If you want a performance of Tchaikovsky’s first truly great symphony that goes for the jugular to the exclusion of all other qualities, this powerful recording will do it. The lengthy first movement’s turbulent episodes are breathtaking in their cumulative bleakness, leading to a slow movement much darker than the “melancholy” of which Tchaikovsky himself wrote. The finale, where other conductors find peasant celebration, is unusually tense and driven. The performance is all passion and agony.
The Vienna Philharmonic responds well to this approach. Gergiev keeps the strings from becoming lush, producing a lean, powerful, and often not very pretty sound. Their work in the famous pizzicato scherzo is remarkable, as Gergiev finds a demonic element where others play it as a light interlude. There are some rough spots, acceptable for a “live” performance, and the sound is very good, with a slight tendency to clot in the middle range when the forte marks pile up.
Why, then, is this not rated “10” for performance? Because, Tchaikovsky’s particular greatness also was due to beauty and elegance alongside the passion. Gergiev plays this piece as if it were Mahler’s Sixth, all too often abandoning beauty. The strings sob and scream more than sing, and if anyone’s melodies should sing out, Tchaikovsky’s should. I have to admit that on one of my hearings of this disc I found Gergiev’s approach tremendously exciting. But usually I was put off; I didn’t want to feel like I was being gripped by the throat and screamed at. Yevgeny Mravinsky, in his Deutsche Grammophon performances with the Leningrad Philharmonic, retains both excitement and beauty. His performances of all three late symphonies never bludgeon the listener as this one can. And at 42 minutes, this disc is rather short measure.
