There have been some terrific new recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony in recent years, including Barenboim’s (Teldec), Fischer’s (Channel Classics), and now this one, which just may be the best of all. Certainly Daniele Gatti’s take on the first movement has few peers. It’s an extremely quick performance–urgent, passionate, but also possessed of a wholly appropriate, balletic grace. So often this music sounds like an endlessly repetitive, chromatically moaning sequence, but here everything has shape and point, with no lack of drama. Listen to how, for once, the orchestra really flings itself into the recapitulation, or how much better the wind solos of the second subject sound when the tempo, and the tension, are sustained instead of relaxed to the point where the music simply sounds tired. It’s a thrilling interpretation, one that gives the music a visceral immediacy and impact that justifies hearing it yet again.
Gatti’s approach also works extremely well in the second movement, which really is played “in the manner of a song”–a truly human pace that allows the melodies to sing as if they had words. It’s just beautiful. There’s plenty of virtuosity from the strings in the scherzo, and the finale is extremely exciting, with plenty of the necessary rhythmic acuity from the strings and woodwinds in their exchanges leading up the various appearances of the big tune. The playing of the Royal Philharmonic is very fine: they give Gatti 100 percent, both in the symphony and in the Capriccio Italien, which is every bit as fresh and exciting. Gatti whips the final tarantella up to a fine froth, but the excitement always makes sense and never becomes vulgar on the one hand, or simply efficient and generic on the other. In short, these performances have real personality. Harmonia Mundi’s sonics are just perfect: as warm and natural as anyone could ask. [9/27/2005]
