Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture
Utah Symphony Orchestra/Maurice Abravanel
rec. 1972-73, Utah, USA
Vox Classics VOX-NX-3022CD [61]
I seem to be suffering some sort of regression, drawn in by these sixty-year-old Vanguard recordings. They are part of a bulging sheaf given new life as part of a self-declared ‘Audiophile Edition’. The Abravanel issues (Tchaikovsky) are well worth hearing again … or even for the first time.
On Busoni’s advice, Greek-born Maurice Abravanel studied with Kurt Weill in Berlin in 1922. He then conducted in various provincial German towns, generally remote from the great halls and houses. In 1933, he teamed up with Balanchine and after that toured Australia with the British National Opera Company. Success in the USA saw him conducting Broadway musicals by Weill and Blitzstein. As music director of the Utah Symphony Orchestra from 1947, he built up the orchestra from lowly beginnings. Working there for many years, he made more than a hundred recordings, predominantly for Vanguard.
In this Fourth Symphony, taken down in analogue stereo by Elite Recordings’ legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz, Abravanel is on top of and masters each phrase. At first it’s a slow burn but, in contrast with Antoni Wit (Naxos) who is not an interventionist, he wrings and bends each phrase to his will. Nothing is workaday or feels routine. He is more in the Mravinsky direction than, say, Haitink.
The terraced blare and the deliciously coarsened blurt of the brass make their presence felt in a completely winning way. Then again, Abravanel is not afraid to smooch and caress just the right side of schmaltz. This is something special and the conductor, a wily and practised hand in such matters, engenders excitement. He drives things awfully hard and fast at end of the first movement.
The Andantino has some lovely French horn work and the surging, sobbing, sighing pages are really telling when it comes to accelerating emotional impact. Even so he cannot beat Barenboim and the NYPO on CBS-Sony from about the same time. In the Pizzicato movement, the plucked strings are good but are not captured with such proximity and heft as DG’s Mravinsky team working in London in 1960. In the finale, Abravanel’s command of phrasing extends to highly effective ‘sticky’ accenting (2.51) and caution is thrown to the winds.
This disc appeared in early 2002 – without the audiophile hoop-la – in VoxBox CD5X-3603 5 CDs. As for the much-vaunted sound, it does have a well calculated sense of depth which engages ears, heart and pulse. Abravanel slurs romantic phrases to great effect and his own brand of magic has a really affecting ‘heat haze’ rising at 14:07 off the big love theme from Romeo and Juliet. This work otherwise feels too structured – almost rigid.
Of its era, and even now in better than good sound, this disc is up there with Monteux who recorded Romeo, Symphony No 5 and the First Piano Concerto (Ogdon) on Vanguard.
I should mention in passing that this disc’s “running mate” is Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 with 1812 on Vox Classics VOX-NX-3023CD. It’s another good entry but like this disc it is full price which seems steep. On the plus side – and there is much on that plus side – the symphony is, in its long first movement, quiet, taut and conspiratorial; just a pity that the strings sound recessed. Still, there is an exciting hoarseness to the horns (heard again in the finale) and some superbly slick portamento. The ending of the first movement goes at ripping speed – a real blast. The second movement, with its horn solo, is self-effacing and especially tender (5.00). In the third, the stopped horns are gratingly good. Abravanel stands back from the triple forte iron-shod sleet-storm that Mravinsky makes of it but he does secure a truly theatrical ending. Monteux, also on Vanguard, remains in the vanguard. The 1812 with its targeted woodwind and grand, clangourous din of bells and cannons, pulls no punches. It works well and, in this work, rather outpoints the Igor Buketoff effort on RCA LSC-3051. The latter was much lionised at the time.
Rob Barnett
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