Partnered with his own orchestra, you’d expect to find
Vladimir Jurowski completely happy with this core Russian repertoire.
In the event I found these performances rather flat and uninteresting.
No. 4 benefits from very good playing but, for me at any rate,
rather bland direction. The LPO strings are full and authoritative,
the brass clear and unforced, and the winds perky and distinctive;
but Jurowski’s direction feels as though it has been telephoned
in. The brass fanfare at the opening doesn’t pin you to
the back of your seat in the way that you would hope, and the
main theme of the first movement just “happens”
without conveying the pain and stress that it should. Even as
it rises to its climax at the first movement’s coda, it
feels routine and lacks excitement, certainly when put next
to the likes of Jansons or Abbado. Likewise, I didn’t
feel any sense of depth in the Andantino. This slow movement
needs to convey something soulful and deeply Russian, particularly
in the string playing, but I sensed an almost complete lack
of empathy in the LPO strings. To be fair to them, they play
the notes very capably, but they lack direction and, thus, they
lack emotional impact. The Scherzo has a healthy dose of humour
to it, and the perky winds display a good dose of Slavonic cheek,
the only time the symphony sounds genuinely Russian. Even into
the finale, however, Jurowski seems to keep his players on the
leash until the coda when he lets them off and, to be fair,
the results are exciting when they come, perhaps all the more
valuable because so looked for. It’s a solid enough performance
of Tchaikovsky 4, but much less interesting than we have the
right to expect from someone of Jurowski’s standing and
reputation, especially when you compare his recording with established
greats like Abbado, Jansons or Gergiev.
The Fifth is better, but still not remarkable. For one thing,
the string tone is richer and more evocative, lending some much
needed feeling to the first movement’s second subject,
and they sound fantastic when the fate theme is transformed
at the opening of the finale. Jurowski’s choice of tempi
seems more apposite too, the first movement moving forward with
drama and urgency. This is a double-edged sword in the slow
movement, though: the faster tempo injects more drama into the
tutti passages but doesn’t give the gorgeous horn
theme enough space to breathe or to evolve naturally. The pacing
of the waltz is just right, however, as is most of the finale,
though the brass don’t come across particularly well here,
with the edge taken off the fanfares that punctuate the finale’s
action, perhaps a consequence of the recording.
The engineers retain applause at the end of the Fifth, but not
the Fourth. These performances may have been greeted with enthusiasm
in the RFH, but for me they don’t stand up to repeated
listening on record. Go to Jansons or Gergiev to really tap
into some Slavonic fire.
Simon Thompson
Masterwork Index: Tchaikovsky
4 ~~ Tchaikovsky
5
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski 