After a moderately festive Capriccio espagnol and an elegant and gloomy rendition of Sibelius’ somber Valse Triste, we’re presented with the promise of a powerful and searching account of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. Conductor Vakhtang Jordania isn’t the least bit embarrassed by the score’s emotional histrionics, though he undergirds them with a solid sense of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic structure. The first movement has a crisp, almost classical flow that bends for the intense climaxes. The horn solo in the Andante fairly sings, while Jordania’s fluid pacing gives the passionate secondary theme room to wail. Unfortunately, this performance flags in the finale. The Russian Federal Orchestra, which up to this point has been playing on a consistently high level, seems to have lost its focus, with instances of ragged ensemble and bland tonal production from the winds. In any event, this turns out to be an almost-recommendable version–however, unless you want this particular concert program, there’s a much better all-Russian performance available from Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic. Surprisingly, the sound on this Angelok1 production is not significantly superior to Deutsche Grammophon’s 1961 recording.
