By Santa Fe Listener @ Amazon

Just for a reference of this disc

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Since Nezet-Seguin has used the Pathetique as a calling card when he debuted with two orchestras - see the amazon blurb - he must feel both confident and personal about it. DG's other young star conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, delivered a magnificent Tchaikovsky Fifth to challenge the Russian patent on the score, and I wondered if Nezet-Seguin could match that achievement. As principal conductor of the Rotterdam Phil, Gergiev's old orchestra, he has a leg up so far as the idiom goes, but then, Tchaikovsky is the most international of Russian composers by now, after Stravinsky. The stakes were raised by the Gramophone's reviewer, who burbled that this was "one of the finest Pathetiques to have come my way in the last 30 or so years."

The secure playing and very good sonics are immediately noticeable, as is a certain coolness in the first movement. Gergiev, Rostropovich, Temirkanov, and Pletnev are more intense emotionally. But Nezet-Seguin owes much of his popularity to a knack for headlong excitement, and the performance takes off when it hits the main Allegro in the first movement. It's also refreshing that he doesn't try to sound too solemn or deep. In this case, being different from the Russians pays off.

He keeps the pace up in the lovely 5/4 waltz movement, which is a good tactic given how repetitive the music is - too much lingering, however tender, can wear on the listener's patience. I also appreciated that by taking two bars at a time, Nezet-Seguin makes an awkward time signature sound completely natural The Scherzo has been a showpiece for a virtuoso woodwind section, which isn't present here. But the conductor takes the music at a fearless speed, and the playing is vibrant and enthusiastic. The finale follows without pause, and Nezert-Seguin provides a nice bridge by matching the intensity of the two movements. Like Dudamel, he's a heart-on-sleeve conductor, which makes the dark pathos of this music a natural fit. I'm also impressed that he can handle rubato to bring out Tchaikovsky's tragic ardor without going overboard. In all, a thorough success.

As filler, the acclaimed Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili plays a selection of seven Tchaikovsky songs arranged for violin and piano, with Nezet-Seguin as accompanist. As much as I love German lieder, I've never warmed to Tchaikovsky's songs, which are mostly melancholy or wisftul ballads. Batiashvili plays them perfectly - she is a standout in the current generation of Russian violinists - but the real surprise is Nezet-Seguin's piano playing, which goes far beyond the typical conductor-at-the-keyboard. After a few years of resisting the PR surrounding him, I'm persuaded that he is in fact a major musical talent - this Cd goes a long way to proving it.