Tchaikovsky – Symphony No.6 in B Minor, Pathétique
Vienna Symphony Orchestra;
Philippe Jordan
Wiener Symphoniker CD WS 006
This CD was issued late last year and has just come my way. It is rather special. Philippe Jordan is a young Swiss conductor, now 40, the son of conductor Armin Jordan. He is presently music director of the Opera National de Paris and conducts in opera houses around the world. Included in his operas on Opus Arte DVDs are the unforgettable Covent Garden Salome with Nadja Michael and the flamboyant Glyndebourne Carmen with Anne Sophie von Otter.
As the new chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Jordan turns in a meticulously prepared, articulate performance worthy of top honours among the legions of available recordings. Over the years conductors have fallen into the inherited conventions of drawing out the maximum drama and pathos at many accepted points in the score. And audiences attending concerts or at home look for and expect these.
Jordan does little more than make incremental changes in tempi which may be noted or not as we listen to the most refreshing performance around. The orchestra’s sound is easily distinguished from the Philharmonic, being not nearly as opulent but with impeccable ensemble and polish, particularly in the strings and winds. The listener may wish Jordan would let the orchestra loose at certain places but that doesn’t happen until the last movement and the climax of the entire work comes with the final outburst a few pages from the close.
In sum, all the conventional performance traditions are gone and a clearer Tchaikovsky emerges. The dynamic range of the performance is extraordinary, particularly in the first and last movements. Recorded in the Musikverein we are privy to every nuance, so well-captured in every detail.
