Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet - Fantasy Overture - download (MP3 & FLAC)

“The virtues are self-evident: Dausgaard elicits some impressively accomplished and consistently bright-eyed playing, textures are sifted with watchful care...and his readings are abundantly musical, free of eccentricity and eschew any spurious expressive posturing...their innate good taste and sense of classical equilibrium never allowing the listener to forget for one moment Tchaikovsky's veneration of Mozart.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2013

“Tchaikovsky's textures are never problematically dense, but some of Dausgaard's tempi, especially his breakneck speed for the third-movement march, undermine the extra crispness the smaller-than-usual string section might have achieved.” The Guardian, 1st November 2012 ***

“What a good idea to couple Tchaikovsky's three fantasy overtures inspired by Shakespeare. José Serebrier writes an illuminating note on the genesis of each of the three, together with an analysis of their structure. He notes that once Tchaikovsky had established his concept of the fantasy overture in the first version of Romeo andJuliet in 1869 – slow introduction leading to alternating fast and slow sections, with slow coda – he used it again both in the 1812 Overture and Hamlet. The Tempest (1873) has similarly contrasting sections, but begins and ends with a gently evocative seascape, with shimmering arpeggios from strings divided in 13 parts.
It's typical of Serebrier's performance that he makes that effect sound so fresh and original. In many ways, early as it is, this is stylistically the most radical of the three overtures here, with sharp echoes of Berlioz in some of the woodwind effects. The clarity of Serebrier's performance, both in texture and in structure, helps to bring that out, as does a warm and analytical BIS recording.
Hamlet, dating from much later, is treated to a similarly fresh and dramatic reading, with Serebrier bringing out the yearningly Russian flavour of the lovely oboe theme representing Ophelia. He may not quite match the thrusting power of his mentor, Stokowski, but he's not far short, and brings out far more detail.
Serebrier is also meticulous in seeking to observe the dynamic markings in each score.
Those in The Tempest are nothing if not extravagant – up to a fortissimo of five fs in the final statement of the love theme – yet Serebrier graduates the extremes with great care. Highly recommended.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“[the finale] has balletic energy and is refreshingly free from vulgarity, In Romeo and Juliet the orchestra is superbly responsive, shaping the love melody with nobility and warmth...The recording has a wonderful sense of depth, with the handover from horns to trombones at the opening of the symphony given thrilling immediacy in SACD sound.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 ***

“Perhaps the most remarkable things about these performances is their straightforwardness...[Pletnev] is without any quirks or deviations and leads the Russian National Orchestra in passionate and powerful performances, often with tempos quicker than the norm...and conjures compellingly direct accounts that are full-blooded, subtle and finely detailed.” International Record Review, May 2011

“Pletnev understands the text [of the Fourth Symphony] completely but he refuses to be drawn emotionally...[He] makes much of the oscillating rhythm which horns and harp develop in the love music [of Romeo & Juliet] and his sumptuous uncovering of harmony at the climax is richly satisfying.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011

“Christoph Eschenbach's approach to the Serenade is big and sumptuous...he [hits] the heights of the love theme [in Romeo & Juliet] with aristocractic aplomb and he always reminds you what a fabulously organised symphonic movement this is.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 *****

“In Francesca da Rimini Eschenbach and his meticulously prepared band ride the Allegro vivo whirlwind with prodigious skill...[the Ewald quintets] are delectably tuneful and idiomatically crafted morsels, delivered with wonderful poise and very real affection by the Philadelphia's top-flight principals.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2010

“The best music, in the Entr'actes, comes from elsewhere - namely a much more distinguished stage project, The Snow Maiden, the alla tedesca of the Third Symphony and the rather lovely Elegy in Honour of Ivan Samarin. Jurowski seems to care here especially for the latter. The rest is played with spirit by a Russian National Orchestral sounding in increasingly better shape - it still has some way to go - and Ophelia's music is affectingly sung by the lovely lyric soprano Tatiani Monogarova.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 ****

“Vladimir Jurowski’s highly focused conducting makes Tchaikovsky’s overture and incidental music for ‘Hamlet’ leap off the page. A galvanised Russian orchestra displays blistering strings, pleasingly punchy woodwind…a must-buy disc.” The Independent on Sunday, 14th December 2008

“Think you know your Tchaikovsky? Think again…..Hamlet gives us a glimpse into a composer with a theatre director’s sensibility – he knows when to lend urgency to the players without overwhelming them, the music heightening but never upstaging….Jurowski and his forces offer playing of drive and passion.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2009 CD of the Month

“At first glance this might look like the traditional pairing of Tchaikovsky's two fantasy overtures – but you might have known that Vladimir Jurowski was likely to be more inquisitive than that. In 1891 a complete stage performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet took place in St Peters- burg with music by Tchaikovsky. His fantasy overture, written for a charity event three years earlier, was heard again, this time filleted to roughly half its original length and reduced in scoring to the requirements of a theatre orchestra.
The results are fascinating, not least for the ingenuity of Tchaikovsky's cut-and-paste job, jump-cutting now with renewed urgency. Of course, one misses the symphonic weight of the original. The effect is more muted here, the scale diminished so as not to pre-empt that moment in the actual drama. But Ophelia is more than ever at the heart of the piece, her plaintive oboe melody very much dominating this version and exquisitely played – as is everything – by the Russian National Orchestra, whose refinement has opened a new chapter in Russian orchestral playing. Ophelia's first entrance, incidentally, is none other than the graceful 'Alla tedesca' second movement of Tchaikovsky's Third Symphony, the Polish.
How's that for recycling? And there's more with the Prelude to Act 4 scene 1, a poignant string elegy turned on wistful arabesques. That is one of the more substantial of the 16 clips and touchingly foreshadows Ophelia's tragedy. She – the lovely Tatiana Monogarova – has a twopart Mad Scene or 'melodrama' where the spoken lines lend a stark reality to her delusions.
Those who know the original 1869 version of the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture will be aware that it's another example of how much more interesting, though not necessarily better, a composer's first thoughts can be. Fascinating is the earlier premonition of the great love theme and the way Tchaikovsky quite literally tosses it about in the more radical and certainly more violent development of the fight music: all gone in the revision! Jurowski savours the differences and makes capital of the anomalies. Very exciting.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010