Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniele Gatti – Tchaikovsky: Symphony 6 in B minor “Pathétique” Op. 74 (2006)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,98 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,21 GB | Full Artwork | 3% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi USA # HMU 807394 | Country/Year: Europe 2006
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

By now, the most you can hope for from a new recording of one of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies is not originality of conception but a performance that seizes on a particular (if familiar) element of the work and successfully runs with it. In his live recording on Naïve, Riccardo Muti makes the anguish in the first movement of Symphony 6 seem an end-of-the-world crisis. Herbert von Karajan’s outings with the Berlin Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon give the first-movement rhythms the pulsing regularity of a heartbeat that abruptly stops, with bone-chilling effect.

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Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniele Gatti – Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5 & Romeo & Juliet (2004)
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 3,12 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,04 GB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi USA # HMU 807381 | Country/Year: Europe 2004 | 3% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

Review by Blair Sanderson
Considering that the marketplace is saturated with too many recordings of the same masterpieces, there ought to be compelling reasons to record works as overplayed as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Romeo and Juliet. Daniele Gatti takes the position that Tchaikovsky’s original tempi and dynamics have been ignored for generations and that restoration of these markings presents the works in a dramatically different light. Faster tempi make a real difference, and the music sounds less tortured and maudlin at Gatti’s brisk clip. The symphony has a clear trajectory, and Romeo and Juliet is more combative and driven without the usual languid pacing. But the speed of the performances is possibly less interesting than Gatti’s close attention to dynamics, for this is where the works benefit most. Tchaikovsky’s orchestration is brilliant in Gatti’s lucid and finely gauged readings, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra offers great depth of sound and vivid timbral distinctions. Is the restoration Earth-shattering? Perhaps not to the extent that Baroque works sound radically changed in authentic re-creations. With Tchaikovsky, the differences are subtle and may be less obvious to the untrained ear. Even so, these are refreshing alternatives to the commonplace performances of the past, and Gatti’s reappraisal of these warhorses opens a new area for debate. allmusicguide

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Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniele Gatti – Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 & Capriccio Italien op. 45 (2005)
SACD ISO: 2,89 GB (Stereo + MCH DSD) | FLAC @ 24bit/88.2kHz: 930 MB | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi USA # HMU 807393 | Country/Year: Europe 2005 | 3% Rec. Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

Review by James Leonard
This is really good! No matter how little faith one has in the possibility that anyone could breathe life into a warhorse like Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Daniele Gatti has done it with the Royal Philharmonic in this 2005 recording for Harmonia Mundi. Coupled with the equally venerable and equally successful Capriccio Italien, Gatti turns in performances that rip and roar, that excite and inspire, performances so cogent and compelling, so strong and sincere that they even make the doubter believe that Tchaikovsky knew what he was doing as a composer after his nearly fatal nervous breakdown after his spectacularly failed marriage attempt. But Gatti’s control of tempo and texture and his attention to color and line do more than breathe life into Tchaikovsky’s Fourth, his conducting puts some backbone into it. Gatti’s rhythms have real muscle, his developments have real point, and his forms have real power, and when combined with the composer’s glorious melodies and expressive harmonies, this Fourth shakes, rattles, and rolls. The Royal Philharmonic’s performance is first class with sweeping strings, warms winds, bold brass, a percussion section of tremendous might and majesty, and an ensemble both characterful and unified. If old timer stereo buffs still hold to the iron-handed Mravinsky or the leather-gloved Abbado, even they will have to admit that only Jansons of digital recordings comes close to Gatti in making the case for Tchaikovsky’s Fourth as a masterful symphony. Harmonia Mundi’s English-based recorded sound is just as clear and bright as its French- or American-based recorded sound, but also warmer and lusher and more vivid. allmusicguide

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