The program note, credited to “Columbia Artists Management,” recycles the sensational idea that Tchaikovsky committed suicide by taking arsenic because he was about to be exposed as a homosexual, when in fact he almost certainly died of cholera. The symphony is dedicated to his nephew, Vladimir “Bob” Davydov, and it’s a passionate love letter, wistful but not despondent. A grave, gravelly bassoon led off, typical of the pungent flavors the winds (oboes plangent in the Russian fashion) and the brass offered throughout. Spivakov, like Kern, opted for drama and contrast, but he didn’t sacrifice lucidity; big pauses substituted for hysteria and sentimentality, and his phrases had big arcs. The trombones were reverent in the first movement’s quotation of the Orthodox requiem (“With thy saints, O Christ, give repose to the soul of thy servant”), and if the coda was rather below tempo (about 54 quarter notes to the minutes instead of Tchaikovsky’s marked 80), the trombones kindled the final measures. The opening to the third-movement march flickered with Mendelssohnian delicacy, and here the 152 was spot on; the brass had some bad moments, notably just before the final run-up, though nothing like what the BSO brass produced in the (far more demanding) Mahler Third the following night. From there Spivakov launched straight into the Adagio lamentoso finale, which was defiant and without self-pity. Modest, no; straightforward, no; warm enough to melt the snow outside, yes.
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