TCHAIKOVSKY: The Seasons

Nishizaki, Takako;
Breiner, Peter;
Queensland Symphony Orchestra

8.553510

If Tchaikovsky’s 12 Seasons are to be arranged for violin, Takako Nishizaki is surely their ideal exponent, for she plays with delicacy and charm. She readily catches their moments of nostalgia as in January (‘By the Fireside’), Russian melancholy, as in March (‘Song of the Lark’) and their miniaturism, as in the April portrait of a ‘Snowdrop’,and she is in her element in the engaging ‘Barcarolle’, which Tchaikovsky chose for June. The scherzando for August, picturing ‘The Harvest’, also neatly scored, and in all the gentle numbers Peter Breiner’s orchestrations are felicitous. If the fully scored items (the February ‘Carnival’ and the brassy picture of the September ‘Hunt’) are rather inflated by the resonant acoustic, these arrangements overall can be counted a modest success, alongside those of the piano pieces from Op. 40 (the Danse russe will be recognized from Swan Lake), while the closing Rêverie has a proper salon daintiness.. • Penguin Guide, January 2009

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

11-02-2003

730099451024