Tchaikovsky - Symphony 6 [Pletnev-Russian National Orchestra]Another disc that i amalgamated into a two disc set, this time with Mariss Jansons Chandos disc, that's why there's the Chandos address on the back insert.
Mikhail Pletnev is a Russian Conductor, born in 1957, he made this recording in 1991, the Russian National Orchestra was the brainchild of Pletnev, he formed the orchestra in 1990, and this Sixth by Tchaikovsky was their first recording, and highly rated by the critics too.
I must admit i really enjoyed the third movement Allegro Molto Vivace, in effect it's the Scherzo of the Symphony, which starts off with bustling / bubbling strings, in a duet with the chattering woodwinds [0:00-0:23], it certainly starts off lively, but compared to later, the volume is fairly controlled, and it's this slow volume increase throughout the whole movement that i now notice, and just over half way, there's a build up in volume, mainly by the brass, which explodes into a cacophony of different brass competing with one another [4:55-5:04], and then there's one humongous loud drum thud [5:04], and the frenzied swirling strings weave around and around with the woodwind [5:04-5:14], this is the very best bit of this movement for me, however the rest that follows keeps up this military frenzy [5:15+], it's hard to pick out one thing in particular, as it's all so equally very good indeed, the low and high brass fanfares duetting [6:20-6:28], nice cymbal crash [6:31], and then military trumpet blasts [6:36, 6:39, 6:50 & 6:53], the incessant strings [7:00-7:13], the deep drum rumblings [7:20-7:30], the piccolo squeal! [7:37], and then the finale, with whistling piccolos [7:45+], and the brass and the drums take us out with a precision finish that stops completely dead! [8:03], it's this frenzy that goes from almost happy bubbly peacetime at the beginning, to almost all out military war by the end!, which is breathtaking, the Adagio afterwards sounds like an afterthought.
Here's Riccardo Muti conducting the third movement on YouTube.
