Tchaikovsky

[Brahmsian]

Was thinking of you yesterday, Ray, as my glance fell on the spine of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom disc. Need to revisit that one, myself![/font]

I got the same disc as you, Karl.  As much as I do enjoy that one, I need to get the same recording I heard in Oct/2009 for a Tchaikovsky music appreciation class.  It has an all male choir, and I found it much more effective.  It is the one with Polyansky leading the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, on the Moscow Studio Archives label.

Unfortunately, it seems to be out of print.

[Brahmsian]

I can remember when I bought discs, and how I played them the first time, who have borrowed them, can you do that with downloads? Blah!!!

Times, they are changing.     In 70 or so years from now, there will be no such things as discs, or books.  Pretty much everything will be downloaded, and viewable on a screen.  Even "relationships" are more about 'texting' and such.

I've been on a few first dates since my separation.  One woman said "You don't have a cell phone.  How am I going to get a hold of you?"     I told her I had a land line phone, she could reach me there.  Then she added:  "I don't talk on my phone, I usually only text".   

[jlaurson]

Times, they are changing.     In 70 or so years from now, there will be no such things as discs, or books.  Pretty much everything will be downloaded, and viewable on a screen.  Even "relationships" are more about 'texting' and such.

I've been on a few first dates since my separation.  One woman said "You don't have a cell phone.  How am I going to get a hold of you?"     I told her I had a land line phone, she could reach me there.  Then she added:  "I don't talk on my phone, I usually only text".   

70 years from now downloading will be a commemorative chuckle on some youngster's lips.

[Brahmsian]

Why would anyone buy this newly repackaged EMI Classics box set of Tchaikovsky - Muti symphonies, when pretty much the same set is available for cheaper at Brilliant Classics?  Is it for the nice, shiny colourful packaging?  I wonder which GMGer is going to get sucked in on this one.

[asin]B0052RUYYS[/asin]

[eyeresist]

I've been on a few first dates since my separation.  One woman said "You don't have a cell phone.  How am I going to get a hold of you?"     I told her I had a land line phone, she could reach me there.  Then she added:  "I don't talk on my phone, I usually only text".   

Yeah. People think I'm weird, but I don't need a mobile phone (as we call them), and in fact I like the idea that I am not accessible 24 hour per day, but only when I choose to be. The only reason I would really like a mobile device is so that I could look up stuff I see in shops - at the moment, I'm stuck with just trying to remember to do it later.

As a skinflint, I am also against texting on value-for-money grounds, i.e. dollar per amount of information transmitted.

[AndanteCantabile]

Anybody here familiar with this set?

[asin]B0001ZWGIS[/asin]

I love Pletnev's thrilling presentation of lesser-known works. For example, The Voyevoda is a striking and driven work which is really quite effective. I've also enjoyed the Fate symphonic poem and the Hamlet Overture-Fantasia, to say nothing of the Manfred Symphony.

[Albion]

Anybody here familiar with this set?

Yes, and it contains some of Pletnev's best performances - a really excellent way to acquire a whole swathe of stand-alone Tchaikovsky works, only really lacking the early Storm (1864).

My personal favourites for orchestral Tchaikovsky include this set, as well as -

Symphonies (Mariss Jansons and the Oslo Philharmonic on Chandos)
Orchestral Suites (Neville Marriner and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony on Capriccio)
Ballets (John Lanchbery and the Philharmonia on Musical Heritage Society, not the abbreviated Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty as issued by EMI in the UK)
Concertos (Peter Donohoe, Nigel Kennedy and Steven Isserlis on an inexpensive EMI triple)

[AndanteCantabile]

Yes, and it contains some of Pletnev's best performances - a really excellent way to acquire a whole swathe of stand-alone Tchaikovsky works, only really lacking the early Storm (1864).

My personal favourites for orchestral Tchaikovsky include this set, as well as -

Symphonies (Mariss Jansons and the Oslo Philharmonic on Chandos)
Orchestral Suites (Neville Marriner and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony on Capriccio)
Ballets (John Lanchbery and the Philharmonia on Musical Heritage Society, not the abbreviated Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty as issued by EMI in the UK)
Concertos (Peter Donohoe, Nigel Kennedy and Steven Isserlis on an inexpensive EMI triple)

Do you have a recommendation for Tchaikovsky's chamber music, i.e. the Piano Trio and String Quartets?

[DavidW]

Do you have a recommendation for Tchaikovsky's chamber music, i.e. the Piano Trio and String Quartets?

I'm not Albion but try Borodin Trio and Borodin Quartet.

[Albion]

Do you have a recommendation for Tchaikovsky's chamber music, i.e. the Piano Trio and String Quartets?

I'm afraid I'm not really generally very much of a chamber-music fan, but besides the Borodins I can recommend -

String Quartets and Sextet (Souvenir de Florence) played by the (augmented)  Endellion Quartet on an excellent (and very modestly priced) Brilliant Classics re-issue


Brilliant Classics 93998

The Piano Trio is a harder call, but I think you might enjoy a fairly recent disc from DG -


Deutsche Grammophon 4778099

[karlhenning]

Do you have a recommendation for Tchaikovsky's chamber music, i.e. the Piano Trio and String Quartets?

