Complete Nutcracker Recording Gergiev Torrent
Vampire the masquerade character sheet program. Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Kirov Orchestra/Valery Gergiev This is a stunning recording featuring an orchestra from the music’s birthplace producing a simply spellbinding performance. Not only that, but it’s available on a single CD – it’s hard to imagine it getting any better than this. Philips 462 1142.
Reviews of some of the original recordings that make up this set:
Nutcracker
The dream, the child-like wonder of The Nutcracker, remains irrepressible. But it’s not a work that plays itself. Slacken the pulse for a moment, take your eye off entries, fail to believe in its fantasy world, and it can only too easily fall apart. Gergiev and his Kirov company need no reminding of the fact. Resisting contrivedRead more understatement, free of coyness or condescension, this is one of the most compellingly dramatised, rhythmically uplifting, charismatically charmed versions of recent years, its bold, grand, savage, sweeping, three-dimensionally involving attack underlining a wealth of refined nuances and charged emotions. Detail is phenomenal, the ensemble glowingly realised, the Act II divertissement thrillingly contrasted and physically exhilarating. Colouring, projection, riotous textural overspill (from 77:42, for instance), climax, novelty (a wonderfully flighted Stravinsky Firebird foreshadowed at 15:50) are everything. Continuity within and between numbers likewise; tempo too (at 81 minutes, this is a brisk reading). Compared with the vintage handling of the old ballet masters (Ansermet, Dorati, Mravinsky), the classic-cut transatlantic dash and elegance of analogue Previn, or the varyingly intense Russian competition of Ashkenazy, Ermler, Fedoseyev, Rozhdestvensky, Svetlanov and Temirkanov, Gergiev’s urgently pressing passion may seem hard and unyielding, but it’s an approach that brings its own rewards, theatrically and structurally. And his musicality is infectious. If you like your Nutcracker fairies all-Russian, wide-screen and super-lit, if you want an up-front orchestral encounter, then this has to be a clear first recommendation. Recorded in the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus last August, the sound balance is grippingly demonstration-class. You almost feel on stage. Terrific.
-- Ates Orga, BBC Music Magazine
Sleeping Beauty
Gergiev is electrically dramatic when the music demands it, the opening of each of the three acts brings crisp vitality. Yet whenever the glorious theme of the Lilac Fairy reappears the graceful affection of the Russian playing is quite lovely, whether solo oboe or flute—as in No. 14, the 'Scene' in Act 2, where the Fairy conjures up the image of the Princess for the melancholy Prince. The strings too are very tender here. Indeed the string playing is a constant pleasure and the expansive finale to the Prologue, again the Lilac Fairy theme, is most successful. Other woodwind solos are full of elegance (there is some really lovely clarinet playing in the Act 1 'Pas de six') and Gergiev matches his dramatic vitality with a delicate sense of fantasy. His gently rocking 'Panorama' is even more subtle in its background rhythmic rocking than Mogrelia's, and the delightful Act 3 'Pas de quatre'—where each of the Fairies appears in turn—is deliciously done. Indeed the whole of the Act 3 'Divertissment' is a joy ('Puss in-boots and the White Cat' have great feline character), and rhythms are always sprightly. In short this is a splendid set.
-- Ivan March, Gramophone [7/1993]
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SACD Review
Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
- The Nutcracker, Op. 71
- Symphony #4 in F Minor, Op. 36
Orchestra & Choir of the Mariinsky Theatre/Valery Gergiev
Mariinsky SACD MAR0593 2 Discs Multichannel Hybrid 129m
Valery Gergiev frequently returns to music he recorded earlier. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but curiously I still haven't heard a refill of his that actually betters the older attempt. That doesn't seem to be happening in this new release on the Mariinsky label either, coupling his 2015 re-recording of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and Fourth Symphony.
Gergiev and his Mariinsky Theatre forces gave us a magnificent Nutcracker back in 1998. After the marketing hype for being 'the first complete Nutcracker on a single CD' had settled down, this not only turned out to be a tremendously high-voltage traversal, a riot of color, but also a visionary piece of fantasy-theatre with a dark undercurrent that dumped most other recordings of the ballet in the candy store kids department. Most of all, it had a clarity of purpose and the sparkle of discovery.
Fast-forward to 2016 and here is Gergiev again with the same orchestra. Gone is the sparkle of discovery and so is the vision that electrified the older recording. It's not exactly a bad Nutcracker (actually it's pretty good one when compared to other recent attempts by Rattle, Järvi and Pletnev), but it's simply not as compelling or revelatory as the previous one. That Gergiev is marginally less fast (84 against 81 min), is not the main issue (although the Chinese Dance is now bizarrely heavy-footed and the Andante maestoso of the Pas de deux suffers from several drops of tension – for example from 2 min. 20). More important is that this Nutcracker has lost its edge and momentum. Gergiev still reveals a magnificent, often dark palette of color and it's always a delight to hear the superb Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in their repertoire, but the fact remains that overall this is a less focused, much cozier, play safe reading, taking its place among the many. It suffices to listen to the long dramatic passage starting with the Departure of the Guests through the Waltz of the Snowflakes. The Battle is now a whole lot less eventful and fierce, and Gergiev's pacing in the ensuing Pine forest and the Waltz no longer grabs you by the hand (or the throat) as he did so brilliantly in his older disc. The Mariinsky recording is warm and detailed, emphasizing the lower brass to good effect, although the timpani could ideally have been balanced more forwardly.
What prevents me from giving this release a wholehearted recommendation however is the recording of the Fourth Symphony. Tchaikovsky's Fourth has to my ears always been the least successful of the six in Gergiev's hands and this recent take seems to have gone even further south. The flaws and mannerisms of the earlier live recording filmed in Paris in 2011 (available on DVD and Blu-ray), or noted in the concerts I attended that year, are now a major letdown. Gergiev seems bent on underplaying the anguish of this symphony with an ultra-refined treatment and extra careful tempi. Yet the result is a first movement that sounds hesitant, almost timid, with climaxes that make no impact whatsoever. Gergiev's tempo fluctuations are often gratuitous, and nowhere more so than in the development section just before the return of the fate theme. Worse, the Andantino is no longer in modo di canzona but resembles a sluggish religious procession which turns in circles. The Scherzo makes a better impression, while the Finale kicks off with plenty of drive and brilliant orchestral playing, only to return to dragging mode when the main theme is heard in the strings only (at 3 min. 45). Again, there is so much to admire in the playing of the Mariinsky Orchestra (what beautiful woodwinds), but it all feels like a huge waste.
For the Fourth Symphony the old (now historic) favorites Mravinsky, Svetlanov, Fricsay, Karajan, and others still hold their ground, while for the full-length Nutcracker one can safely stick with Doráti, Jansons, Rozhdestvensky, and… Gergiev 1998.
Copyright © 2016, Marc Haegeman