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Peter Ilyich
TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Violin Concerto in D (1878) [35:53] Sérénade mélancolique for violin and orchestra (1875)
[9:27] Valse-Scherzo for violin and orchestra (1877) [7:46] Souvenir d’un lieu cher (Souvenir of a beloved
place) for violin and piano (1878) [15:54]*
Julia Fischer
(violin) * Yakov Kreizberg (piano)
Russian National Orchestra/Yakov Kreizberg
rec. Souvenir: MCO Studio 5, Hilversum, April 2006;
DZZ Studio 5, Moscow, April 2006 PENTATONE
PTC5186095 [68:25]
First,
a word about the recorded sound of this release. This is
a Hybrid Multichannel Super Audio recording. I listened to
it on our Bang and Olufsen four column speaker system. I
was impressed with the natural concert hall/recital room
sound. Soloist and orchestra are well balanced in a warm
and spacious acoustic with good solid bass and clarity and
firmness even in the loudest perorations.
The
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto is one of the most famous in
the repertory; and one of the most often recorded. Yet the
talent of Julia Fischer is so awesome, her reading of this ‘old
warhorse’ so fresh, so full of fire and vitality and wistful
tenderness, and articulation, a model of clarity, that I
unhesitatingly place it up with the finest interpretations
including those by Heifetz, Milstein, Stern, Chung, Vengerov
and Repin to name but a few. Kreizberg’s support excites
and beguiles.
All
these works, as you will note from the header, were composed
within a short time frame, in the late 1870s; the Sérénade
mélancolique, of 1875, being the earliest. Tchaikovsky’s
own comments sum up its character: “Melancholic passion,
hopeless yearning and bitter thoughts of death seem to us
to be unreal, false, almost kitschy in the dragging waltz
disguise. And yet the music of the Sérénade is so
simple and natural, so vividly true to life.” The work is
wintry and one can discern something of a pre-echoing of
the style of Sibelius. Fischer rises with élan to the technical
difficulties of the little-known showpiece, Valse-Scherzo,
a demanding Allegro. It is coy when the furioso sparks
do not fly. Altogether great fun, a little gem.
Yakov
Kreizberg puts down his baton and goes to the piano to partner
Julia Fischer with brio and sensitivity in Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir
d’un lieu cher. Its opening ‘Méditation’, developed from
the original Andante of the Violin Concerto - replaced by
the ‘Canzonetta’ - is yearningly lyrical and passionately
dramatic. The ‘devilish’ ‘Scherzo’ rushes headlong with a
sort of impatient sweetness at its centre but it is the concluding ‘Mélodie’ that
lingers in the memory, another of Tchaikovsky’s lovely melodies.
Fischer’s
awesome talent makes for a performance that can compare with
the best in a crowded list of recordings of this very popular
concerto. Imaginative, intelligent programming further lifts
this album.
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