Scorching Tchaikovsky by Karl Bohm and Czech Philharmonic

Beethoven: Piano Concerto no.5 "Emperor"
Tchaikovsky: Symphony no 4. in F minor

Emil Gilels, piano
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Karl Bohm, conductor.



I ordered this from the net after reading this review here. Karl Boehm is one of truly great giants of Teutonic conducting in my opinion the greatest baton holder worthy to be compared alongside Furtwangler and Klemperer. Anybody who is familiar with his discography knows his repertoire covers almost exclusively composers of the Austro-Germanic tradition; R.Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner. When one hears Karl Boehm conducts Tchaikovsky 4th with Czech Philharmonic naturally a classical music enthusiast would pick up the CD immedietly for: it is unusual for him to conduct a work outside of his usual suspects; Mozart, Strauss to name. Secondly the Czech Philharmonic is under-represented on records as compared with its more illustrious counterparts such as Berlin, Vienna Philharmonics and Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. The ensemble has a truly unique sound; it has some dark, military characteristic of Russian orchestras such as the Leningrad Philharmonic yet unlike it's counterpart the oboes for example are brilliant sounding. And the french horns, wow! The czech horns are flamboyant, yet distinctively mellow like the Viennese horns and you can hear that in the opening bars of the first movement, in my opinion the most memorable I've heard - period. Those notes announcing Fate is the most distinctive I've hears since Beethoven's Fifth.

Despite not a prominent Tchaikovsky specialist, Bohm highlights the architectural grace reminiscent of his ballet works especially in the quiet moments of the first movement and the whole Andante. Being a live performance, the dramatic parts are scorching and the last movement has never sounded so redemptive and victorious. The scherzo was the only weak part with the trumpet chords sounded a little shaky. Kurt Sanderling's Scherzo with the Leningrad Philharmonic remains my ideal, with it's cheeky piccolo solo and flawless trumpet chords.

That being said, I find the Emperor disappointing. It has got to do more with the engineering than the performance which made the orchestra sounded distant and lack oomph, especially in the bass department. Still the Adagio is one of the most gorgeous interpretations ever and judging from the bonus rehearsal footage, Boehm gave more attention to shaping the orchestral accompaniment for Gilels. I do not think still you would want to pass a simply electrifying Tchaikovsky 4th with a truly unique collaboration of artists.


Emperor:

Technical: 8
Interpretation: 9
Recording: 6

Tchaikovsky:

Technical: 9
Interpretation: 9
Recording: 10