TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64; Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32 – Russian National Orchestra / Mikhail Pletnev – PentaTone Classics multichannel SACD PTC 5186 385, 71:41 [Distr. by Naxos] ****1/2:
Mikhail Pletnev’s first go at the Tchaikovsky symphonies came early in his tenure with the Russian National Orchestra, the ensemble he founded in 1990. By most accounts, that set from Deutsche Grammophon was a variable affair, in sound that was as unthrilling as the performances. Pletnev’s efforts with this orchestra grew over the years, and I enjoy most of his work in the Tchaikovsky tone poems, available in a Trio box set from DGG. More progress yet in his latest foray into the symphonies. Pletnev’s new Fourth on PentaTone has already gotten some positive press, both for its performance and sound. Now we move on to the Fifth, and the results are very satisfying as well.
While both the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies hinge on a recurring fate motive, the Fifth is Tchaikovsky’s Fate Symphony in the Beethovenian tragedy-to-triumph mold. In the Fifth, the fate motive appears immediately as a sort of funeral march, sounding from the clarinets in the lowest register. Following the introduction, the first movement proper has a march-like swing to it and an inexorable quality, relieved by a big-hearted theme in Tchaikovsky’s best lyrical vein—it’s why most listeners return again and again to the composer.
The fate motive returns in each of movements, subtly changed in each appearance, making this one of Tchaikovsky’s more tightly argued symphonic works. The slow movement’s big theme announced by the solo horn was deemed memorable enough to be the signature tune on a TV show from the Golden Age of TV—I forget which show. But music critics have been tough on the music, thinking that it borders on kitsch. Suffice it to say that this is not Tchaikovsky at his most compelling. With the third movement, not a scherzo but a lilting waltz that recalls the balletic second theme from the opening movement, Tchaikovsky is back on home turf. Even this serene movement is interrupted by a sober, then explosive appearance of the fate motive.
As with the first movement, the fate motive launches the finale, but this time the theme appears in the radiant key of E major, in the guise of a swaggering march—a triumphal march, one might almost say. The movement is not untroubled, however, and the fate motive returns once more, thundering away in the minor key again, before Tchaikovsky marches to the swaggering, brass-driven conclusion. I think Nicholas Lakides is right when he says, in the notes to this recording, that the conclusion is “hollowly jubilant.” He quotes Sigrid Neef, who avers that “No resolution to the stated conflicts has been attained, but rather, only their suppression. As in Tchaikovsky’s life, so also in his art.” Perhaps it’s the strangely equivocal nature of the triumph that makes listeners forgive the almost vulgar quality of Tchaikovsky’s triumphalism.
Anyway, Pletnev and his band take a no-holds-barred approach to the work, milking the pathos of the fate theme in its various guises, matching Tchaikovsky mood for mood. The finale has all the swagger and garish color it can handle without becoming a parody—which, I’m thinking, must be hard to avoid. I do think that Pletnev draws out that grand second melody of the first movement a bit too much, and this thematic taffy-pulling becomes a bit tiring as the theme returns. At a couple other points as well rubato is applied a bit too freely for my taste, though some listeners will find that this adds spontaneity. In any event, the performance has nothing of the routine about it, and overall there’s a feeling of freshness that’s hard to instill in a warhorse such as this.
As I mentioned above, Pletnev’s earlier recordings of Tchaikovsky’s tone poems were pretty successful, and again, I think he has improved on a very good interpretation of Francesca da Rimini. The story of the tone poem comes from Dante, who tells of the lovers Francesca and Paolo, her brother-in-law. The pair fell in love while reading the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere, were caught in flagrante delicto by her husband, and dispatched at the point of the sword. Dante meets up with the lovers in his travels through the Inferno. The middle of the tone poem, where Francesca recounts the story of her fall from grace, is taken up by one of those gorgeous love themes that Tchaikovsky seems to have had no trouble cranking out. Pletnev is maybe a tad slow here; still, the results are lovely. But the most striking music comes at the beginning and end of the piece, where the composer paints the swirling winds of hell in which the two lovers’ spirits forever toss and spin like ashes above a fire. Tchaikovsky’s music is disturbingly violent, brilliantly orchestrated. Pletnev and his band turn in a virtuoso performance—if anything, a finer performance than that of the symphony. I would place this Francesca among the best performances I’ve heard.
PentaTone’s studio recording is close, detailed, and highly impactive yet atmospheric at the same time, very much a match for Pletnev’s bigger-than-life conception of these works. I’ll certainly be waiting for further releases in this series.
— Lee Passarella
