I am impressed by this performance but slightly bemused that a comparatively
small orchestra should not only record this repertoire but also achieve
such apparent success in, of all places, the Mariinsky in St Petersburg,
with a performance of the symphony in particular. I can find no evidence
of the size of Tchaikovsky's orchestra when he gave the premiere in
St Petersburg in November 1888 so this all remains speculative.
The picturesquely named 'Arctic Philharmonic' is more sensibly called
the 'Nordnorsk Opera og Symfoniorkester AS' on their Norwegian website,
suggesting the influence of the marketing men on the choice of English
name. They were formed in 2009 by a combining of two chamber sized
groups: as they state themselves the "Bodø Sinfonietta and
Tromsø Chamber Orchestra as the core, supplemented by The Norwegian
Army Band Northern Norway and Landsdelsmusikerne i Nord-Norge".
I am hugely impressed that at a time when most of the world was cutting
cultural institutions the North Norway music world decided to form
a new symphony orchestra. Amazing, and a lesson to the rest of us
but, and this is the reason for my preamble, they do sound as if their
string body is below the strength usually encountered in Tchaikovsky
performances. My notes on the recordings are littered with comments
about an 'underweight' sound in that department. This could be viewed
as a back-handed compliment to the superb BIS engineering of Matthais
Spitzbarth. As always this company shows us how to record an orchestra
with clarity and spaciousness. The volume needs to be raised a notch
or two above usual for enough impact in the quiet passages.
The performance is excellent. The Andante introduction is taken
very slowly and the Allegro con anima very fast, I think even
faster than Mravinsky's classic accounts of 1956 and 1961 available
on DG. Fortunately the quality of these players is high enough for
there to be no loss of accuracy at this tempo. On the other hand the
big climaxes do reflect the comparatively lightweight sound. In comparing
any recording of this symphony with those of the Leningrad Philharmonic
and Mravinsky the other recordings always lose out. In the second
movement the woodwind soloists sound lovely and the movement suffers
less from thinner string tone. The third movement waltz is cleanly
phrased and sounds more balletic than usual. The finale was always
a Mravinsky show-stopper and the Arctic Philharmonic cannot match
his furious and precipitous attack. They come over as clipped and
precise in the allegro vivace, rather than urgent. The timpani
player is excellently enthusiastic here.
The long suite drawn from Swan Lake for his publisher in 1900,
long after the composer's death, is very good and one can hear the
lighter textures as a positive advantage is this lovely ballet score.
Dave Billinge
Previous review: Brian
Reinhart
Masterwork Index: Tchaikovsky
Symphony 5
[70:48] 