The must for the a minor Trio IMO is Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer & Misha Maisky!

I have a Naxos disc with some of the quartets which I like just fine.

[DavidW]

String Quartets and Sextet (Souvenir de Florence) played by the (augmented)  Endellion Quartet on an excellent (and very modestly priced) Brilliant Classics re-issue


Brilliant Classics 93998

That's still on my to listen pile, can't wait!  Well I say that obviously I can since I already have.

[karlhenning]

I immediately wish-listed that 'un.

[Luke]

The must for the a minor Trio IMO is Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer & Misha Maisky!

I have a Naxos disc with some of the quartets which I like just fine.

The new Kremer on ECM is just superb, I have to say, a Tchaik Trio for the modern age, as the ECM press release implies. 'When Kremer and friends play the Trio for piano, violin and violoncello op. 50, composed in 1882, they wring the emotion from the music's Russian soul, and simultaneously convey the sense that the music is both modern and timeless. Kremer recorded the work live for another label some years ago, but he wanted to return to the music as an "elder statesman" and bring to it the knowledge and insights acquired along the way. The result is a landmark ECM album.'

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It is a stunning sounding disc to boot (it is ECM after all, they are incapable of making a disc that sounds less than fabulous).

My favourite Tchaik Trio is the Suk Trio recording, but maybe I am beng sentimental, a it's also the one I've known longest. One great benefit of their reading is that it just seems to me to be perfectly judged, tempo-wise. The first movement, which must surely be one of the most melody-rich pieces of music ever written, gels so wondrously in this reading, instead of lurching in unconnected tempi somewhat as most other readings I know do.

[Cato]

Thanks to Karl Henning I can also chime in with a 5-star recommendation, or even an 11 out of 10, for this DGG CD!

And I am known for not liking chamber music all that much!  The Tchaikovsky Trio I had never heard, although some of the exceptions to my chamber music disinclination are in fact the Tchaikovsky String Quartets.

I wrote to Karl earlier that, c. 2 or 3 minutes into the Trio, I thought to myself: "This will prove to be an epic work."

And so it did!  In the same way that Beethoven's Opus 111 is epic, so is this work.

[Gurn Blanston]

Karl, I know you are (justifiably) an Argerich fan, but I have to throw this hat into the ring too. The Vienna Piano Trio, which includes a superb and (seemingly) rarely recorded Smetana work. This is a very nice disk!

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[kishnevi]

I have the Lang/Repim/Maisky and this one, which I prefer.  The main negative is that it's the only work on the CD--nothing coupled with it.
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The Argerich is apparently in the one Argerich box set I don't (yet) have.

[karlhenning]

The new Kremer on ECM is just superb, I have to say, a Tchaik Trio for the modern age, as the ECM press release implies. 'When Kremer and friends play the Trio for piano, violin and violoncello op. 50, composed in 1882, they wring the emotion from the music's Russian soul, and simultaneously convey the sense that the music is both modern and timeless. Kremer recorded the work live for another label some years ago, but he wanted to return to the music as an "elder statesman" and bring to it the knowledge and insights acquired along the way. The result is a landmark ECM album.'


It is a stunning sounding disc to boot (it is ECM after all, they are incapable of making a disc that sounds less than fabulous).

My favourite Tchaik Trio is the Suk Trio recording, but maybe I am beng sentimental, a it's also the one I've known longest. One great benefit of their reading is that it just seems to me to be perfectly judged, tempo-wise. The first movement, which must surely be one of the most melody-rich pieces of music ever written, gels so wondrously in this reading, instead of lurching in unconnected tempi somewhat as most other readings I know do.

You and Alan both, Luke: When either of you posts, my bank balance is in peril ; )

[karlhenning]

Karl, I know you are (justifiably) an Argerich fan, but I have to throw this hat into the ring too. The Vienna Piano Trio, which includes a superb and (seemingly) rarely recorded Smetana work. This is a very nice disk!

[asin]B001EJIWZG[/asin]

Thanks for the suggestion, Gurn!

I have the Lang/Repim/Maisky and this one [Bronfman/Shaham/Mørk], which I prefer.

No doubt to my mind that Repin and Maisky are fit for the piece.  It's the pianist there whom (I admit) I still demand that he earn my musical respect.

Shaham I have found rather mixed over the years; and I wonder if he would have the resources for this piece . . . .

[Karl Henning]

The Wikipedia article on the a minor Trio is quite interesting.

[Tchaikovsky] put the finishing touches to the Trio by 9 February (the score is annotated "Rome 28 January-9 February 1882"), and sent it to his publishers on 11 February, asking that Sergei Taneyev appear as piano soloist at the first performance. Taneyev, the cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen and the violinist Jan Hřímalý were given access to the score, and they made a number of suggestions for improvement, which Tchaikovsky accepted.

There was a private performance at the Moscow Conservatory on 23 March, the first anniversary of Nikolai Rubinstein's death, with the above-named soloists, but Tchaikovsky was still in Italy at the time. He returned to Russia in April and heard the Trio for the first time, at another private performance, after which he made further changes. These included inserting a break before the Andante coda and substantially rewriting the piano part of the Finale. Taneyev also rewrote Variation VIII himself, a change that Tchaikovsky approved.