Life and Fate: The Last Tchaikovsky

Read reviews

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony (1888) dates from a phase in his life when he was already a successful and internationally respected composer. Only in Russia were his new works still frequently the object of fierce criticism, which led the renowned critic Herman Laroche to conclude that in his homeland, he had only been taught how to compose according to expectations. In reality, it was Tchaikovsky himself who, despite his many triumphs, was relentlessly self-critical, often uncertain about the value of his own scores, which he submitted to others for judgement (such as his pupil Sergei Taneyev, whom he trusted). Even as a composer of symphonic music, he did not yet feel genuinely accomplished, although he had already written four great symphonies besides Manfred.

Following the Beethovenian model of “per aspera ad astra”, the Fifth Symphony was thus an attempt to purposefully show off his talent to Europe and the world. However, this was somewhat at odds with the composer’s desire to express his inner world and philosophy, which was imbued with pessimism. The theme of fate and adverse circumstances was already central in the Fourth Symphony, and the Fifth also attempts to thematise major existential topics such as life, death, fate and love. Tchaikovsky’s view of fate was wholly undermined by pessimism, but the “per aspera ad astra” model presupposed a triumphant conclusion. This ambivalence led to Tchaikovsky’s dissatisfaction, as he felt that the finale was not sincere or authentic. The entire symphony is, therefore, characterised by a high degree of ambiguity, both on an emotional and psychological level. It is a symphony that is both pessimistic and triumphant. [..]

Read more in the booklet

Markus Poschner, Chefdirigent Orchestra della Svizzera italiana

Following the start of his tenure as Principal Conductor in 2015, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana has continued to evolve into unquestionably one of the most accomplished ensembles in Europe. Their shared vision to explore less familiar pathways in interpretation and programming has won the orchestra and Markus Poschner many international awards, such as the coveted International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in 2018 for their Brahms Symphony Cycle for Sony Classical.

After receiving the German Conductors’ Award in 2004, Markus Poschner has made regular guest appearances with all the leading orchestras and opera houses on the classical circuit, including: the Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Netherlands Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo as well as the Berlin State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Stuttgart State Opera and Zurich Opera.

Markus Poschner and the Orchestre National de France were recently honoured with the 2020 German Record Critics’ Annual Award for their recording of Offenbach’s Maître Péronilla. Since 2017 he has concurrently served as Chief Conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in Austria where he and the ensemble were named Conductor and Orchestra of the Year in 2020 for their successful work in the interpretation of Bruckner’s music.

After studies in Munich as well as assisting Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Colin Davis, Markus Poschner began his career as First Kapellmeister at the Komische Oper in Berlin. From 2007 until 2017 he was General Music Director of the Bremen Philharmonic. In July 2010 the University of Bremen made him an Honorary Professor, and in 2020 the Anton Bruckner University in Linz bestowed the same title upon him.

He conducted the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra for the first time at their sensational guest appearance in Abu Dhabi in Wagner’s Die Walküre. Then he opened the Bayreuth Festival with Tristan und Isolde in July 2022 and also conducted the same production there at the 2023 festival.

Orchestra della Svizzera italiana

As the resident orchestra at the LAC (Lugano Arte e Cultura, Ticino, Switzerland), the OSI continues to enjoy success under the baton of Markus Poschner, its Principal Conductor since 2015. In recent years, it has been enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike in major concert halls throughout Europe, from the gilded hall of the Musikverein in Vienna to the Philharmonie in Berlin, from the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg to the Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, and from the Opernhaus in Frankfurt to the Brucknerhaus in Linz. From November 2022, the Principal Guest Conductor of the OSI is Krzysztof Urbański, succeeding Vladimir Ashkenazy in this role.

The orchestra regularly plays a leading role in two main concert series in Lugano: one, “OSI al LAC”, runs from autumn to spring in the Sala Teatro; the other, “OSI in Auditorio”, takes place in January and February in the orchestra’s longtime home, the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano Besso. These were augmented as of 2022 by the innovative “be connected” series offering events and special concerts across Italian Switzerland to arouse the interest of new audiences and to promote the identity of the OSI in places where certain barriers and prejudices with regard to classical music still seem to exist.

Its wide-ranging concert programming has seen the orchestra collaborate not only with Poschner and Urbański, but with various other conductors and with many internationally renowned soloists, both in Italian Switzerland and outside the region: among the foremost of these are Martha Argerich, with whom the OSI has enjoyed a special relationship for more than twenty years, and the cellist Sol Gabetta, with whom the orchestra has been developing a long-term partnership, culminating in the Presenza festival at the LAC in Lugano during Whitsun, which began in 2022. Also under continuous development are concert activities in Bellinzona, where the orchestra appears regularly for a variety of events each year. [..]

