Agree totally. It's big, it's dramatic, it's--well, it's Tchaikovsky at his best.

I remember the time I got a very cheap set of Tchaikovsky symphonies on LP back in the 1970s. Bad mistake! The label was Everest, the recorded sound was inferior to intolerable, and the performances deserved no better, with one exception: a rare recording of Manfred with Sir Eugene Goossens leading the London Symphony. That performance glittered and sparkled even though the sound was still intolerable. (Well, the first three symphonies were done by Hans Swarowski, a Vienna Conservatory professor whose pupils included Zubin Mehta and Claudio Abbado, and the Vienna Symphony, who at least played with humility and high craft. But the rest are better forgotten.)
On the other hand, there's a very fine 1970s Manfred with Ashkenazy leading the Philharmonia on Decca/London.