Tchaikovsky's Suites
Tchaikovsky's Suite No 2
The Gramophone Choice
Suite No 2, Op 53. The Tempest, Op 18
Detroit Symphony Orchestra / Neeme Järvi
Chandos CHAN9454 (64‘ · DDD) Buy from Amazon
Tchaikovsky’s elusive blend of instrumental precision and free-flowing thematic fantasy in the Second Suite meets its match in the Detroit/Järvi partnership: the conductor’s imagination works alongside the lean, clean Detroit sound with interesting results. The strings aren’t always the ideal: the lush chordings and central fugal energy of the opening movement, ‘Jeu de sons’, cry out for a richer, Russian tone. But the semiquaver patter is beautifully done, the lower lines clear and personable. Keen articulation and driving force go hand-in-glove as Järvi prepares for the entry of the four accordions in the virile Scherzo burlesque, sweeping on to the folk-song of the central section with characteristic aplomb. It’s in the Schumannesque phrases and the subtly shifting moods of the most poetic movement, ‘Rêves d’enfant’, that Järvi really comes into his own; the short-lived, other-worldly radiance at the heart of the movement seems more than ever like a preliminary study for the transformation scenes of The Nutcracker, just as the woodwind choruses look forward to that and Sleeping Beauty.
The magical haze surrounding Prospero’s island in The Tempest doesn’t quite come off; Järvi is no more successful than any other conductor in stitching together Tchaikovsky’s strong impressions of the play, though a little more forward movement in the love-music might have helped.
Additional Recommendation
Tchaikovsky Suite No 3, Op 55 Stravinsky The Fairy’s Kiss – Divertimento
Russian National Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski
Pentatone PTC5186 061 (64’ · DDD/DSD) Buy from Amazon
Vladimir Jurowski here offers performances that are as near-ideal as one can imagine, the electric tension giving the illusion of live music-making. We have had some impressive recordings from this Moscow-based orchestra in the past but this one is among the finest.
Tchaikovsky’s Third Suite, with its final extended set of variations, can seem rather square under some conductors but Jurowski, maybe influenced by conducting opera and ballet, brings out the surging lyricism. So the opening ‘Elegie’ is warmly moulded without sounding fussy, the phrasing totally idiomatic. The rhythmic second-movement Waltz leads to a dazzling account of the Scherzo, taken at a genuine presto yet with no feeling of breathlessness, while the Variations have rarely seemed so attractive in their breadth of ideas, with a thrilling build-up and conclusion.
Stravinsky’s Divertimento, its four movements taken from the ballet The Fairy’s Kiss, may make an unexpected coupling, but it is apt and illuminating. Jurowski steers a nice course between the Romantic warmth of the Tchaikovsky sources from which Stravinsky took his material (songs and piano pieces) and his 1920s neo-classicism. The delicate and refined account of the slow first section leads to sharp syncopations in the Vivace agitato which follows, and the chugging rhythms on horns in the most memorable section of the second movement show jollity in their springing step, while the pointing of contrasts in the final ‘Pas de deux’ brings yearning warmth in the big lyrical moments and wit in the faster sections. Exceptionally vivid sound, recorded by Pentatone’s engineers in Moscow.
