Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Souvenir de Florence (arr. for orchestra)
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 “Pathétique”
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Domingo Hindoyan
rec. 2021, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool (symphony); 2024, Tung Auditorium, Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, Liverpool
Reviewed as a download
Onyx 4259 [82]
I am very happy to recommend this well filled CD containing the neglected string orchestra arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence coupled with his epic Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique”. The work for strings is a substantial piece, full of melody and invention and dating from 1890. The symphony, probing emotional depths of sublimity and pathos unique to this composer, dates from the last few months of his life in 1893.
Domingo Hindoyan has been Chief Conductor at the RLPO since the 2021/22 season and this is his fifth disc for Onyx with them. We have had to wait a while to hear this Pathétique on record, it being recorded back in his first Liverpool season in November 2021 (BBC Radio 3 broadcast the whole concert if I remember correctly). Its sunnier companion is of more recent provenance. During the current season 2024/25, Hindoyan has explored some hefty symphonic works including Mahler 1 and 3, Bruckner 9, Dvořák, Franck and Beethoven. Aged 45 he is taking a mature approach to this maestro-game, building his experience and repertory steadily. I note he also has done some opera: Rigoletto in Paris and La Traviata in Vienna are highlights from this season.
The orchestra he inherited from Vasily Petrenko is a fine ensemble; collectors will know this already from the large legacy he left us on disc courtesy of Onyx themselves, Naxos, Avie and Warner. There is a Tchaikovsky cycle on Onyx, the Pathétique of which I can use as a contrasting recording to set alongside this one.
Before the Sixth, we hear the 37-minute Souvenir de Florence. Originally written for sextet and revised a couple times, it was being performed by full complements of strings as early as 1893. My favourite recording is from the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields directed from the violin by Neville Marriner. This was an Argo LP recorded in Kingsway Hall in 1968. The vintage stereo sound is quite different from that presented on this new recording, but there is much to enjoy here and as an interpretation it can stand alongside Marriner’s reading.
In the first movement, Tchaikovsky sticks firmly to strict sonata structure with an energetic driving first theme in the minor key and a wonderful songful second subject in the dominant major. The development section plays lovingly with both themes and the Liverpool players are alive to the textures and sonorities Tchaikovsky lays on. Hindoyan sets a leisurely pace that allows the music to breathe and rhythms to spring gently. It is all very natural and right-sounding. His coda (from 10:15) is impeccably judged and as fine as any on record.
The ABA structured slow movement features a long, beautiful song above a graceful pizzicato bedrock foundation. It is classic Tchaikovsky: romantic and poignant. The violins are achingly lovely. The middle section (5:13) is completely contrasted. It is an eerie, spooky episode. Musicians play quick figurations at the point of their bow with off-beat accents.
The third movement begins in A minor and feels introverted and sad. The trio (2:51) brings sunnier skies and some brightness. In 1892, when revising this movement, Tchaikovsky was writing The Nutcracker. This tiny trio breathes the same air. Souvenir de Florence comes to an end with a brilliant lively finale based very much on Slavic folk tune. Tchaikovsky favours a fugal approach to writing for his strings here (not just in the obviously contrapuntal central section) and the RLPO are up to the job. The engineered sound helps too, and all the layers of sound are clear and articulated admirably well. The headlong, thrilling close to the work is adroitly handled by all concerned. It is a very fine performance and the work sits well, placed as it is in the programme before the main event of the symphony.
1893 was a great year for music. Operatic first nights included Falstaff, Manon Lescaut, Hänsel und Gretel and Utopia, Limited. As well as the premiere of Tchaikovsky’s 6th in Saint Petersburg, Dvořák’s New World was unveiled in New York City. Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique is probably the most important of this great list of pieces, however. In this work of immense emotional intensity and power, Tchaikovsky’s genius achieves its supreme height of mastery. The technique and artistry he displays in its composition, the way themes are born and developed, and the very structure of the work are all sublime. It is for me, Tchaikovsky’s crowning masterpiece of all the genres he worked so brilliantly in.
