A “musical snapshot of the early collaboration between the Berliner Philharmoniker and myself, and at the same time the initial spark of our association”, as Kirill Petrenko describes the edition in the foreword. Three repertoire strands are outlined here: first, there is the music of Russia, which Kirill Petrenko grew up with, and is represented here by Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies No. 5 and 6. These are performances in which not only the passion and power of these works unfold fully, but also their details and fine nuances. Another of Kirill Petrenko’s interests is that of unjustly forgotten composers. As examples of this, the edition presents two composers on the cusp between late-Romanticism and Modernism: Rudi Stephan and Franz Schmidt. The latter’s Fourth Symphony is presented here: music full of sonority and pain and at the same time a favourite of Kirill Petrenko.

And then – as a further cornerstone of the partnership – there is German-Austrian Classicism and Romanticism. The importance of this repertoire to Kirill Petrenko is demonstrated by the prominent place Ludwig van Beethoven occupied in his concerts to open the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons, when the Seventh and Ninth Symphonies respectively were programmed. Both performances are also documented here. Now, for the first time, these special recordings appear in a high-quality vinyl edition limited to 1,500 copies on 6 LP with a 56-page clothbound accompanying book and the option of hi-res download.

Significant new additions to the recorded catalogue of this most broad-minded of Danish conductors, working in the last two years of his life and featuring several composers of his own time who were writing in their own post-Nielsen styles. Hardly less novel is the wartime recording of Coates’s Knightsbridge March, never reissued since first appearing on 78s. Several other light-orchestral classics are complemented by spontaneous-sounding live Tchaikovsky in the hands of a little-known French violinist.

Is there any music more instantly recognisable and beautifully scored than Tchaikovsky’s wildly popular ballet Swan Lake? These and other works have become enduring classics, yet they were not uncontroversial in Tchaikovsky’s day, and there are those that still wonder if his style is fundamentally European or ardently Russian. Find out more about Tchaikovsky’s childhood obsession with music, his turbulent relationships with friends and colleagues, and how he overcame the deepest of personal crises to transcend all with a creative ambition that has left us with some of the greatest music ever written. The narrative is illustrated with musical excerpts from Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, the 1812 Overture,The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, among others.

The second half of the 19th century witnessed a proliferation of significant works for strings alone including the Serenades for Strings by Dvorák (1875) and Tchaikovsky (1880) and Grieg’s Holberg Suite (1884), followed by a trio of works for strings in 1892 from Suk, Wolf and Elgar. Tchaikovsky’s music for string instruments is notable for its range and consistency – and this culminates in the magnificent Violin Concerto and one of the greatest works ever conceived for string orchestra, his Serenade of 1880. Earlier, in 1873, Tchaikovsky wrote incidental music to Ostrovsky’s three-act drama The Snow Maiden. Though he abandoned the idea of adapting it into an opera, when Rimsky-Korsakov composed one on the same subject, he retained affection for this little-known work. Judging by the beautiful Melodrama of Act II, its neglect is unjustified. Eight years before that, as a 25-year-old student at the St Petersburg Conservatory he composed a String Quartet in B flat. If, as some authorities believe, it had four movements, only one has survived. Such is the inner power of the music that it takes on a more expressive hue when performed by a full string orchestra as on this recording.

Towards the end of 1884, the Moscow Society of Artists wished to honor veteran actor Ivan Samarin’s 50-year artistic career, and Tchaikovsky enthusiastically contributed a musical entr’acte. Tchaikovsky’s publisher Jurgenson persuaded the composer the music was worthy of publication, under the title Elegy, as Samarin died the year after the celebrations. When Tchaikovsky suddenly died near the end of 1893, the slow movement of his Third String Quartet was arranged for string orchestra by Glazunov for performance at his funeral service. Glazunov’s subtle and sympathetic arrangement of this fine music for full string orchestra honors his friend, the great composer, in truly noble fashion.

REVIEW:

This attractive program includes Tchaikovsky’s familiar Serenade for Strings along with four shorter works, the last of which, the Glazounov-arranged Andante Funebre e Doloroso from the Third Quartet, was played at Tchaikovsky’s funeral in 1893.

