Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker; Orchestral Suites Nos. 3 & 4 (Antal Doráti)

Information

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

• The Nutcracker, Op. 71
• Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G major, Op. 55
• Orchestral Suite No. 4 in G major, Op. 61 - "Mozartiana"

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

New Philharmonia Orchestra

Antal Doráti, conductor

Date: 1975; 1967

Label: Philips

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Review

Antal Dorati’s Mercury recordings helped put him on the map as a Tchaikovsky conductor and his years as a ballet conductor helped him win a similar reputation for now-classic recordings of major ballets. Both sides of Dorati and Tchaikovsky are on display in this welcome Philips 50 reissue. The Nutcracker, made in 1975 with the Concertgebouw, is a delight, with some terrific orchestral playing (especially the winds) and springy rhythms. It’s been around in one form or another since it was made and was last sighted on a Philips Duo. That release is effectively superceded by the enhanced sound of this one, which employs a mixdown from 24/96 digital remastering that’s supposed to improve over conventional CD sound. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t; but in this case the orchestra is fuller, more detailed, more involving.

To a slightly lesser extent, the same applies to Suites Nos. 3 and 4, the best of the four Suites for Orchestra Tchaikovsky composed between 1879 and 1887. Originally recorded for Mercury in 1966 and now an audiophile collector’s item, all four suites were available in fine remasterings as another Philips Duo collection. Here’s hoping Philips restores the first two to circulation, but the current pairing also makes sense, for the Suites often sound like ballet scores, full of danceable rhythms and catchy melodies. Suite No. 3 opens with a nostalgic Elegy before moving on to a lilting melancholy voice of the kind Tchaikovsky could write in his sleep. Then, after a bright Scherzo comes a final Theme and Variations movement as long as the first three movements combined. Tchaikovsky’s virtuoso writing, including an extended solo part for violin here played with lovely tone by Hugh Bean, helps make it the finest of the lot. Suite No. 4 is based on Mozart works, ending with a Theme and Variations that includes prominent solo turns for clarinet and violin. Everybody knows the Nutcracker, which has become a seasonal standby for the little tykes and their beleaguered parents, but the Suites’ comparative obscurity always has puzzled me. Perhaps this fine reissue will win them more friends. [6/14/2001]

-- Dan Davis

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Antal Doráti (9 April 1906 – 13 November 1988) was a Hungarian-born American conductor. He was a student of Bartók, Kodály and Leó Weiner at the Liszt Academy. Doráti made his American debut in 1937 and was music director of the American Ballet Theater from 1941 to 1945. He went on to conduct the Dallas Symphony (1945–49), Minneapolis Symphony (1949–60), BBC Symphony (1963–66), Stockholm Philharmonic (1966–70), Washington National Symphony (1970–77), Royal Philharmonic (1975–78), and Detroit Symphony (1977–81). Over the course of his career he made over 600 recordings for various labels.

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