BaL 3.04.21 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 5 in E minor

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 22-03-21, 13:46

I was wondering - should I delete all versions not conducted by the 5 (five) listed on the website?

**vinteuil** · 22-03-21, 14:10

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... as Brassbandmaestro might put it - this is one I think I shall skip

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**Bryn** · 22-03-21, 14:17

Originally posted by vinteuil View Post

.

... as Brassbandmaestro might put it - this is one I think I shall skip

Likewise. My least favourite of the last three (not counting the cobbled together 7th or Manfred). Happy with Mravinsky x 2, Barbirolli x 2, Jansons (Oslo), etc.

**Petrushka** · 22-03-21, 14:24

I'm sure William Mival jumped for joy at being handed this one! I'll have an audit of the versions I have, many tucked away as yet unplayed, in various boxes and so often an irritant to find the 5th split between CDs in collections of the last three symphonies.

**jayne lee wilson** · 22-03-21, 15:28

Several here of this gorgeous work, mainly Russian, but it usually comes out at Svetlanov Live in Tokyo 1990 (Pony Canyon HDCD, later Exton etc...)...

And that day we read no further, etc...

**cloughie** · 22-03-21, 15:54

Originally posted by Petrushka View Post

I'm sure William Mival jumped for joy at being handed this one! I'll have an audit of the versions I have, many tucked away as yet unplayed, in various boxes and so often an irritant to find the 5th split between CDs in collections of the last three symphonies.

One of my ‘over 100 recordings’ works I own up to! Which is top of my list - how would I know - VPO Maazel, always good - the old Decca Schmidt-Isserstedt and Solti’s PCO and a good VPO Kripswith French french horn sound, Svetlanov, Rozhdestvensky and Mravinsky - quite eccentric recording Silvestri, a good Kempe, a few Karajans and many many more! Monteux, Szell. I think my first ever recording was the Cincinnati Pro Arte Orchestra conducted by Georg Ramifsky (unsurprisingly not on Alpie’s list) whoever he was! I seem to remember it was quite a lively performance played on my first ever record player 60 years ago!

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 22-03-21, 17:52

I have many versions, with VPO/Maazel as my first choice, though even this has an odd French horn balance in the slow movement. The big solo is fine, but in the rest of the movement, the instrument is placed unnaturally forward. Odd for a John Culshaw production.

I rule out any recording with a wobbly horn, so even the much praised Oslo/Janson has to go.

**Petrushka** · 22-03-21, 20:10

I appear to have a mere 25 versions on my shelves or in various boxes, though it's a good while since I played any of them. My first one on LP was the stereo Leningrad PO/Mravinsky, as it probably was for many, and it still stands up well. After all these years it will still probably 'win'.

**cloughie** · 22-03-21, 20:23

Originally posted by Petrushka View Post

I appear to have a mere 25 versions on my shelves or in various boxes, though it's a good while since I played any of them. My first one on LP was the stereo Leningrad PO/Mravinsky, as it probably was for many, and it still stands up well. After all these years it will still probably 'win'.

Maybe but depends on whether the reviewer favours the Russian horn sound - though maybe that is hipp Tchaikovsky!

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 22-03-21, 20:34

My first Tchaikovsky 5 recording was particularly dreadful. I think it was Pittsburg SO/Steinberg, but I may be wrong. The entry of the first subject of the finale (following the introduction) had such scrappy string playing that even a weak school orchestra would have retreated in shame. I notice it isn't on the list! I think it was a 1955 Capitol recording that was released on Music for Pleasure.

**cloughie** · 22-03-21, 20:51

Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post

My first Tchaikovsky 5 recording was particularly dreadful. I think it was Pittsburg SO/Steinberg, but I may be wrong. The entry of the first subject of the finale (following the introduction) had such scrappy string playing that even a weak school orchestra would have retreated in shame. I notice it isn't on the list! I think it was a 1955 Capitol recording that was released on Music for Pleasure.

