Search - Maurice Abravanel :: Tchaikovsky: Complete Symphonies, Overtures

Bargain price, but is this a bargain?

Alan Majeska | Bad Axe, MI, USA | 11/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony made a number of fine recordings for Vox, Vanguard, and Westminster in the 1960s and 1970s, especially of Milhaud, Harris, Copland and other 20th century composers. Abravanel, who became conductor of the Utah Symphony in the late 1940s, is credited as having raised the musicians' standard of playing, and getting the orchestra increased recognition through new recordings released during the early stereo era (late 1950s on).



The Utah Symphony plays well enough, but they do not have the power of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy, the Cleveland Orchestra under Szell, the Chicago Symphony under Reiner, in other words, of the major American orchestras. They are professional and more than competant, but do not have the lush string tone for Tchaikovsky's great moments. Therefore, you may find this wanting a bit for power in climaxes, and the louder parts of slow movements. When stacked against the best recordings of the Tchaikovsky Symphonies, Abravanel comes up short, sounding bland and unexciting.



However, there are some good recordings in this collection. Abravanel's Tchaikovsky Symphonies 1 and 2 are better than many recordings of these works, but there are exposed violin parts in Symphony 1: IV which are scratchy and out of tune. These parts are HARD to play, however, but the Utah Symphony doesn't have the precision of the Boston Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas (DG) or the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan (DG), for example. Abravenel's Symphony 3 is also better than some, but not the best: dry acoustics make this rather lackluster sounding. Better for Symphony 3 is the Polish National Orchestra/Antoni Wit (Naxos).



Symphony 4 sounds good to me, but is a little light: it could use more power in the stormy pages of I, and the furious swirling passages of IV. For Symphonies 5 and 6, the competition is tough: lots of very fine recordings, so they suffer a little in comparison. 5 is especially dry; 6 fares better than 5, but neither can compare to Ormandy (Sony), Bernstein (Sony), or Wit (Naxos).



MANFRED is better than some, but again inferior to the best: Muti (EMI), Previn (EMI) or Markevitch/LSO (Philips). 1812 and Marche Slave are both excellent, Francesca less so - the lush string sound thing again.



So is this a bargain? For about $15.00, you get 7 major works and a bunch of discmates, but if you already have the great recordings listed above, you don't need this. I tend to go at the Tchaikovsky Symphonies disc by disc: Tilson Thomas/Boston (Symphony 1, DG); Markevitch/London Symphony (2, Philips);

Wit/Polish National (3, Naxos); Ormandy/Philadelphia(4, Sony);

Wit/Polish National (5, Naxos); Ormandy (6, Sony) are all suggested alternatives, but there are certainly many other excellent ones."

Careful - Misprinted copies!

Mare Astra | United States | 03/26/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As others have said in their reviews, the Utah Symphony Orchestra does a good job, but does not overwhelm the listener with passion. Overall, a good buy to get all the symphonies in one collection.



HOWEVER, it seems that at least one release of this set contains a misprint where Disc 1 is actually another artist and genre altogether! My disc 1 is some sort of Gospel CD, and even looking it up in the CCDB database didn't turn up the artist or title. Perhaps Amazon will replace your copy if you have one of the misprints, but VOXBOX will NOT. So buy with care."

Outstanding Tchaikovsky Performances at a Super-Budget Price

goodmusicman | USA | 03/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 5-CD set of Tchaikovsky's symphonies and overtures with the Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel is worth a whole lot more than it costs. While the Utah SO is smaller and less polished than world class ensembles such as the Philadelphia Orchestra or the Berlin PO, its conductor, M. Abravanel, had a natural flair for Tchaikovsky and renders outstanding performances of all but one work featured here. The standouts are the Manfred Symphony and the Fourth Symphony, both among the very best I have ever heard, and I am very picky about performances of these two works! The Manfred is given a dramatic and exciting account that doesn't get bogged down in the weightiness of the tragedy but still succeeds in capturing all the drama of Byron's story. This performance now surpasses by previous favorite--Markevitch/LSO--which, despite the virtuosity and Russian sound that Markevitch coaxes out of the LSO, doesn't have the level of commitment or excitement that the Utah players under Abravanel bring to it. This performance also has far better sound quality than the Markevitch and Abravanel's overall conception is far superior to recent recordings such as the overly heavy Jurowski/LPO. The relative small size of the Utah orchestra isn't even a liability here. The same goes for the Fourth Symphony, given a very exciting performance, in which the drama of the Fate theme is given prominence in the outer movements and the inner movements are carried along swiftly and with forward propulsion. The brass section is very strong and I don't find the strings lacking here. This performance is the most enjoyable one that I own. (Mravinsky's Leningrad account on DG is more hard-hitting but less enjoyable to listen to.) Among the overtures, the standout is Marche Slave, given a crackerjack performance that really brings down the house--one of the best Marche Slaves out there.



The remaining symphonies are all done really well: The Polish (No. 3) is given the most exciting performance I've ever heard (although it's still Tchaikovsky's weakest symphony). The First and Second are, again, very exciting, especially the finales. The Sixth is the most classically poised performance I've heard; the lean textures of the orchestra bring a clarity (details that are rarely heard) to this symphony that is exceptional. Abravanel's deliberate pacing makes this Sixth dramatic but not disturbing (unlike Mravinsky's classic Leningrad account). The Fifth is my least favorite performance in this set, mainly because the string section isn't lush enough for this work and because the recording is a bit dry. But Abravanel gives it all he's got; there's no faulting his tempos or overall approach. The last three minutes are actually among the most exciting I've ever heard. The 1812 Overture is great--incisively played, and with exciting effects at the end. Hamlet is very exciting and melodramatic, as it should be. Romeo and Juliet is done very well, just lacking a bit in the strings. The only dud is Francesca da Rimini, which despite Abravanel's efforts, is too tepid. (It's still better than Jarvi's lame performance on Chandos.)



The sound quality for these 1972-73 performances is really great, among the best of analog recordings and better than many digital recordings! This set is worthwhile just for the Manfred and Fourth Symphony performances. With three additional CDs with great performances, this set would be worth buying at double the price they're asking. At the asking price, one would be foolish not to grab this one."