonderfully taut in the Scherzo, with the ‘drunken peasant’ passage wittily pointed, while the finale culminates in a subtle accelerando in the closing bars of the coda.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [8/2005]
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