Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4

Album review

Over his long tenure in Cleveland and even before, Franz Welser-Möst has apparently never recorded Tchaikovsky. This is startling in a middle-American city where this composer might seem a conductor's bread and butter. Sure enough, his Tchaikovsky is a little off the beaten track. There is no hyper-emotional Tchaikovsky Fourth here, no nervous pizzicato Scherzo, no triumphal finale. Welser-Möst offers little for those who value a hyper-emotional layer in Tchaikovsky, but he does offer plenty of detail and a certain feeling of ineluctable doom. What makes it work, regardless of one's position on the general mood, is that Welser-Möst has been at the helm in Cleveland for a long time, and the players of the Cleveland Orchestra, whatever conflicts he faced in the past with other groups, are well attuned to his desires and realize them beautifully. Sample that Scherzo, with the strings proceeding tautly through the long pizzicato passages. This is still one of the great American orchestras, and there are a number of examples of beautiful work by the players here. The finale is not triumphant but fast and hard, and it holds the attention just as well as the usual versions. Another draw is the sound from the orchestra's in-house label, whose engineers are becoming skilled at capturing the burnished sound of Severance Hall and displaying it at its best, even in this live recording. Not a common type of Tchaikovsky Fourth, but well worth hearing.

© James Manheim /TiVo