Read more in the booklet

REVIEWS

Crescendo Magazine

« [..] À la manière de Zelter, le professeur de Fröhlich, mais aussi de Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814), autre ami de Goethe, une unité lyrique et musicale règne tout au long de ce récital racé et élégant, et l’ambiance qui règne est celle d’une réelle fraîcheur d’inspiration. Le ténor suisse Raphael Höhn (°1984), qui a étudié à Zurich et à La Haye et a été lauréat du Concours international de Leipzig en 2016, s’investit avec une conviction communicative, grâce à une voix sensible aux nuances et aux subtilités des lieder, à la fois mélancoliques et légers. Le pianiste américain Shin Hwang, qui a étudié au Michigan, mais aussi à La Haye et à Freiburg, joue ici sur un pianoforte du facteur viennois Donat Schöfstoss (1773-1811), construit entre 1804 et 1811, qui est la propriété du Musée Blumenstein de Solothurn, en Suisse. Un plaisir esthétique vient s’ajouter, grâce à la sonorité chaleureuse de cet instrument ancien, créant ainsi un climat qui rend justice aux lieder raffinés de Fröhlich. Une belle découverte, qui plaira aux amateurs du genre. » - Jean Lacroix, novembre 2023

Das Orchester

« [..] Wenn sich heute in den Konzertprogrammen eine der „großen“ Sinfonien Tschaikowskys ankündigt, ist das zweifellos ein Grund zu besonderer Freude für alle Konzertbesucher: Die vierte, fünfte und sechste Sinfonie des russischen Meisters zählen nun einmal zu den „Schlachtrössern“ des Genres und der heutige Konzertbesucher reibt sich verwundert die Augen (und vielleicht auch die Ohren), wenn er vernimmt, dass Tschaikowsky gerade mit seiner Fünften, seiner „Schicksalssymphonie“ so gar nicht zufrieden war. Er hielt sie für „zu bunt, zu massig, zu unaufrichtig, zu lang und überhaupt wenig ansprechend.“

Nun, wohl, man kann dieses Werk auch weniger gelungen interpretieren. Ganz anders selbstverständlich bei und unter Poschner: Hier wird eine höchst ansprechende und schön bunte Sinfonie intoniert. Man fragt sich etwas erstaunt, wo Poschner so viel und so gut „Russisch“ gelernt haben mag. Seine Interpretation mit den äußerst präzisen und einfühlsamen Italoschweizern z. B. [..]» - Friedemann Kluge, August 2024

MusicWeb International

“A lyrical, transparent account of the Fifth with an interesting condensed finale, and a good Sixth of no special distinction.”

“[..] To sum up, while I find the new, abridged finale of the Fifth Symphony to be an interesting success and the performances of both symphonies here to be satisfactory, neither dislodges my established favourite recordings. The double CD set is neatly packaged in a folding cardboard wallet. Unfortunately, running to just over a normal CD length, it is priced for two CDs; two symphonies are offered, of course, but a bonus or two such as an overture, fantasia or tone poem, would have been welcome.” - Ralph Moore, February 2024

Musik und Theater

«In wenigen Jahren hat der deutsche Dirigent Markus Poschner das Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI) zu einem der besten Klangkörper der Schweiz geformt. Seit 2017 betreut der 52-jährige Münchner auch das Bruckner- Orchester in Linz und wurde da für seine Bruckner-Aufführungen 2020 zum «Dirigenten des Jahres» gekürt. Jetzt also hat er in Lugano mit dem OSI die beiden letzten Sinfonien Tschaikowsky eingespielt und der schier unübersehbar grossen Diskographie zwei konkurrenzfähige Deutungen hinzugefügt. [..] Wir erleben hier in filigraner Polyphonie die unglaubliche Farbenpracht, Vielfalt und gut ausgehörte Schönheit der Instrumentationskunst Tschaikowskys, der hier einen ganz eigenen Weg der sinfonischen Entwicklung jenseits des Wagnerschen Mischklangs einschlug, und es wird klar, dass es sich um zwei der bedeutendsten Orchesterwerke der Romantik handelt trotz der von «Experten» immer wieder vorgebrachten Ressentiments. Das breite Publikum hat sie stets mehr gewürdigt als die Wortführer des musikalischen «Fortschritts». Poschners betont sachlicher Umgang mit Tschaikowskys überquellenden Lebensenergien lässt das innere Programm beider Sinfonien noch stärker, noch intensiver leuchten.» - Mai 2024