The chamber orchestra's playing is full and warm, rich in vibrato and expression. If you like Russian music played by native musicians (I’m thinking here of the old Leningrad Philharmonic, which became the St Petersburg Philharmonic in 1991) you’ll enjoy this. It’s some of Tchaikovsky’s most attractive music, richly played and beautifully recorded.

-- American Record Guide

A pair of great Danish pianists and celebrated violinists contribute to a wide-ranging program, which demonstrates Thomas Jensen’s versatility and command of his orchestras in both pillars of the repertoire by Grieg and Tchaikovsky, and a stirring but unfamiliar piano-concerto movement by the Dane August Winding. Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegelis new to the Jensen discography: a stunning live performance from 1952, newly remastered from the original tapes. This collection brings together live DRSO broadcasts from the 1950s and the 1960swith earlier gramophone recordings, made before Jensen’s DRSO tenure when he was principal conductor of the Aarhus Civic Orchestra (documented on Volume 8 of the series.)

Review:

It’s fortunate – and generous – of Danacord to offer their twofers ‘as for one’ as of late they have been engaged in wholesale reshuffling of their packs.

The only previously unissued item in CD1 is August Winding’s Concert Allegro, preformed by Boris Linderud (1915-95) in 1960. This fluid rhapsodic piece is cast in a Schumannesque mould with plenty of right-hand filigree. The only non-studio live performance on CD2 is Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel, in a very competent 1952 reading in the characteristic acoustic of Denmark’s Radio Concert Hall. The remainder of the programme is largely given over to the violin repertoire on the Tono label, played by the country’s then leading player, Emil Telmányi, between 1947 and 1951. He plays Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen with plenty of slides but also a sure awareness of style. You will find the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso on DACOCD851 where you’ll also find recordings made by Telmányi’s great teacher, Hubay – the recording Telmányi made of Hubay’s Hejre Kati in that disc is a later one than the 1947 Tono here, which features his Chamber Orchestra and offers a less successful accompaniment.

Svendsen’s Romance is in the secure hands of Carlo Andersen in his famous 1939 HMV recording which must have sold by the bucketload as it always turns up on record lists to this day. It’s a valuable snapshot of Andersen’s playing as he only ever recorded a couple of pieces by Lumbye so far as I’m aware. Finally, there’s Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812’, spread across four 78 sides, recorded a few days after the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso. Nothing unduly odd happens in the ‘1812’ – strong, decisive conducting and well recorded. Till is newly remastered, and everything comes up sounding good.

--MusicWeb International (Jonathan Woolf)

The present album is a re-release of Bavarian broadcast recordings of 1953-56 featuring legendary bass-baritone George London at the height of his career. Upon its initial release, the album received glowing reviews from critics and fans, and this now can be enjoyed by a new generation of listeners. “(The) collection is vintage London all the way“ (American Record Guide) “The extracts from Aida and Die Walküre with Astrid Varnay are electrifying“ (BBC Music Magazine) “This is a worthy representation of a singer whose career was ended too soon.“ (International Record Review)

REVIEWS:

The excerpts on the present disc are uniformly excellent, and the recorded sound is surprisingly good. … London is a sensitive and expressive Dr. Miracle, and with excellent assistance from Teresa Stich-Randall and Maria von Ilosvay. With Russian speaking parentage, London had a special leaning towards Russian operas…

That London was a great Wotan is very obvious, even more so in the concluding farewell, where his sensitiveness and beauty of tone is striking. One rarely hears such legato singing in Wagner.

London sings Prince Igor’s aria with great dignity and feeling but it is the three final items with Varnay that form the high point of this album, in that they contain both the greatest music and the finest partner.

The playing of the BRSO is fine throughout and all three conductors ensure idiomatic execution.

-- MusicWeb International

London’s voice was massive, focused and dark, with an exciting and secure top. In these recordings he never blusters, and he sings with verbal acuity, noble tone and dramatic verve…The remastered sound is excellent.

-- Opera Now

It’s good to see a dedicated London CD appear on Orfeo, which concludes with the closing sections of Die Walküre, where the great American bass-baritone is heard in duet with Varnay under the direction of Varnay’s husband, Hermann Weigert, who is especially sensitive with accompanying lower string lines near the start of Wotan’s Farewell. London’s deep rolling voice…makes a strong impression.

