 "Don't Miss This Audio Experience" | 2008-06-07 |
| - Reviewed By oscarlevant |
| I am a non-technical amateur, but to my ears, the sound on this CD is amazing. DG seems to have gotten it just right. I feel I can hear every horn, string and swish of the baton. Others have reported slow tempi and indeed the first movement clocks in about 1:30 longer than his other renditions. But with the mesmerizing sound, it doesn't matter. I've heard The Fourth thousands of times; this one blew me away. Be sure and put it in a CD player for your first go-round; don't degrade it into an .mp3 for portable use. Take the time to listen to it as is, and you'll find that twelve bucks is a bargain for such an audio experience. |
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| "Shines new light on a great symphony." | 2007-02-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1RH2O6W6ESR7G |
| Don't let the long timings on this recording scare you. This is recording is from Bernsteins later and more experirimental late era, the same that gave us a 58 minute version of the Tchaikovsky 6th and a 53 minute version of the Sibelius 2nd. While ones first thought is that this is going to be a long performance, forget about that. This live recorded version of Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic is a wonderful journey. Some of the outbursts in the first movement alone are earth shattering contrasted by moments of tenderness and reflection. The tempo also gives the New York principals a chance to do some very good playing. The more I listen to this version of this first movement (about 21 minutes) the more I find in it. This is in part to the exceptional recorded sound which is true of the entire disc. The second movement is filled with longing and nostalgia. I think of all the movements that can benefit from going at a much reduced tempo it is this second movement. It just seems to make more sense this way. It's pure Tchaikovsky. The third movement is a total change in direction, but not a startling one. For those of you unfamiliar this movement is the shortest and written nearly entirely for strings in pizzicato (plucked strings) with a middle section (and again at the end) for woodwinds and horn. Its a fascinating movement and great lead in to the opening crash of the finale. Again at the reduced tempo reveals much of the finale that would otherwise might go unheard. But fear not. Bernstein brings it all together at the end when the tempo picks up speed for a last charge at the end of the finale leaving the listener very satified. If you have never heard the Tchaikovsky 4th this would be a great introduction to it. To old time fans of the 4th, this recording will let you look at it in a whole new light. As a bonus treat, you get the Fracecsa ds Rimini, a much lesser known work by Tchaikovsky. On the whole this is a great CD and gives a great look into two musically brilliant minds, Bernstein and Tchaikovsky, as well as the playing of a great American orchestra. |
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| "Desert island Fourth from the great Bernstein" | 2006-04-01 |
| - Reviewed By theanswer24 |
The general consensus is that Bernstein's later DG recordings are always controversial because the performances became slower and display more self-indulgence from the great conductor. However, this is what makes old familiar warhorses sound like new, and Bernstein's interpretations always work in my opinion.
Here is Tchaikovsky's Fourth, a recording that will always have its proponents and detractors. This must be one of the longest, if not THE longest, performance of this great symphony ever. However, it never feels as though it drags, and Bernstein always keeps the blood running by providing exciting climaxes replete with strong brass and timpani. If you are a fan of percussion, this is a recording that is not to be missed. The first movement provides thumping timpani, and the Finale contains the best cymbal recording in my entire collection of over 500 classical CD's! The cymbals come crashing in very loud and clear, and you can hear the bass drum that accompanies it prominently, with demonstration quality sound!
Overall, this is a very powerful interpretation that is helped by adding weight in the form of slower tempi, as this gives the recording an epic feel. The string tone is absolutely gorgeous, and the climaxes are true climaxes, unlike many other recordings of this work I have heard. Fortissimos are always true fortissimos under Bernstein's direction, which is a must for someone like me who enjoys extreme dynamic ranges. Just listen to the way the tension builds in the second movement, and one instantly realizes that Bernstein always gave everything he had to a piece. The third movement is appropriately light and playful, contrasted beautifully by the cymbal crash that opens the Finale. As an added bonus is another tremendous performance of the Francesca da Rimini. It is a disc like this that puts Bernstein way up there as number one conductor on my list of personal favorites.
Only George Szell's performance (on Penguin Classics) comes close to Bernstein's awe-inspiring interpretation. Mravinsky's legendary recording (on DG) comes in third, and Svetlanov (on the Melodiya label) is also quite good, with the fastest Finale on disc I believe, even faster than Mravinsky's! However, the disc reviewed here is a desert island disc and will be the only Fourth I will ever need. |
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| "A heartbreaking, deeply felt Tchaikovsky Fourth" | 2006-02-22 |
| - Reviewed By huntleysf |
The metronome, they say, is a bad critic, but it can't escape notice that the first movement of this live Tchaikovsky Fourth from 1989 is 27 min. long, compared to the usual timing of around 18 min. It's a movement of contrasts, the slower parts being very slow, the fast parts manically energized. But the prevailing intensity and passion deny all argument. This is Bernstein and the NY Phil., which will always be his orchestra, wringing everything out of the music that it can possibly express while miraculously not distorting it.
The second movement begins with an oboe solo of melting sensitivity, the best I've ever heard. If LB's intention was to make every concert a love affair, here it sounds like one. The tempo, again quite measured, seems wholly justified. One hears these familiar melodies as if for the first time. There is a cumulative effect of melancholy from the first movement that crests with heartbreaking intensity.
The last two movementsto reaffirm Bernstein's tragic view of this work. The Scherzo features a very slow, thoughtful second theme, and the finale proceeds without triumph until the coda, which races to the end as if to give us an escape route, at last. It's a draining performance, but I think it might be close to what Tchaikovsky himself felt about this music.
