Customer Reviews

Essential Tchaikovsky

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To me this is the best possible way to present Tchaikovsky in just 2 discs. Usually I hate it when a piece, like his Piano Concerto #1, is broken up, as you hear two movements of it in different places on disc 1. But in this package, the selections meld seemlessly, almost as if they were written to be played in this sequence.
All his great music is here, including March Slave which of course is a great way to close CD 1, and the best from his ballets, for which he is most famous. Let's face it only a hard-core would sit and listen to an entire ballet. A few excellent slices from his symphonies and tone-poems as well, especially the exquisit Andante Cantabile.
If you are on a budget like me, or just want to start learning about this eccentric genius, get this package. The next albums to purchase might be Symphony #4 or a set of short suites from his ballets.

There's something for every Tchaikovsky lover on this disc. From Swan Lake to Onegin, many of Tchaikovsky's most-known melodies are on this disc. I'd have preferred more than an excerpt of the first movement of Piano Concerto No. 1, but this disc is a great introduction to Tchaikovsky's works.

Some labels, like Philips, get "best of" releases right: they include a few whole pieces in their entirety rather than excerpts from a dozen different works. Compilations of little samples like this look more expansive, but you fail to get the full picture of any of the symphonies, concertos, string quartets, etc. by hearing one movement or less. Classical music is about thematic development, so it can't be cut up into little pop "hit singles" for the ADD generation and remain meaningful.

It's got the full Marche Slave, Elegy In G For Strings, parts of ballets that would be too long to include in full anyway, etc.--so it's not totally without merit, but it's not ideal either.

The hatchet job to the "1812 Overture" alone is worth giving this 2-disc collection two stars. And then leading off disc-1 with an "excerpt" of Piano Concerto No. 1 and disc-2 with an "excerpt" of the Violin Concerto was very frustrating. Did not realize that "excerpt" meant "truncated." Otherwise, it is a wonderful collection. Save some money and get a used copy.