Christoph Eschenbach presents the Tchaikovsky Fourth’s opening fanfare in a grand, stately manner that brings to mind the triumphal march from Verdi’s Aida. It’s impressive, but not gripping in the way Riccardo Muti’s was in his 1990s recording with this same orchestra. Indeed, comparison with Muti reveals an entirely different sort of interpretation–the Italian maestro offering urgency and passion, while Eschenbach takes a more sober, Germanic view, with rock-solid tempos and somewhat restrained phrasing throughout.
However, unlike Tchaikovsky’s Fifth, which Eschenbach and the Philadelphians performed handsomely in their previous Ondine recording (type Q9917 in Search Reviews), Symphony No. 4 requires more than just beautiful playing to make its effect. And the playing is beautiful indeed, with the Philadelphia woodwinds earning special mention for their liveliness and rich tonal color, while the brass sound polished and powerful in the outer movements. But Eschenbach’s reading is too well-behaved, a quality only emphasized by his measured pacing. To be sure, Bernstein took even slower tempos in his last New York Philharmonic recording, but he varied these as the moment demanded, and the emotional temperature was always high.
There are some bright moments in Eschenbach’s rendition–the coda of the first movement works up a nice head of steam, while the climactic return of the fanfare in the finale is quite arresting. But these don’t really compensate for the dull, dragging Andante and the paint-by-numbers first-movement development. The stereo SACD reveals impressive detail–you can clearly hear the piccolo in the finale and the almost always inaudible triangle at the close. For audiophiles at least, this recording surely will hold interest.
The recording is less impressive for The Seasons selections, where the piano sound is lacking in bass. However, Eschenbach’s reading is every bit as probing as was that of “January-June” on the earlier Tchaikovsky Fifth disc. Overall, this is an interesting release that’s sadly not as compelling as we’ve heard previously from these same forces.