-- Gramophone

This box set documents Riccardo Chailly's first years as principal conductor of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. In summer 2016, he steps into the office as Claudio Abbado's successor with Mahler's 8th Symphony. In a colorful, fresh and stirring performance of the overture and incidental music to William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Tchaikovsky's "Manfred" Symphony, Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra bring the musical imagery of both works to life. In summer 2018, the performers transport us to Ravel's musical universes full of colors, scents and flavors: from the pulsating three-four time of the waltzes to the ancient love story of Daphnis and Chloé and the relentless rhythm of the Boléro. A recording from summer 2019 of Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony and Third Piano Concerto with Denis Matsuev marks the various stages in the composer's life and demonstrates once again the close bond between the orchestra and their new principal conductor.

While we associate Tchaikovsky with music of virtuoso power and difficulty, sweeping up audiences with the fire of the Violin Concerto and First Piano Concerto, he also applied himself to music for the ever-growing market of amateur music-makers during his lifetime. Like many other great composers, he knew how to write for musicians of moderate ability without compromising or simplifying the individuality of his voice as a composer. Also like many great composers, regularly finding himself in grim financial prospects, he tapped into a reliable source of income by supplying publishers who had a seemingly limitless market for music composed with amateur musicians in mind, especially by the acknowledged masters of their day. Both of the cycles recorded here by Yuan Sheng were produced for this market, comprising short pieces, most of them quite simple on the page, but thoroughly imbued with quintessentially Tchaikovskian qualities.

As part of his Piano Classics discography, Yuan Sheng recorded The Seasons – Tchaikovsky’s best known solo piano cycle – in 2017. The album was widely welcomed for its serious approach to music which is too often treated trivially. Likewise, he invests these cycles with an authentic delicacy of touch and gravity of expression – in Tchaikovsky, tears are never very far away.

After two stylistically diverse anthologies – In Motion and Renewal – the United Strings of Europe and their director Julian Azkoul have chosen to devote their latest project to a single composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. They open with the composer’s Serenade, a tribute to Mozart’s divertimentos, but infused with Tchaikovsky’s characteristic pathos and melancholy. It is one of his most popular works, with the especially beloved Waltz as its second movement, and a finale featuring Russian folk songs. The other works included on this recording are arrangements tailor-made for the ensemble by Julian Azkoul. Andante cantabile, the slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet, is a piece of great emotional power, based on an old folk song which Tchaikovsky reportedly heard in the Ukrainian town of Kamenka. Composed following a stay in Florence, the Sextet is brooding in temperament and despite its title arguably more Russian than Italian in character. Like the Serenade, it makes use of classical forms and devices but also includes passages evoking traditional Russian music. After completing the work, Tchaikovsky – who was otherwise his own harshest critic – wrote: ‘it’s frightening to see how pleased I am with myself’. The album closes with At Bedtime, an early composition for mixed choir with a meditative quality reminiscent of Eastern Orthodox chant that lends itself well to the string orchestra textures.

The 'Dissonance' Quartet is probably the best-known of the set of six Mozart wrote between 1782 and 1785 as a tribute to Haydn. It owes its nickname to the strange clashes of the slow introduction in C minor. Almost a century later, the thirty-year-old Tchaikovsky wrote his Quartet no.1, op.11, whose second movement, which moved Tolstoy to tears, was inspired by a folk tune that the composer heard a housepainter whistling. The musicians of the Esmé Quartet chose these two pieces because they love their respective Andante cantabile movements. The four young women also decided to put the spotlight on one of their compatriots, the South Korean composer Soo Yeon Lyuh, who in 2016 wrote Yessori, 'sound of the past', for the Kronos Quartet. She explains: 'I first got used to playing the piano and the violin. So, later, when I encountered Korean traditional music, its relative pitch relationships and fluid rhythmic cycles felt completely new.'

