Ultimate Tchaikovsky: The Essential Masterpieces

It would be too easy to poke holes in this collection called Ultimate Tchaikovsky. Described as "Classic performances of his essential masterpieces," one could dispute both the performances and, to a lesser extent, the repertoire. Fine as it is, could one really call Rafael Orozco's performance of the "Piano Concerto No. 1" a classic -- or, loud as they are, could anyone say the tone poems "Voyevoda" or "The Storm" are essential? Indeed, of all the performances here, perhaps only Henryk Szeryng's "Violin Concerto" deserves to be described as a classic, while most of the rest are more in the acceptable to enjoyable range. Ashkenazy and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic's 1997 recording of the "1812 Overture," "Serenade for Strings," and "Romeo and Juliet Overture" is well-played and enthusiastically conducted; Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw's 1975 recording of the "Fifth Symphony" is superbly played and competently conducted; Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Orchestra's 1989 recording of the "Sixth Symphony" and the three big ballet suites are brilliantly played and colorfully conducted. Listeners looking for a quick fix for the gaping hole in their Russian Romantic Orchestral Music shelf might consider this five-disc set. Listeners with more time to spend might search out other performances that could more accurately be described as classics: Richter and Karajan's "Piano Concerto No. 1," Dorati and the Minneapolis' "1812 Overture," Mravinsky and the Leningrad's "Fifth" and "Sixth" symphonies, and so on. Recorded in stereo and digital by Decca and Philips, the sound here is distinctly different from performance to performance -- the Dutoit/Montreal recordings are more vibrant, for example, while the Haitink/Concertgebouw performances are more blended -- but they are all consistently excellent. ---by James Leonard