TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture; Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture; SIBELIUS: Karelia Suite; Pohjola’s Daughter Symphony Fantasy; Valse Triste – Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Sir Colin Davis – PentaTone

by | Dec 27, 2006 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews | 0 comments

TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture; Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture; SIBELIUS: Karelia Suite; Pohjola’s Daughter Symphony Fantasy; Valse Triste – Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/Sir Colin Davis – PentaTone RQR Series Multichannel (4.0) SCD PTC 5186 164, 74:34 *****:

Recorded quadraphonically in Boston’s Symphony Hall in 1979, this is another of the Philips masters which was never issued in surround due to the failure of the various quad-on-vinyl or prerecorded tape formats. We may not really need yet another 1812 but this is a rousing performance with very good real cannon at the appropriate spots, and that section where the orchestra on many recordings sounds like it’s a 78 on a wind-up gramophone running down doesn’t sound that way here – a make-or-break test of any 1812! The male choir at the beginning sounds like an Orthodox liturgical choir of monks. Even Tchaikovsky himself thought this commissioned work was trash, but it can be roaring audiophile fun in a committed performance. And this one is much more musical than Kunzel’s last version of the work for Telarc.  One never misses the two unused channels, by the way.

Two of the three Sibelius works are of pop concert level and done to a T.  Pohjola’s Daughter is a quarter-hour fantasy tied in with the Finnish Kalevala epic and the doings of a sombre father, his daughter and a magician who is attracted to her. A serious tone poem, the work does not use any Finnish folk music themes. All these works are expertly played by the BSO, playing at the highest level in their home venue.  The fact that the recording is 27 years old is not a factor in the least.

 – John Sunier

 

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