Just a moment...

https://www.discogs.com/Tchaikovsky-William-SteinbergPittsburgh-Symphony-Orchestra-Symphony-No-5-In-E-Minor-Op-64/release/7396037

Just a moment...

https://www.discogs.com/Tchaikovsky-Symphony-No-5-In-E-Minor-Op-64/release/9970221

A few of the early MFP LPs, though the Capitol originals were quite good had very poor transfers with a very poor sound on the MFP discs. Some have been issued on CD with remarkably good sound but Steinberg’s Tchaik 5 has never reappeared!

**BBMmk2** · 23-03-21, 10:11

Originally posted by vinteuil View Post

.

... as Brassbandmaestro might put it - this is one I think I shall skip

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I won’t be! I love this symphony. I’ll be listening for sure. Unfortunately, I only have the two recordings that Mariss Jansons made, so I hope there’ll be a different recommendation in this BaL.

**richardfinegold** · 23-03-21, 11:28

Originally posted by Petrushka View Post

I'm sure William Mival jumped for joy at being handed this one! I'll have an audit of the versions I have, many tucked away as yet unplayed, in various boxes and so often an irritant to find the 5th split between CDs in collections of the last three symphonies.

I was listening to a version this weekend that isn’t on the list, although I won’t fault Alpie. It is Karajan and the Berliners. I had ordered the Blu Ray Audio of their recordings of the Six numbered Symphonies.
This work is one that I simply overdosed on as a teenager and now I find it difficult to tolerate . The recording was Monteux and the Boston Symphony and I played it dozens of times. The great slow movement captured my adolescent sense of morbid, as did the brooding opening. After a few years of addiction to Tchaikovsky 5 I then took a hiatus for a decade after losing my lps and subsequently I find it hard to sit through a performance or a recording. The one exception was when I discovered another Monteux
recording, this with LSO,I think one of his last. Despite its Vintage it was deservedly marketed as an audiophile recording, mine being a DVD-A but then as a download after the demise of that format. It’s basically the same performance as the Boston recording, but the VPO is a live recording and of course the two excellent Orchestras have very different sonic signatures. Monteux again had me believing in the work, making it sound like a life and death struggle, and does so without indulging in cheap hysteria.
This must have been contemporary work for Monteux and it doesn’t sound like a war horse being trotted out.

O

**Cockney Sparrow** · 23-03-21, 12:00

Thought I'd try tracking the Monteux down.....

Recordings listed here (although, would it ever be possible for it to be complete?):

Symphony No. 5: Recordings - Tchaikovsky Research

http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Symphony_No._5:_Recordings

And it seems to be this recording (amongst those listed) – this is a download site:

CRQ 430 More Live Monteux: LSO, Vienna, 1963: Vol. 2: Tchaikovsky 5, by Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

https://crqeditions.bandcamp.com/album/crq-430-more-live-monteux-lso-vienna-1963-vol-2-tchaikovsky-5

4 track album

Not sure I’m tempted by the 5th to buy a further recording but Monteux was a fine conductor. The excerpt sounds - well,its quite a resonant hall, but I wouldn't say the recording sounds compromised and really doesn't particularly show its age. Volume one on that site comprises Tchaikovsky Rome and Juliet; Piano Concerto No. 1: with John Ogdon.

CRQ 429 More Live Monteux: LSO, Vienna, 1963: Vol. 1: Tchaikovsky Rome and Juliet; Piano Concerto No. 1: with John Ogdon, by More Live Monteux: LSO, Vienna, 1963: Vol. 1: Tchaikovsky with John Ogdon

https://crqeditions.bandcamp.com/album/crq-429-more-live-monteux-lso-vienna-1963-vol-1-tchaikovsky-rome-and-juliet-piano-concerto-no-1-with-john-ogdon

4 track album

My first 5th? EMI Klemperer. It took a little while to discover Mravinsky, and led me to writing Klemperer off for a long time. Except from accepting the universal recommendation for his Brahms Requiem and Beethoven Missa Solemnis – only after borrowing the Gramophone Library copy to check them out. (I remain grateful my first St Matthew Passion was in the blue DG Bach box of LPs so that would be Munchinger….).

BaL 3.04.21 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 5 in E minor

BaL 3.04.21 - Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 5 in E minor

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