Tchaikovsky

[Marcel]

Has anyone heard here Bogatyryov's (or anyone else's, if any other exist) completion of Tchaikovsky's Symphony #7? I read that the composer found it too "impersonal", and dropped it. Did he destroy any material? He had agreed to conduct a performance of, and I'm wondering just how far along it was before he ended up using some of the material for other projects, seeing as how he'd made this agreement.

Yes, I have heard, conducted by E. Ormandy http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_group=8&album_id=146846. The performance is very fine. The most Tchaikovskian is the first and second movement. The last movement sounds quite weird - probably many things were improvised..

"Begun May 1892. The symphony was abandoned in November 1892 with only part of the first movement scored. In the 1950s it was reconstructed from the manuscript sources and completed by Semen Bogatyrev (and sometimes wrongly listed as "Symphony No. 7")."
You can find more info here: http://www.tchaikovsky-research.net/en/Works/Unfinished/TH238/index.html.

[ChamberNut]

Just recently discovered Tchaikovsky's string quartets, and purchased the Keller Quartet recordings of SQ 1 and 2 (Erato label), at a used bargain CD shop.

I'm aware that Keller Q. also recorded the SQ 3 and the String Sextet "Souvenirs de Florence".  I can't seem to find it available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble though or any other place on-line. 

Does anyone have any recommendations for Tchaikovsky String Quartet # 3 and the String Sextet "Souvenirs de Florence"?

Many thanks! 

[DavidW]

Raphael Ensemble is a good un for the sextet which comes with Arensky as well.

Borodin Quartet for the string quartets.

[ChamberNut]

Raphael Ensemble is a good un for the sextet which comes with Arensky as well.

Borodin Quartet for the string quartets.

Thank you David. 

[Marcel]

Raphael Ensemble is a good un for the sextet which comes with Arensky as well.

Borodin Quartet for the string quartets.

Agreed.

[tjguitar]

I heard the Pacific Symphony perform the 5th last night.  What a great one to hear live.


I still haven't heard all of the contents of the box I posted in the first post of this thread.

[c#minor]

ahh the 5th.... my first exploration outside piano music and still a favorite.

[Guido]

Not sure if this has already been posted, but the legendary recording of the Piano Trio played by Kogan, Rostropovich and Gilels is available on itunes. Rostropovich had always blocked its re-release on CD while he was alive because he fell out with Kogan, but I am glad that it has now been made available again.

[DFO]

For the sextet. look for the exceptional recording by Kogan brothers on violins, Talalian and Barshai on violas, and Rostropovich and Knushevitsky on cellos. For the first SQ, besides
the Borodin I recommend the old and splendid Hollywood SQ. For the third SQ, there's a
fantastic and dramatic version by the Vlach SQ.

[Cato]

I came across this performance of Francesca da Rimini by a South American teenaged orchestra in Venezuela!  They do quite fine!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8tejgEfa5Y&feature=related

As is typical of YouTube and the SASS (Short Attention Span Society) the performance comes in snippets of 7 or 8 minutes.

The ultimate performance of this work is by Stokowski (at age 92!) from the 1970's with the London Symphony.  You really join the lovers entering the circle of Hell at the end!   

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=102814&source=CLOFO

[imperfection]

Anyone ever heard this?  My, this is one emotional experience. The breadth and majesty present here is indescribable...the final four notes are literally BAAAAAM BAAAAAM BAAAAAM BAAAAM instead of the usual Bam Bam Bam bam! 

[Herman]

Any favorite recordings of Symphony nr 3?

[Marcel]

Any favorite recordings of Symphony nr 3?

I like Russians:

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky - Grand Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, 1972
--- harsh recording, but vivid and excellent performance

Evgeny Svetlanov - USSR Symphony Orchestra, 1967
--- worse recording quality than Rozhdestvensky, but typically ravishing

[Moldyoldie]

Any favorite recordings of Symphony nr 3?

I'm certain this music has its adherents, but I'm not one of them. I like Symphonies 4 - 6 as much as the next person, 1 and 2 also have their moments, but No. 3 does absolutely nothing for me over its entire five interminable movements...until the very end!  I've heard only the Markevitch/LSO and Jansons/Oslo recordings.

