I didn’t come to this set with high expectations but was
pleasantly surprised because the playing is quite lovely. The
principal joy is the Third Orchestral Suite, one of Tchaikovsky’s
most under-rated works. Marriner treats it with all the grandeur
and scale that this music deserves, building to a magnificent
account of the extended finale, surely Tchaikovsky’s most
thoroughly worked set of variations. The various solo sections
are taken very effectively by the Stuttgart players and the final
explosion of vigour is most infectious. This set is worth acquiring
for this alone, and the super-budget price most definitely helps.
The other suites are just as distinguished. The contrapuntal
seriousness of No. 1 can sometimes feel a little wearing, but
it is polished and refined here, with the correct balance of
light-heartedness in the sparky final marches. No. 2 is as playful
as the movement headings suggest, while the horns really shine
in the scherzo.
Mozartiana is affectionate and warm in
the first three movements, and well judged in the variations
of the finale. The whole is captured in the warmest sound where
every detail is in place and there is a gorgeous bloom surrounding
the instruments. All told, this is lovely music, beautifully
played and shaped by a conductor who holds a real affection for
it. If you want a super-budget edition of the Suites this is
as good a one as you’ll find, and altogether more satisfying
than Stefan Sanderling’s Irish recording on Naxos.
The tone poems aren’t quite up to this level, mainly due
to misjudged pacing. The opening
lugubre of
Francesca
da Rimini is fantastically intense, but then the storm music
is too slow to maintain tension while the love music is that
little touch too fast to flourish. Similarly, the fight sequences
in
Romeo and Juliet are too slow and Friar Laurence’s
music plods, though the coda has a lovely valedictory glow.
Capriccio
Italien is perfectly respectable, but really these three
works should only be seen as a bonus filler to the suites and
I’d clearly favour this release for anyone who wants to
acquire those.
Simon Thompson
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart/Sir
Neville Marriner (suites) 
