Does Pletnev even like Tchaikovsky? It doesn’t seem so. He recorded perhaps the dullest ever complete symphony cycle for DG, and now here he goes again. Fleet tempos promise excitement but fail to deliver, because the louder the music gets the heavier it becomes, yet without the extremes of dynamics and intensity. The first movement’s second subject gets tossed off with impatience; the development section stubbornly fails to build. The second movement is attractive, the scherzo brilliant in its outer sections yet totally humorless and rushed in its central trio. The finale lacks that healthy vulgarity that justifies its folk-inspired thematic references. Throughout the strings play very cleanly, as if this is all that matters.
In Romeo and Juliet Pletnev does make an effort to shape the love music sensuously, and he succeeds rather well. But again, the feud music has no punch, and the tragic climax has all of the intensity of a toothpaste commercial. The sonics, like the performances, are clean, dry, and lacking in both brilliance on top and richness down below. Given the ready availability of many, many excellent performances of both of these works, it is impossible to recommend this new release, however well played in the abstract, with any enthusiasm.