Maybe Marcel's "Russians" will prove constructive...but not for awhile.

[karlhenning]

This conversation is making me hungry to revisit the Markevich/LSO recording of the Third, but that must wait till I get home tonight.

[bhodges]

I have two Thirds: Jansons/Oslo and Abbado/Chicago, with a slight preference for the former.  The energy Jansons brings to this piece (and the rest of the cycle) is terrific, and the Oslo orchestra plays beautifully.  Abbado and Chicago aren't shabby by any means, but I'm not totally sold on the sound of the recording.  It's fine, but to my ears not at the very top.

--Bruce

[snyprrr]

I've been listening to the 2cd Borodin/Teldec SQs, and honestly, Tchai. isn't doing ANYTHING for me here.

Oh, shucks...I'm being called away....

[George]

Anyone ever heard this?  My, this is one emotional experience. The breadth and majesty present here is indescribable...the final four notes are literally BAAAAAM BAAAAAM BAAAAAM BAAAAM instead of the usual Bam Bam Bam bam! 

I should get it. His 6th is an intense experience too.

[Herman]

I've been listening to the 2cd Borodin/Teldec SQs, and honestly, Tchai. isn't doing ANYTHING for me here.

Oh, shucks...I'm being called away....

Personally I find none of those later recordings by the Borodin QT very good. There is a recording of the Tchaikovsky SQs with an earlier incarnation of the Borodin Qt

[snyprrr]

mmm...perhaps, but it's the music that I'm... I'm just having the same roadblock I have with Haydn SQs (of, course different, but...). Maybe Tchai. is sounding too "obvious" for me? Maybe it's extra-musical. It MAY be the Borodin, but they SEEM to be playing them fine...there IS a "grit", and I can't tell if it's the music, or the playing. But the music, to me, gets into that uncomfortable "love me, love me, I'm gay" over the top emotionalism. Maybe this is what heart-on-your-sleeve sounds like. Please don't run with the "gay" comment!  $:)Thanks.

There is no booklet in this library set, but the slow mvmt of No.1 is nice. Is that the famous "Andante Cantabile"? I hear a little of that minor third Volga/American Indian sound. The rest of the SQ, eh...maybe it IS the playing???

It was the slow mvmt. of No.2 that just made my eyes roll, though. Really??? Really was Tchaikovsky this...this...I don't know the word. Not sentimental...I want to say hysterical, but that's not the word...not even,well maybe effeminate... something like "a Russian bear on the outside, but secretly wishes he'd have been born with a vagina." Sorry, I don't know how else to put it. It makes me uncomfortable, like a man who can sing higher and more lovely than a woman. Again, sorry for this analogy...I'm being frank. I just want to grab Tchai. and slap him and say, "Get over it, man, and stop crying." And the Volga boatman thing doesn't grab me.

Ok, first mvmt. of No.2...it MUST be the Borodin sounding sooo scrappy. Shrill.

And I was really disappointed in No.3 years ago when I was really really green. I thought, "Tchaikovsky's depressed, and this SQ is in e-flat minor...it HAS to be good," but no, I had to wait for Myaskovsky for that, and even HE wasn't depressed enough for me. Shostakovich is the only one who apparently spoke my language...sort of (maybe I'm seeking the SQ equivalent of Gorecki's Sym. No.3???). So I was disappointed in Tchai.'s world famous depression. I listened to Sym. No.6 the other week and it didn't do it for me, either. Oy! what am I to do with you, Peter???

Maybe it IS extra-musical, and I just can't get over him being homosexual. I mean, LOOK at the guy...does he look gay??? NO! He looks like the epitome of the serious composer, what with that awesome beard, that SAD FACE!!!... and I keep picturing this staid face engaged in , well, yuk! And I keep "hearing" it in the music. Yea, ok, it's my problem, oy vey! Take two Bruckners and call me in the morning. yeesh...

I like the early B flat SQ the best here, though.

Honestly, I hate when I try really really hard, and still can't like someone I'm "supposed" to. I'm listening to the finale of No.2 right now...naw, it's like everything I dislike about Myaskovsky in a nutshell. This music makes me angry.

Oy, I better stop... I won't be making too many friends on this thread. I apologize if I offended anyone.