Tchaikovsky: Dmitri the Pretender and Vassily Shuisky, incidental music (Introduction to Act I; Mazurka)

This disc is the final instalment in BIS’s Tchaikovsky symphony cycle with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi, a cycle which as a whole can be described as resolutely unsentimental, aiming to rid the score of the melodramatic excess that has become part of the performance tradition. The disc features the Third Symphony, nick-named ‘The Polish’ thanks to the marking of the final movement –Tempo di Polacca.

This disc also includes a number of shorter works, among which the dances from Eugene Onegin and extracts from two lesser-known works The Voyevoda and Introduction and from the music to the play Dmitri the Pretender and Vassily Shuisky. Equally unusual is the brief Serenade, written in 1872 in honour of Nikolai Rubinstein.

BIS are delighted to present a boxed set of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies and other works. The recording have been well received. Symphony No.2 ‘Little Russian’ was hailed by Gramophone as ‘an outstanding performance…beautifully played and paced and immaculately recorded’ and No.3 ‘Polish’ of which, to quote International Record Review, Järvi presented ‘a free-flowing account that places choreographic elegance before symphonic muscle.’ Besides the six numbered symphonies, this ample selection (more than 7 hours of playing time) includes favourites such as Francesca da Rimini, Capriccio italien and Serenade for Strings as well as rarities, including rarely recorded extracts from the opera The Voyevoda and the incidental music to Dmitri the Pretender and Vassily Shuisky. The recordings remain available on the original discs as Hybrid SACDs with a Surround Sound option.