Vladimir Fedoseyev’s Tchaikovsky Third is a great improvement over his torpid reading of Symphony No. 1, reviewed earlier. He appears to have dumped the conductorial ballast that put such a drag on his tempos, and now allows the music to move forward with life-affirming momentum. Not that this is the most exciting reading of the symphony on disc: for that you need to hear Riccardo Muti and the Philharmonia, or Igor Markevitch and the London Symphony. But Fedoseyev does get his composer-eponymous orchestra to generate authentically Russian timbres, especially in the first and second movements, and throughout the work he exposes many usually unheard inner details, allowing us to marvel at Tchaikovsky’s ingenious harmonic constructions.
The Andante elegiaco is the most successful, a wonderful blend of pathos and poise. Fedoseyev’s topor returns in the scherzo, which at his slow, uninflected tempo seems overlong. But the finale saves the day with its grand ceremonial peroration. Hamlet, unfortunately, is a real letdown. Totally lacking in dramatic fire, it just sort of lies there–more omelet than Hamlet. Again, it’s Muti (with the Philadelphia Orchestra) and Markevitch who truly ignite this piece. MHS’s remastered sound has satisfying clarity and depth.
