[SACD-R][OF] Daniele Gatti, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor Op. 64 & Romeo and Juliet - 2003 (Classical)

A 5th to rank beside the best is joined by Gatti’s heartfelt Romeo and Juliet.” The Gramophone
“In Daniele Gatti’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth the detail of the wind scoring is continually and vividly revealed, helped by some superb playing from the RPO’s soloists. Tempos are close to the composer’s metronome markings, somewhat faster than usually heard.
The result in the first movement is invigorating, the forward thrust carrying from beginning to end. The primary secondary theme is graceful and Romantic, rather than ardently passionate in a Slavic manner. The great climaxes of the slow movement are spacious but not viscerally overwhelming, and the powerful interruptions of the motto theme are less theatrical than usual.
The Abbey Road recording is first class, fullbodied, with resplendent brass, and glowing woodwind and horns. Perhaps the massed violins lack a little weight, but the overall sonority has the necessary depth and amplitude for Tchaikovsky.
Gatti’s acount of Romeo and Juliet is superbly characterised. It opens chillingly, then introduces the great love theme very gently, followed by the most delicate moonlight sequence. The central climax, with the reintroduction of the Friar Lawrence theme, is terrific, and the love theme blooms gloriously in a great curving sweep of violins. What more can you ask?”
~Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-5-Tchaikovsky/dp/B0006OS7A0/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&a...06346&sr=1-1
Allmusic review:
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.