Search - Tchaikovsky, Amf, Marriner :: Piotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suites Nos. 1-4

Marriner's Mostly Mundane Tchaikovsky at Super-Budget Price

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/06/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"On the face of it one might expect that this would be a terrific bargain, this super-budget 3CD box that not only includes Tchaikovsky's four orchestral suites but also the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy, the Capriccio Italien, and Francesca da Rimini. But in fact it's not that great a bargain after all because the sound for the first two CDs -- the ones that include the four suites -- were recorded in 1987 and sound more than a little tinny. Also, one must note that the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart is not much of a Tchaikovsky orchestra. Further, one cannot say that Marriner has their measure either.



Things get better in the third CD which has the non-suite works. And they feature a better orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Plus the sound of this 1992 recording is demonstrably better.



But the fact is that all these works can be had in better performances and in better sound. For the Suites I'd suggest a budget 2CD release featuring Antal Dorati and the New Philharmonia Tchaikovsky: Complete Suites for Orchestra. For the other works one can find numerous better versions: Romeo & Juliet - Gergiev, Sanderling, Ormandy, Bernstein; Francesca da Rimini - I particularly like the Serebrier version coupled with the Fourth Symphony; Capriccio Italien - any of any number of recordings, including Kondrashin and Bernstein (the latter also containing the Romeo & Juliet).



My advice is to pass this one by.



Scott Morrison"