Everything today has a title, usually a “journey,” “project,” or “voyage.” It’s stupid, pointless, and to me, aggravating. Why not call it “The Tchaikovsky Ordeal,” or “Fiesta,” or “Extravaganza,” or “Operation?” I don’t get it. What we have, simply, is Tchaikovsky’s Sixth coupled to Romeo and Juliet. What is the harm in calling it what it is? OK, I’m done venting.
Bychkov already recorded the Pathétique for Philips. No one cared then, and one wonders by what theory Decca, which now owns Philips, felt anyone would care now. These are nice performances. The Czech Philharmonic plays beautifully; the sonics are warm and well balanced. Bychkov has some good ideas: the relatively swift first movement introduction, for example, or the characterful phrasing at the start of the recapitulation. The watchword is elegance rather than excitement, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Still, one misses the emotional excess, the nervous edge, the passion. You can’t help feeling that Bychkov lacks the requisite fire in his belly to bring the music fully to life. The third movement march is surprisingly prosaic, the finale beautiful but cool. There are some very well judged details, such as the perfectly controlled diminuendo in the stopped horns just before that appropriately threatening tam-tam stroke. But you admire these points intellectually; they seem not to have any emotional significance. This swift, light Romeo and Juliet offers much the same impression. Compare this to the classic Munch/Boston (RCA) in the same coupling, and you hear the difference in intensity immediately.
I get what’s happening here. Bychkov has been around for a while. He hasn’t had any significant attention on disc recently. He’s being positioned now as a “grand old man” of Russian music. The booklet note supports this, noting his “lifelong dedication to Tchaikovsky’s music.” We are promised interpretations of great wisdom, a new standard. It’s all puffery. Actually, Bychkov has never been an especially powerful proponent of Russian composers. I vividly remember him conducting a live program consisting of the Beethoven and Shostakovich Fifth Symphonies. The Beethoven was terrific; the Shostakovich, not so much. I wonder what, if anything, he’s really great at, and if we’ll ever have the chance to find out.