The work has a huge discography featuring many great recordings. This one joins the assembly at the highest level. All great Pathétiques can be identified as such by their first movements. The span is huge and the symphonic journey traversed is epic. Speeds, moods, tonality, tempi all change frequently in the highly developed advanced sonata form the composer constructs. Hindoyan presents the first wary, hesitant theme in B minor at 1:46. He keeps the mystery alive and active through the long transition to the second theme which we hear at 4:26. This motif, an ardent song of love, tender and heartfelt and sung at glorious length here by the RLPO, is both noble and divine. Hindoyan does not over-sentimentalise, though, and his pacing is accurate. As the exposition winds down, (from figure G in the score) Tchaikovsky writes a rallentando and a solo clarinet gives the heavenly theme its last refrain before the fortissimo chord at 9:33 which signals the start of the development section and a new outlook on things completely.
All now is restless, tense energy, a teeming fury of rage, anguish and pain. Hindoyan is disciplined with his tempi and keeps the arch of the structure ever in mind. In his reading from 2015 in Liverpool, Petrenko was much more volatile in this section. Make no mistake about it, though, the fire burns just as brightly under the controlling baton of Hindoyan. His brass scream and the storm surges magnificently forward. The first theme is transformed beyond recognition into a tragedy worthy of any stage. When we hear the second theme return at 14:38, it brings succour, great relief and welcome solace. The wind band bring this great movement to its quiet repose in an almost hymn-like manner. Both Hindoyan and Petrenko come in at a little under nineteen minutes.
The second movement with its famous five-in-a-bar limp is marvellously done. The phrasing of the melodies and the gentle rhythm is shaped with grace and tenderness. Winds bubble and the strings have a warm glow that I find endearing. Hindoyan is in no rush and dynamics are conservative.
Tchaikovsky wrote a rollicking march for the third movement of his symphony. John Warrack, one of his biographers finds the music barren though, “essentially empty, with a coldness at its heart”. I tend to agree with this. The triumph and happiness it appears to evoke is alas, an illusion. Some performances on record parody this to extremes; not here. Once again structure and span are paramount. The reading is on the pacey side, and it is well controlled. Strings are lively and fortissimos suitably impressive.
The symphony ends in bleak despair. The adagio Tchaikovsky writes is heart-rending. The decision to split violins left and right pays off in the antiphonal writing laid bare here. The performance here is profound. Strings hunger, horns bleed and the winds sob. Tchaikovsky’s cri du coeur is portrayed in vivid colours. You will not be unmoved by it, which is surely the point of it all. Twice, Tchaikovsky takes us to triple fortissimo, each time to die away again to a cheerless, comfortless emptiness. Up to 1893, there was nothing of its like in the whole repertory. Mahler was surely influenced by it in his final symphony.
After hearing this Pathétique a few times over these last few days, I will put it away for a while. It doesn’t do to dwell here for too long, I think. I will certainly return to the performance, though, and would urge you to hear it, too.
Wembley has been the scene for many an explosive, fiery encounter and in 1960 sparks really flew – but I am not talking now about the 3-0 thumping Wolverhampton Wanderers dished out to Blackburn Rovers that Summer in the FA cup final; I am rather referring to Wembley Town Hall, where in November that year a certain Evgeny Mravinsky cut a record of Tchaikovsky 6 with the legendary Leningrad Philharmonic. That version of the work will for me always be very special. It erupts with an unmatched volcanic force in the first movement and paints a picture of barren nihilism in the last that I don’t believe will ever be matched.
Hindoyan’s RLPO are not trying to match that type of reading but what they give us though is outstanding. It burns, it beats with love, it dances and ultimately it dies. Accurate ensemble, proportioned structure and an arching vision of this great masterpiece make it one you can return to with confidence.
Philip Harrison
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