SACDs - Tchaikovsky

An unusual pairing of Tchaikovsky’s two most popular scores by two uncontested Russian masters: the resurrection of one Richter’s rare encounters with the most Russian conductor of the 20th century, Yevgeny Mravinsky.

An indispensable account from Praga's recorded legacy over the last 20 years.

Recorded Leningrad July 24, 1958

This two-disc set marks the beginning of a new project devoted to Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores. We start the survey with the complete score of The Sleeping Beauty, recorded on SACD. Swan Lake and The Nutcracker will follow in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in St Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, in 1888 about a possible ballet adaptation of Charles Perrault’s La Belle au bois dormant (The Sleeping Beauty). The vision was to stage the production in the style of Louis XIV, allowing the musical fantasy to run high and melodies to be written in the spirit of Lully, Bach, and Rameau. This proposal for a fairy-tale ballet rooted firmly in both the rococo and baroque periods appealed to Tchaikovsky, and The Sleeping Beauty was premiered in 1890, with choreography by Petipa, the principal choreographer of his day.

Elaborately constructed, the ballet places its focus undeniably on the two main conflicting forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and evil (Carabosse). Each has a representative leitmotif, which runs through the entire ballet, serving as an important thread to the underlying plot. Tchaikovsky’s use of what, at the time, were considered new and unorthodox instrumental combinations went on to inspire a new generation of composers, among them Stravinsky, who declared The Sleeping Beauty to be Tchaikovsky’s chef d’œuvre.

The Sleeping Beauty is here performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, who is celebrating two major milestones this year: a thirty-year recording career with Chandos Records, and his own seventy-fifth birthday. Orchestra and conductor are joined by the pre-eminent violinist James Ehnes, one of the most dynamic and exciting performers in classical music today.

This is the penultimate release in the Tchaikovsky Symphonies cycle by the best Russian Orchestra conducted by its Music Director Mikhail Pletnev. The whole series has been critically acclaimed across the globe and this one will be eagerly awaited by collectors of the series.

Welcome to a rare dalliance with the chamber music of Glinka, the pioneer of patriotic Russian opera including 'Ivan Susanin' (A Life for the Tsar, 1839) then 'Ruslan & Ludmila' (1842), he was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music. The mighty Prazaks pay tribute to the foreunner of Rossini and also play Tchaikovsky's 1871 Op. 11 designed for chamber orchestra rather than for the 16 strings of a quartet.

The Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard here perform two works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky as part of their “Opening Doors” series.

The series presents large-scale Romantic symphonic works with the clarity that a chamber orchestra can offer. Previous recordings include a full cycle of Schumann’s symphonies, Dvořák’s ‘New World Symphony’, and Symphony No. 2 by Bruckner.

The works here come from either end of Tchaikovsky’s career and are linked by the tragedy apparent in their endings.