Editorial Reviews : These recordings by Evgeny Mravinsky and his Leningrad Philharmonic, taped in the autumn of 1960 while they were on tour in London, are among the absolute classics of the catalog. They are readings of hair-raising intensity--the finale of the Fourth is marked allegro con fuoco, and if you want to know what con fuoco means, all you have to do is listen for a moment. No one else has ever had the nerve, or the ability, to play the music this way. The treatment is very Russian: the extremes are more extreme, the passions more feverish, the melancholy darker, the climaxes louder. In that department, the development section of the first movement of the Pathètique has to be heard to be believed. The sound is remarkably good for the time, a little edgy in the loudest pages but wonderfully present, just like the performances themselves. --Ted Libbey
Buyer Reviews : Whenever I mention Mravinsky's name in the presence of my clarinet teacher, he takes a deep breath and utters in a reverent tone, 'He was a 100% musician down to the last hair on his body.' Every Mravinsky recording I've ever heard typifies this description. The results are always breathtking in its committment to the music and all the risks involved in accomplishing this feat.
One only needs to watch video footage of Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad PO on the video tape, 'Legendary Conductors of a Golden Age' to see all this. The orchestra follows every little gesture from the maestro even when the musical stakes are high.
These symphonies ask a lot from the musicians emotionally. The period when Tchaikovsky wrote these works were his most triumphant and simultaneously, his most tragic times, ultimately ending in his death. He was at his creative peak and was experiencing the rewards of this fruitful period. But at the same time, he was being persecuted for his homosexuality. Being as sick as he was didn't help him either. Everything from the score markings to the jarring juxtapositions of disparate emotions in these symphonies clearly reflect the state of Tchaikovsky's psychological state when those works were composed.
Mravinsky clearly understands the conditions in which Tchaikovsky wrote these masterpieces. No one captures the manic qualities of these works like Mravinsky does. At times, Mravinsky seems to do the following. He lets the orchestra loose like a wild stallion and after a while, he draws in the reins, regaining control with the complete faith that even when he's not in control, he really is. These moments produce astonishing results that adds to the pathos Tchaikovsky exhibits throughout his late works.
I was fortunate enough to see this orchestra twice under Mravinsky's successor, Yuri Temirkanov. They still embody the same qualities that I spoke of earlier. One cannot disagree that these uniquely Russian sounds were aural brush strokes Tchaikovsky had in mind when composing, not the slick, polished execution of orchestras like the great American powerhouses. Most definitely definitive recordings.
