Tchaikovsky Swan Lake

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Label: EMI

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 159

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 555277-2

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Swan Lake Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Philadelphia Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Wolfgang Sawallisch, Conductor
If the conductor has chosen to include the supplementary ''Pas de deux'' and ''Russian Dance in Act 3 (some 13 minutes' worth of music), as Sawallisch has, and the results are squeezed on two CDs (now the norm for 'complete' recordings) then more than likely, 'snips' will have to be made. So full marks to EMI for capacity-filled discs with the minimum necessary missing (two short double bar line repeats in Act 3's early stages), and if you are an avid completist, you may like to know now that Previn's EMI recording has been deleted, that the Sawallisch offers more of Swan Lake than any other current set.
The tail-end of Act 2 spills over on to the second disc, as it does on all but one of the other current two-disc sets. That exception is the recent Dutoit recording (also including both extra Act 3 numbers) which opted for the convenience of two of the four acts 'complete' on each CD. This convenience, though, was at the expense of a few short marked repeats in Act 1, and the identical reprise of the famous swan scene that flanks Act 2. Also missing contrary to Decca's track listing information, were the second and third appearances of the waltz that links Act 2's ''Dance of the Swans'' sequence (its third appearance is no mere repeat, but a more celebratory variant coming immediately after the lovers plight their troth). Such matters, though count for little when set against the achievement of the whole and, like IM who in his original review of the Dutoit, regarded it ''as a clear first choice'', I too felt that Dutoit deserved the top recommendation in a recent BBC Radio 3 ''Building a Library'' (a strong alternative was Mark Ermler, who only omits the supplementary Act 3 ''Pas de deux'' if you respond to no-holds-barred, energising Russian conducting). At the time of my radio review (September 1994), this new Sawallisch set was unavailable for consideration.
Forest, lake, moonlight and melancholy, these are the scenes that find Sawallisch in his element. The superb solo oboe is free to float his sad song in the swan scene (end of Act 1 and beginning and end of Act 2, how marvellous to hear the slurred staccato so well taken)- the tempo is broad, the perspective deep, and Sawallisch's control of dynamics and his fluid pace (different in all three scenes) is masterly; very effective indeed are the tenutos on the horns' long notes when they take over the theme (disc one, track 19). Also impressive is the ballet's storm-tossed finale, less elemental at the start than Dutoit or Ermler, but the moment these strings ride that storm, you know you are in Philadelphia. At this point, Sawallisch loosens the reins on his elsewhere tightly controlled brass (Dutoit's use of the brass is more judiciously opportunist; Ermler's is rousing and often raucous).
Sawallisch does appear to encourage his cornet in the ''Neapolitan dance'', but the effect is coarse rather than stylishly corny, and this, I think, is significant—in the more spirited dances, particularly the national dances in Act 3, the Philadelphia team lack flair and a party mood. Slowish tempos are only part of the problem (but a major part). Take the Act 3 ''Mazurka'' (disc two, track 23): the dance does have a certain aristocratic pride of bearing, and should not be taken too fast, but Sawallisch's ''Mazurka'' is a plod, not only as a result of the slow tempo, but because of the heavy accenting of the first beat in the bar (Dutoit puts the accent on the second and is more mobile).
In general, Sawallisch uses a narrow range of tempos: Tchaikovsky's slower dances, such as the ''Intrada'' to the Act 1 ''Pas de trois'', can initially seem surprisingly brisk, and the difference between the Antlante and the Allegro in the second part of the succeeding ''Pas de deux'' is small (there is also a slight but detectable increase in recording levels in this central portion of Act 1, the violin solo in the latter piece is particularly loud). Arguably, this moderation of speed brings an appreciable continuity to the musical scheme of things, and is a welcome corrective to the short-term, maximum contrast approach. For what it's worth, I feel that the symphonic aspirations of the ballet can be over-stressed, and it is significant that Sawallisch is at his most convincing in the most obviously 'symphonic' section of the score the whole of Act 4. Significant, too, is Sawallisch's complete avoidance of the familiar theatrical tricks of the trade such as rhetorical slowings at the ends of numbers.
EMI's sound, apart from an occasional hollow 'ring' to tuttis, is full, spacious and well balanced. Woodwind are more consistently featured than on the Dutoit or Ermler sets, and percussion is well controlled. A word of praise for the editing: all too often continuity is broken by excessive gaps during sequences and between numbers, but EMI's editor knows exactly when to break, if at all, and by how much. The tracking is generous, the documentation, wide ranging, and the presentation, classy. All in all, a deeply considered seriously intentioned Swan Lake; one to stir the mind, if not the limbs.'

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