Pizzicato

“Markus Poschner has something to say in Tchaikovsky’s Fifth. He makes the first movement very significant with sharp contrasts between deep sadness and almost exuberant high spirits. As this exuberance seems totally unnatural, like a compulsion or the expression of a drug-induced high, it ultimately only shows how deep the real pain is, which becomes clear again in the weariness at the beginning of the second movement, before the horn nostalgically evokes reminiscences of better days, which the composer also tries to push aside extremely harshly. The Andante thus also becomes a very agitated image of a torn soul. The nonchalance of the self-deceiving waltz is also disturbing.

Poschner brings the symphony to a close with great excitement in the finale and this seems to spill over into the Sixth, which becomes very nervous after the somber introduction. This urge, the seemingly rushed race towards the end, also characterizes the next two movements and prepares the collapse in the fourth movement, which Poschner shapes with deep emotion but also with self-destructive power.” - Remy Franck, January 2024

Płytomaniak

"The present release has its undoubted advantages, described briefly above, as well as its disadvantages, which include not using the duration of both discs to record additional material. Nevertheless, the good sound quality and an interesting interpretation that sheds new light on a well-known repertoire make the two magnificent Symphonies on the Claves label album well worth listening to." - Piotr Czajkowski, May 2024

Rondo Magazin

"In wenigen Jahren hat der deutsche Dirigent Markus Poschner das Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI) zu einem der besten Klangkörper der Schweiz geformt. Seit 2017 betreut der 52jährige Münchner auch das Bruckner- Orchester in Linz und wurde da für seine Bruckner-Aufführungen 2020 zum „Dirigenten des Jahres“ gekürt. [..] Im Unterschied zu der lange Zeit dominierenden russischen Tradition, aber auch zur meist opulent aufgeheizten „westlichen“ Rezeption meidet Poschner jedes triefende Pathos, aber auch die attackierende Schlagkraft russischer Dirigenten, sondern wählt einen französisch anmutenden Mittelweg der lichten Transparenz, der eleganten Farbenspiele, und jugendlich drängender Tempi. [..] Wir erleben hier in filigraner Polyphonie die unglaubliche Farbenpracht, Vielfalt und ausgehörte Schönheit der Instrumentationskunst Tschaikowskys, der hier einen ganz eigenen Weg der sinfonischen Entwicklung jenseits des Wagnerschen Mischklangs einschlug, und es wird klar, dass es sich um zwei der bedeutendsten Orchesterwerke der Romantik handelt trotz der von „Experten“ immer wieder vorgebrachten Ressentiments." - Attila Csampai, February 2024

Scènes Magazine

« Dans la veine orchestrale, Claves Records fait également paraître les deux dernières symphonies de Tchaïkovski dans une lecture lumineuse de l’Orchestre de la Suisse italienne emmené par Markus Poschner (CDs 3104/3105). Phrasés acérés, lignes conduites de manière conquérante, couleurs vives dans les mouvements rapides et plus mordorées dans les mouvements lents, l’approche du chef allemand est tout sauf engluée dans une pâte sonore anesthésiante. Le relief de l’orchestration chatoyante du compositeur russe s’en trouve pertinemment souligné jusque dans les mouvements lents, à l’image de l’Andante de la Symphonie n°5 dont le caractère dramatique se drape par endroit d’une éloquence beethovénienne de ton. Ravigorant ! » - Bernard Halter, avril 2024

Tio.ch

« [..] Sia la Quinta sia la Sesta Sinfonia, registrate all’Auditorio RSI a Lugano, vengono proposte con un approccio particolarmente innovativo, nel solco del progetto “Tracce” con cui l’OSI e il Maestro Poschner hanno portato avanti negli ultimi anni una rilettura delle opere sinfoniche (ma non solo) di Čajkovskij. Lo scopo è offrirle all’ascolto in una dimensione nuova, più cameristica (e quindi particolarmente congeniale alle caratteristiche dell’OSI), piena di sfumature e dettagli che troppo spesso si perdono nelle esecuzioni “monumentalistiche”, eredità della tradizione russo-sovietica. [..] » - Fabio Caironi, december 2023

Return to the album | Read the booklet | Composer(s): Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky | Main Artist: Markus Poschner