Tchaikovsky - Overtures
Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Pappano
Release date January 2007
EMI 370 0652

Tchaikovsky - Symphonies Nos.4-6
Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Pappano
Release date February 2007
EMI 353 2582 (2CDs)

Antonio Pappano made his name as an opera conductor, assisting Daniel Barenboim at Bayreuth, followed by a distinguished tenure at the Monnaie Theatre in Brussels and currently as Music Director at Covent Garden. In recent years he has also been building a career in the concert hall, and in this EMI Tchaikovsky project with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia he directs performances of true symphonic grip and cohesiveness, never sacrificing the long-term view for short-term thrills. All three symphonies go well; the Santa Cecilia orchestra boasts some outstanding wind players, and Pappano gives them plenty of space without losing sight of the long-term pulse. Only an occasional thinness of violin tone above the stave betrays an ensemble of less-than-premiere-league status. That is particularly noticeable in Fransesca da Rimini, where the strings are pressed to the limit. It’s a very fine performance nevertheless, with the transition into the ‘love music’ beautifully achieved by Pappano and his excellent Principal Clarinet. Perhaps the highlight of the overtures disc is Romeo and Juliet, in which the strings excel themselves in the ‘love music’, and Pappano screws the tension of the Montagues and Capulets music ever higher with each appearance. It was a nice idea to include a chorus in the Onegin Waltz, which is dispatched with élan by all concerned. The chorus also turns up in what EMI describes as the ‘original’ version of the 1812 Overture. It’s nothing of the kind, being a 20th century concoction by one Igor Buketoff, but it’s fun to hear, and typically, Pappano avoids empty rhetoric, bringing authority and dignity to the final pages. I do hope that EMI will encourage him to explore more Tchaikovsky – I’d love to hear this team in the Suites and the ballets, and much else besides. Decent recorded sound and good notes, but no texts and translations, which is not acceptable for a full-priced issue.

Sandy Matheson