VA - Tchaikovsky: Complete Symphonies (10 CD Box-Set) (2024)

Although it could be argued about whether Russian interpreters actually interpret Tchaikovsky best, but possibly only Russian interpreters can make Tchaikovski sound Russian through and through. In the future, the present 10 CD box at Alto could serve as a reference for this thesis. Well-known Russian performers, conductors and orchestras present their Tchaikovski.

And from reorchestrations to a performing version of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Symphony of Life’ (or, as Eugene Ormandy would have it, the Seventh Symphony). Most familiar is the first movement, otherwise known in its guise as the Third Piano Concerto. The Russian State Cinematographic Orchestra under Sergei Sk∑ipka acquit themselves with all guns blazing, while recordings of the last three symphonies under Yevgeny Mravinsky (stereo DG), Nos 2, 3 and Manfred under Gennady Rozhdestvensky and a musical if rather more sober account of the First under Konstantin Ivanov are of exceptional quality. All these are Russian recordings, as is a superb Third Suite under Vladimir Jurowski. Other highlights include the Violin Concerto with David Oistrakh (and Ormandy conducting), Richter, Karajan and the VSO in the First Piano Concerto and Gilels under Kondrashin in the Second. A real Tchaikovsky‑fest, this, musically rich and mostly distinguished, performance-wise, in generally good stereo sound.