While not challenging the classic Tchaikovsky Fifth’s by Mravinsky, Szell, Muti, Jansons, or the more recent Gatti, Riccardo Chailly’s 1983 Decca version offers a first-rate performance wherein he manages to wed passion to precision quite convicingly. The marching first movement generates the requisite excitement through relatively swift tempos, pointed rhythms, and sharp accents, while Chailly gives the Andante cantabile’s emotional outbursts their full due. After a delightfully balletic scherzo, Chailly turns the finale into a feisty romp, maintaining the taut phrasing throughout the coda and thereby avoiding turning the motto theme’s triumph into a maudlin display (as Bernstein did in his last recording).
However, the real star of this performance is the Vienna Philharmonic, which brings its luxuriant timbres and finely polished ensemble to every bar of Tchaikovsky’s score, with beautiful results (just as it did for Lorin Maazel a couple of decades earlier). Both Chailly and the orchestra are to be complimented for the performance’s exceptional textural clarity, well captured by Decca’s vivid, wide-ranging recording. Yes, it’s early digital, and a bit lacking in warmth. But even so (and despite the lack of a coupling), this is a fine rendition that would be welcome in most any Tchaikovsky collection, and Arkivmusic.com’s “on-demand” service makes it available once again.
