Sergei Taneyev - Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 (Thomas Sanderling)

Information

Composer: Sergei Taneyev

1. Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor (ed. Vladimir Blok): 1. Introduction and Allegro
2. Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor (ed. Vladimir Blok): 2. Andante
3. Symphony No. 2 in B flat minor (ed. Vladimir Blok): 3. Allegro
4. Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 12: 1. Allegro molto
5. Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 12: 2. Adagio
6. Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 12: 3. Scherzo. Vivace
7. Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 12: 4. Finale. Allegro energico - Molto maestoso

Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Sanderling, conductor

Date: 2010
Label: Naxos
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572067

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Review

Key, I think, to appreciating the music of Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (1856–1915) is an understanding of the deep strain of musical conservatism that informs his works. A student of Nikolai Rubinstein and then Tchaikovsky, he turned a deaf ear to his fellow Russian nationalists, “The Mighty Handful,” choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of strict counterpoint and fugue. His strong classical bent and faithfulness to formal procedures did not endear him to his peers, but criticism and condescension cut both ways. Few were spared his unkind words: Borodin was “a clever dilettante,” and Mussorgsky made him laugh. But Taneyev’s barbs were not without merit. He was “a scholar of massive erudition,” who devoured books on history, the sciences, mathematics, and philosophy, and he regarded many of the works of his compatriots, not entirely without just cause in some cases, as the products of amateurs. The irony is that the “amateurs,” though often weak in form and craft—Rimsky-Korsakov being the exception that Taneyev admired—were often inspired to lofty musical heights, while Taneyev, unrivaled in craftsmanship and technique, was rarely visited by an original creative thought.

His Symphony No. 2 is heard here in an edition by Vladimir Blok, first performed in 1977. Taneyev began work on the piece in 1875 while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, but gave up on it after sketching its intended finale. As it stands, the symphony is in three movements, an Introduction and Allegro, an Andante, and an Allegro. Whether Taneyev would have added a scherzo movement either before or after the Andante can’t be known. Just a year earlier he had completed a full four-movement symphony, the No. 1 in E Minor, so it could only have been Rubinstein’s criticism of the new score and Taneyev’s own misgivings about it that led him to abandon the effort despite Tchaikovsky’s attempt to talk him out of it.

It’s both easy and difficult to describe this music: easy because it’s a beautiful, lavishly orchestrated, lushly romantic work in the style, according to note author Anastasia Belina, of “Western European symphonic tradition”; but difficult because it’s like nothing you would expect to hear from this time, this place, and this cultural environment. The Tchaikovsky influence is obvious, but most budding young composers studying under a great master take what they can and then go forward with it on their own. In Taneyev’s case, it’s as if he took what he could from Tchaikovsky and then went backwards with it. The main theme of the Andante, for example, recalls Handel, one of Taneyev’s favorite composers. While Taneyev was still struggling with this B?-Major Symphony in 1878, Tchaikovsky was completing work on his F-Minor Symphony (the No. 4), an explosion of creative genius light years ahead of anything Taneyev could have imagined. If Taneyev’s Second Symphony can be compared to anything, it would probably be to the symphonies of his teacher’s more famous brother, Anton Rubinstein.

Twenty years later, in 1898, Taneyev completed his fourth and last symphony, the No. 4 in C Minor, dedicating it to Glazunov, who conducted its premiere in St. Petersburg that same year. Considered by many to be Taneyev’s finest orchestral work, the symphony earned him, inaptly, I think, the nickname of “the Russian Brahms.” There may be one or two passages here and there that waft a whiff of Brahms, like the ending of the first movement that is reminiscent of the concluding measures of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. But there are other passages that resemble sound bites from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake , and still others that recall the symphonies of Kalinnikov and Borodin, though with Taneyev’s surer hand at counterpoint and formal development. In the end, it doesn’t really matter, I suppose, what other composers’ music Taneyev’s may call to mind, for you can’t not love this symphony if you love big, full-hearted, passionate Romantic scores.

The CD at hand completes Thomas Sanderling’s survey of Taneyev’s symphonies for Naxos. The earlier recording of the Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 (Naxos 8570336) was reviewed, and none too enthusiastically, by Barry Brenesal in Fanfare 31:6. Fundamentally, we seem to agree on Taneyev’s place in the musical firmament, but being the sucker I am for rich, ripe, and lush Romantic symphonies, I’m more inclined to embrace rather than reject Taneyev’s musical conservatism. On the matter of performance, Brenesal found Sanderling and his forces offering “soporific tempos” and little more than “competent playing in an unremittingly stodgy fashion.”

Granted, these are not readings of the same two works, but I would have to say that in an A-B comparison between Sanderling’s performances of the Second and Fourth Symphonies and Polyansky’s with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra on Chandos in the same coupling, I find Sanderling’s slightly slower tempos not “soporific” but alluringly caressed; and far from playing in a “stodgy fashion,” the Novosibirsk forces sound more nimble and responsive to me than the Russian State band under Polyansky. However, and it’s a big “however,” in the Fourth Symphony, the more serious competition comes not from Polyansky but from Neeme Järvi and the Philharmonia Orchestra, also on Chandos, recorded 10 years earlier. At 42:13, it’s even slower than the Sanderling by more than two minutes, mostly due to Järvi’s very expansive Adagio, but it has a cumulative power that’s quite overwhelming; and it’s coupled with an equally powerful reading of Taneyev’s impactful Overture to The Oresteia.

I can’t speak to Sanderling’s recording of the First and Third Symphonies that Brenesal reviewed, because I haven’t heard it. But for the Second and Fourth, I can give the new Naxos an unconditional recommendation; and, if you can afford it, for the Fourth, I’d also urge you to acquire the Järvi.

-- Jerry Dubins, FANFARE

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/June10/Taneyev_8572067.htm
http://www.allmusic.com/album/taneyev-symphonies-nos-2-amp-4-mw0001973269
http://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.572067&languageid=EN

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Sergei Taneyev (November 25 [O.S. November 13] 1856 – June 19 [O.S. June 6] 1915) was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author. Among his teachers at the Moscow Conservatory are Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (composition) and Nikolai Rubinstein (piano). Taneyev's specialized field of study was counterpoint, and he was considered one of the greatest of contrapuntalists. Taneyev's compositions, including nine complete string quartets and four symphonies, reveal his mastery of classical composition technique, but many of them were considered "dry and laboured in character".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Taneyev

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Thomas Sanderling (born October 2, 1942, in Novosibirsk) is a German conductor, the eldest son of Kurt Sanderling. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory and the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin. Sanderling went on to study with Hans Swarowsky, and worked as assistant to Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. During his career he conducted all important orchestras as well as at many international opera houses. Sanderling led the German premieres of Shostakovich's Thirteenth and Fourteenth symphonies, and is one of the most important conductors of Russian repertoire nowadays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sanderling

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/thomas-sanderling-mn0002269321/biography

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