It is a sign of the times, that a new recording of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, like the compilations of reissue material which we have been getting on mid-price CD, nowadays needs a fill-up. The 1812 Overture is a very substantial bonus, but sadly this account of the symphony requires more than that to make it competitive. I would never have recognized this as the work of Rostropovich. Remembering his earlier LP recording, which came as part of a complete Tchaikovsky cycle for EMI with the LPO, I was greatly looking forward to this one of No. 5, made in Washington with his own National Symphony Orchestra.
The earlier version had its wilful moments, but its expansiveness went with spontaneity and freshness, where this time from the slow introduction onwards the tension is surprisingly low. Not only that, quite apart from slack ensemble, rhythms are often stodgy and square, as in the second group of the first movement, which is taken very metrically at a slower speed than usual. The second movement Andante on the other hand is on the fast side, but even so the great horn melody fails to flow in its squareness, and there is little bite in the climaxes, with no expansion at the very peak of the movement, which makes it sound perfunctory.
It is almost as though Rostropovich lost interest in the performance. There is much more to be said for an understated reading of the third movement waltz, and the playing becomes crisper there, but stodginess returns for the introduction to the finale. The Allegro of the finale is exciting enough, with good crisp articulation made the clearer by the rather dry acoustic, though even that movement tends to sound too metrical. The performance is not helped by the recording, which in its dryness makes the violins sound thin and papery. The 1812 Overture, like the symphony, is taken rather squarely, ending in a coda which fails to bring any rush of adrenalin. Whatever the explanation, this issue is a sad disappointment.'