Tchaikovsky "Pathetique" Symphony - Klemperer Philharmonia

Nope

Some time ago I prepared quite a long review of I think Berlioz Syphonie Fantastique. I sent it to you and you didn’t publish it. So I thought never again !

Excellent Tchaikovsky, excellent recording, excellent transfer

Three cheers for Michael F's review below. I completely concur and will add just a few further comments. One of the most grand, and possibly revered, performances in a catalog filled with excellent recordings of this great symphony. Klemperer and Tchaikovsky just seem to be made for one another—at least in performances in the grand romantic tradition. Klemperer has a reputation of being sloooow. And in some performances I agree with this criticism. But not here. Here I find Klemperer simply deliberate. Deliberate with very telling impact. Klemperer believed in giving attention to every detail of a composition. As he grew older his tendency to slow things down seemed to get more and more extreme. Audiences found his readings either monumentally satisfying or monumentally boring. And his reading of the Sixth will offer grist for both mills. And yet, and yet... I'll fall into the "monumentally satisfying" camp regarding this performance. The deliberate pacing simply works for me. I'm sucked in. I'm relishing every bit, every turn, every drawn out phrase. The first movement opens beautifully and builds flawlessly. And joy of joys, this is all done without sentimentality. It is very straight forward. Klemperer simply allows the music to speak for itself (unlike some other conductors intent on beating us over the head). And the sound quality. Oh my, yes. What EMI captured here in Kingsway Hall is to be celebrated for the excellence of recorded orchestral sound for which the best EMI's are known. It is closeup (for an EMI) without edginess. The strings are silky, rich and purely lovely. The stage depth is not immense, but still satisfying. And the impact of brass and percussion is immense. Another excellent release from HDTT in an excellent transfer.

Powerful and unyielding Tchaikovsky

One normally associates Klemperer with the German Romantic composers in performances that remind one of music chiseled from massive blocks of marble or the vast spaces of a Gothic cathedral. He brings the virtues of musical and textual clarity, musical integrity, and unrelenting force and power of the ocean waves crashing on a stony beach to this 1964 'Pathetique' with the mighty Philharmonia in its glory days. Klemperer reminds one how much Mahler's 9th Symphony - another Klemperer speciality - took from the Tchaikovsky 6. I've heard conductors speak about how emotionally and physically exhausting both Tchaikovsky 6 and Mahler 9 are. In this performance, there is power and resilience. In this transcendent performance, the Philharmonia matches Klemperer's volcanic heat and intensity. The tempi are predictably measured - but these also allow for so many often rushed or ignored contrapuntal details to emerge naturally from the texture. In the final movement, Klemperer finds a primordial tragedy without ever having to exaggerate or distort the musical line. It's a rugged as the funeral march of the Eroica, as final as the last movement of Mahler 9. I've listened through three times since downloading the DSD256 version and am more and impressed and moved with each hearing.