All-Union Radio Orchestra, Orlov - Tchaikovsky: Oprichnik (2014)

This was the first of only a very small number of recordings of Tchaikovsky's third opera, one of his least-known, to have been made. Even today, The Oprichnik remains an elusive work, and despite a small number of relatively minor cuts (mainly in the fourth act) it's largely intact and can thus be seen as a definitive interpretation by performers and, in particular, Aleksander Orlov, a conductor seeped in the history of Russian opera.

Technically it's remarkably successful for its day. The Russians, like their western counterparts, were quickly adapting the magentic tape technology they found at the end of the war in Germany for their own uses, at a time when full-length operas of this magnitude (especially forgotten ones) were few and far between in the recorded canon and the standard issue would have been (at a guess) some 40 or more 78rpm sides.

The microphones used, particularly for the soloists, appear suspect at times, with a tendency to peak distortion and a somewhat thin sound for the male voices against the fuller orchestra and choir. This is less apparent later in the opera, and overall it's a very commendable production. XR remastering and a very light touch of convolution reverberation has worked wonders with this occasionally difficult raw material.