Alpesh Chauhan’s début recording for Chandos – Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (CHSA 5300) – met with widespread critical acclaim and awards, including recording of the week for both The Times and Presto Music, and the BBC Music magazine’s Orchestral Choice. This second volume – with the same forces – offers equally crisp and attentive playing from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in another album that mixes well-known and less-heard Tchaikovsky. Three purely orchestral works form the core of the programme: Fatum (an early concert piece inspired by and dedicated to Balakirev), Hamlet (the last of his Shakespeare-inspired pieces), and Capriccio italien. These are interspersed with works conceived for the theatre: the Introduction to his opera The Queen of Spades and excerpts from The Oprichnik (an early opera) and The Snow Maiden (incidental music for a play by Ostrovsky). The album was recorded in Glasgow City Halls in SURROUND-SOUND and is available as a hybrid SACD.

Star tenor Piotr Beczala presents a selection of romances by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, together with the acclaimed lied accompanist Helmut Deutsch.

The romance was the most popular musical genre in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Russia, practiced by professionals as well as amateurs. Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff both enriched this genre with their lyricism and melodic invention.

Elevated by Deutsch’s splendid accompaniment, Beczala delivers these songs with a great sense for the Slavic idiom and meaning of the words, combined with colorful lyricism and italianità, perfectly fitting the Russian and cosmopolitan musical language of these two masters.

Piotr Beczala is one of the most sought-after tenors of his age, both on the opera and concert stage. His Pentatone debut album Vincerò! has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed opera recital albums of the last few years. During the 2021 Opus Klassik Awards, Piotr Beczala was crowned as Singer of the Year for this exceptional recording. Pianist Helmut Deutsch is a first-class song accompanist, working together with the greatest vocalists of today. He makes his Pentatone debut.

Arvīds Jansons (1914-1984) was born in Liepāja on Latvia’s west coast. He studied violin from 1929 until 1935 at the Conservatory of Liepāja, then composition and conducting (under Leo Blech) at the Conservatory of Riga from 1940 until 1944, while working as a violinist at Riga Opera.

In 1944, he was appointed conductor of Riga Opera, then of the Latvian Radio Orchestra (1947–1952), and in 1952 he was appointed associate conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky. He toured frequently with them as well as with other Russian orchestras, to the UK and to the Continent, from 1970 onwards.
Jansons became principal guest conductor of Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra in 1965 at the personal invitation of Sir John Barbirolli, who knew of Jansons as an expert orchestral conductor but a genius in the rehearsal studio. It was in Manchester that Jansons collapsed and died from a heart attack in 1984 while conducting a concert with the Hallé. Arvīds was the father of Mariss Jansons (1943-2019).

The key point about this release is that Arvīds Jansons’s recordings are extremely rare and will be sought after by collectors. This 2-CD set is the first to release Arvīds Jansons’s recordings with the celebrated Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born in Birmingham, Alpesh Chauhan studied cello under Eduardo Vassallo at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester before continuing at the RNCM to pursue the prestigious Master’s Conducting Course. Alpesh has studied with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, participated in masterclasses with Juanjo Mena, Vasily Petrenko and Jac van Steen, and was mentored by Andris Nelsons and Edward Gardner in his post as Assistant Conductor of the CBSO 2014-16. Newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker from the 21/22 season, he is also Associate Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of Birmingham Opera Company. He frequently appears as guest conductor with acclaimed international orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Île de France, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

For this, his debut recording for Chandos, he has chosen a collection of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic fantasias, alongside the Overture and Polonaise from the comic opera ‘Cherevichki’. The Tempest, from 1873 is based on the Shakespeare play, and shows that Tchaikovsky’s unique voice and style were already fully developed. Francesca da Rimini (based on the tale in Dante’s Inferno) was written only a few years later, but after Tchaikovsky had attended the premier of Wagner’s Ring cycle in Bayreuth – an influence discernible particularly in the brass chords. Cherevichki (the Slippers) is a revision of his earlier opera Vakula the Smith, based on Gogol’s Christmas Eve. Tchaikovsky’s Symphonic Ballad The Voyevoda is based on Adam Mickiewicz’s poem ‘The Ambush’, and is the first orchestral work to include the (newly invented) Celeste.

REVIEW:

Chauhan proves in this disc that he loves Tchaikovsky and is not afraid to show it, at a time when so many conductors appear embarrassed by the emotional intensity and try to tame the music, with results that are sometimes desiccated.

-- Gramophone