More unsung Tchaikovsky

[Alan Howe]

Kitaenko is a very fine conductor, I agree.

[MartinH]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention - not that I need anymore Tchaikovsky, but if it's SACD, I'm in. Has anyone heard the performances? Does he play them the way Tchaikovsky wrote them or disfigure them with cuts, orchestration changes, etc? Manfred has been horribly disfigured by more than one Russian conductor.

[Alan Howe]

Adriano?

[adriano]

I have this set and really enjoy it - though not (yet) listening to it with my scores, except the 7th, which I played already 2 times consecutively. I never open scores at first hearings - I just enjoy the music, and this totally relaxed and not doing anything else besides as too many people always do.
From a first listening, Manfred is uncut and unaltered. Timings: 18:01, 10.07, 12:27, 20:47. Kitajenko, as far as I experienced, truly respects scores (see also his complete Scriabin set).
But this (bargain) set it's not SACD, just excellent digital engineering. recorded 2009-2013. Single record inside jackets give only TT, but the libretto lists the movements. No liner notes, just a 1 1/2 page biography of Kitajenko. Once I will be back from Bratislava (doing my 48th CD there), I will compare with the scores. Again, the E-flat (7th) Symphony, is the best interpetation; but this is just my personal opinion. The poor booklet does not mention the Symphony's "reconstructor"either.
The fillers are: Snow Maiden (excerpts), Rococo Variations and Andate Cantabile (string orchestra version), Sleeping Beauty (4-part Suite), Capiccio Italiano, Introduction to "Pique Dame" (erroneously entitled "Overture"), Piano Concerto No.3 (Allegro brillante only), with Lilya Ziberstein, Piano) - a more than intelligent coupling on the disc of the 7th Symphony - as already Chandos did.
(An out-of-thread note: A 1995 live recording of Brun's Second Symphony with Kitajenko exists on the Symphonically Swiss label - a hard-to-find or deleted item, published by the Swiss Radio. At that time he was conducting the Berne Symphony Orchestra - which had been Brun's ensemble from 1909 till 1941).

[Delicious Manager]

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but Tchaikovsky's incidental music 'The Snow Maiden' (Op 12) is delightful and available in at least two decent recordings. There is also his little-known cantata 'Moscow', which is better than its title might suggest.

[adriano]

Yes, the "Moscow" cantata is a very beautiful piece with excellent choral writing, including ariosi for Mezzo and for Baritone. I have 2 CD recordings: Citadel CDT 88138 and Regis 1182, both Melodyia take-overs. The first one also features "Ode to Joy" and 2 incidental pieces from "Dmitri the Imposter", the 2nd two other Festival Cantatas: "In Memory of Peter the Great" and "Nature and Love". Just discovered that there is also a CD reissue of the Golovanov LP version on the Praga label (will order it) - and a new digital one by Valery Gergiev, which I will not order :-) One more recommendation: Andrew Litton (Delos), featuring a Litton "version" of the "Sleeping Beauty" Suite, "The Voyevoda" and an surround interpretation of "1812".
Of course, some passages of the texts sung on the older recordings have been "revised" in order not to endanger the Soviet Regime. Suppose Gergiev would have leaped of joy, in case Putin suggested another actualized version... In this case, the mezzo ariosi would have to be transposed for Anna Netrebko...

[sdtom]

I too have the 60CD set of Tchaikovsky on Brilliant. While there is nothing that comes to mind as outstanding it does fill in some holes for the completeist.
tom

[Double-A]

I'd like to point out the third string quartet which I think can fairly be called unsung.  It is rarely played; amateur quartets don't tackle it because of its key (e flat minor; it isn't really all that hard--easier than F sharp Major) and its other difficulties.
To me the work is magnificent, at least equal to the famous first quartet.  It is longer and very serious, at least for the first two movements.  The Adagio is the centerpiece and it takes my breath away every time I hear it.  It has melodic sections interrupted by a sort of pilgrim's march and also features slowly ascending scales played pizzicato crescendo, then decrescendo when the melody descends again.  This section says "fate" to me much more intensely than the motive  in the sixth symphony.  I know there are recordings around, one with the Borodin quartet, which I recommend.
BTW:  The instruments sound phantastic in e-flat minor (something  you wouldn't predict).

[adriano]

Those Borodin Quartet recordings - including Souvenir de Florence with Rostropovich - are landmarks (1960s, they were licensed for EMI and CBS LPs, and reissued on CD by Chandos).
If I am not wrong, the same ensemble (with 'cellist Natalya Gutman) re-recorded the same program for Warner in the 80s.
... and just listened a half an hour ago once more to Golovanov's recording of Moscow Cantata: a really thrilling interpretation! On the same (Gala) CD there are other thrillers: Voyevoda, 1812 Overture and The Tempest. The Cherkasov (1988) and Rozhdestvensky (1967) stereos are more moderate, but also very beautiful.