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Title: Deadly Dull
Review: Pletnev seems to think that Tchaikovsky's delightful "The Seasons" cycle was written by Beethoven in his late period. His performance suffers from an overly serious approach to these light pieces, which Tchaikovsky wrote very quickly and with little effort. Pletnev's tempos in the slow pieces suffer from excessive rubatos and they frequently fall apart. If you want to have music to fall asleep to, listen the very first piece, "January," or even more lazy: "October." It is deadly dull, and gets duller as he progresses. His tempos/rubatos are fatal, and destroy the charm of the music. I don't understand why this man is considered a Tchaikovsky expert.... He should be playing late Beethoven Sonatas, not delightful drawing room miniatures!
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