The filler is an equally wrenching performance of Francesca da Rimini, a work Bernstein excelled in, perhaps because it seems so close to Liszt, a composer he brought to life with emotional conviction. In all, this is a CD that rivets the attention and reaches disturbinb depths.
(By Amazon's count this is review #1,001 for me since I began last fall, all but one a CD review. I took up this pastime to acquaint other listeners with the CDs that most inspire me, and I hope I join the category of reliable reviewers I've enjoyed on Amazon as a reader.) |
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 "Awful" | 2005-07-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3PELLVLXS08QO |
I am shocked to be the only reviewer here giving less than four or five stars to this performance. I just couldn't help but laugh and chuckle all the way through it. Of Tchaikovsky's last three symphonies, the 4th is the one which I have both known and treasured the longest. Tchaikovsky was very proud of himself for producing such a powerful piece of symphonic literature. However, anyone sharing the same opinion who also holds this recording up as good supporting evidence must have his/her head examined. This is not powerful music-making.
Let us delve into this atrocity. A comparative listener might bring up the subject of tempos first, as one might in the case of Bernstein anyway. To say that the tempos are "usually slow" is quite an understatement, and merits an explanation, as slower tempos aren't always a bad thing. They are here; in fact, the slow tempos do a large part in destroying this particular interpretation. When you adopt a slower or faster tempo, it changes the amount of weight that is inherent in the piece you are playing, and consequently the inner rhythms, the mood, and all of the other underlying characteristics of the piece are changed. Tchaikovsky's 4th is a symphony that bears immense inner weight just by itself, no help needed. When you ADD several thousand pounds, as Bernstein does, the music just bottoms out and drags along, without direction. Bernstein starts the cruise with three or four anchors already on the ocean floor. The music can only take so much. The fate theme at the beginning and in the fourth movement are taken at a sluggish largo pace. The exposition of the first movement is supposed to begin at - and be sustained at a waltz tempo (for the dotted quarter note in 9/8 i.e. three flowing beats to the bar), as Tchaikovsky specifically requests. Bernstein seems never to be at a waltz tempo; he bogs the music down and it never gets going. The secondary theme is supposed to retain the waltz feel while moving slightly slower, going from Moderato con anima to just Moderato assai, quasi andante. Bernstein takes it in an extremely slow nine, severing the stylistic link between the sections and altering the mood to something that it should definitely not be. As if to compensate for this, he rushes the tertiary theme (also Mod. con anima) and then goes on to butcher the development with exaggerated tempo changes and a sense of tension that comes off as artificial, something which plagues the coda as well. The second movement is almost half as slow as it should be. The third movement is actually taken too fast, but don't you worry, Bernstein compensates here too by taking the trio, marked "meno mosso" (less moved), half as fast, a thoughtless mannerism which plagues his late recordings in general. The fourth movement, although only a little slower than it should be, sounds ridiculously stupid. The NY Phil is pushing forward and Lenny is holding them back, with very messy results. Only after he has stretched the return of the fate theme to its maximum possible limit does he go faster in the coda, and it magically sounds better. Who'd've thought? The whole performance clocks in at almost 50 minutes, where an ideal timing would be between 40 and 45.
Overall, the listener will probably not hear a spiritually and mentally collapsed Tchaikovsky close to suicide in this performance, but they will get to listen to a fantastic pile of black sludge. If you are just looking for Tchaikovsky 4, find another recording. If you are looking specifically for Bernstein's Tchaik 4, I wish to redirect you to his 1959 version also with the NYP, on the Sony label (Bernstein Century). The 1959 performance features the same blunders, but they aren't as exaggerated and stupid sounding. I enjoyed the third movement of that version myself, and instead of an insanely long (27 minutes!) Francesca da Rimini, the symphony is coupled with a not-so-butchered and honest performance of Capriccio Italien. As a whole the 1959 performance comes closer to demonstrating Tchaikovsky's intentions than this one ever will. |
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| "A Majestic 4th and an Earth Shattering Francesca" | 2005-04-14 |
| - Reviewed By gqayala |
Really, I don't know where to begin when it comes to singing my prasies of this particular cd. Having well over a dozen recordings of its just so hard to find the right balance in tempo during the finale of the first movement. Here, Bernstein achieves the pain, drama, and flair perfectly. The low brass and bass really make it sound like you've been taken out for an emotional gutting. Its powerful.
The symphony as a whole it tremendous - the tempos, while slow, really seem to just FIT this symphony altogether. The opening movement majestic and tragic without dragging. The second movement andante peaceful even hopeful. The third movement pizzicato is playful. The finale is clean, crisp, and wonderful colors explode from an engaged percussion section.
Francesca Da Rimini - this was my first exposure to such a powerful piece of music and have since bought versions by Barenboim and Muti. Also, i have Mravinsky performing this on DVD as well. And my assessment is i enjoy Bernstein's more dramatic effect toward the end as well. If this piece is based upon Dante's Inferno or a part of it, If I am not mistaken - then by god - play it as if it is the end of the world and we're being whisked away to the fiery pits of hell. He achieves that effect in the end - just listen to it and you will know what i mean. The other performances are too fast and too hard to listen to tempo wise during the dramatic climax at the end. I had no idea where any of the other conductors were going with the piece. With Bernstein, it just worked!!! |
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