Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1

Album review

The Symphony No. 1 in G minor, "Winter Dreams," is the least known of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's six symphonies and is often criticized for its various imperfections, due to the youthful composer's inexperience with symphonic form and his labored revisions. Nonetheless, because this flawed work is by Tchaikovsky, it still has numerous strengths working in its favor, including its extremely memorable themes, evocative orchestration, and unrestrained Romanticism, with a particularly pronounced strain of Russian melancholy. The symphony receives an energetic reading in this 2010 album by Christoph Poppen and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, and even though the poetic subtitles of this piece suggest dreamy fogs and mists of a desolate Russian countryside, there is really nothing soporific in the playing. Apart from the first two movements, where the dominant moods are largely soft and reflective, the live performance is quite vigorous as a whole, and the musicians fully commit themselves to Tchaikovsky's passionate melodies and imaginative scene-painting. The filler selection is Capriccio Italien, a colorful fantasy on themes Tchaikovsky picked up on a trip to Italy. The mood of this piece is quite sunny, and Poppen and the orchestra give it a delightfully upbeat performance, full of the brightest colors and the irrepressible rhythms that have made this one of Tchaikovsky's greatest hits. Oehms' sound is full-bodied and naturally resonant.
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