Gennadi Rozhdestvensky

This old Erato disc features one of Alfred Schnittke's most popular works in excellent performance along with, as far as I know, the only recording of a late work. Gennady Rozhdestvensky leads the London Sinfonietta, with Viktoria Postnikova as piano soloist, and the composer's widom Irina Schnittke appearing on the piano four-hand work. Note that this disc has been reissued in Warner's budget line Apex, so that's a better place to hear this music.

This is a very compelling performance of Tchaikovsky's Op.44. Perhaps too expansive for my taste, but skilfully well played and always convincent. Postnikova and Rozhdestvensky make a good match in this music and as a great advantage, they chose the composer's original version. While she is known to many for her recordings of the complete piano output of Tchaikovsky and all five piano concertos of Prokofiev, Viktoria Postnikova has played a broad range of solo, chamber, and concerto repertory, from J.S. Bach and Haydn to Chopin, Rachmaninov, and Shostakovich. In addition, Postnikova has played less traditional fare by Busoni, Ives, and Janácek, and contemporary works by Schnittke and Boris Tishchenko.

Classic recordings of Tchaikovsky's orchestral music, focused around the symphonies, ballet suites, concertos and overtures. Recordings from 1962-1992, from Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Pentatone, Musical Concepts, Melodiya and Mercury.

Classic recordings of Tchaikovsky's orchestral music, focused around the symphonies, ballet suites, concertos and overtures. Recordings from 1962-1992, from Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Pentatone, Musical Concepts, Melodiya and Mercury.

Alexander Glazunov composed his Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 33, in 1890. The symphony is dedicated to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and was first performed in St. Petersburg in December 1890 under the baton of Anatoly Lyadov. The symphony is considered a transitional work, with Glazunov largely eschewing the influences of Balakirev, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakov inherent in his earlier symphonies for the newer influences of Tchaikovsky and Wagner. Because of this change, the Third has been called the "anti-kuchkist" symphony in Glazunov's output (kuchkist kuchka, the shortened Russian name for the nationalist music group The Five"). He would tone down these new influences in his subsequent symphonies as he strove for an eclectic mature style.

A generous and unusual pairing of two romantic concertos in the best recordings by "King David", playing his Stradivarius Comte de Fontana, fully animated by Gennady Rozhdestvensky, a modern conductor knowing perfectly the deep Baltic souls.

In March 2017, Mstislav Rostropovich would have turned 90. To celebrate this anniversary of one of the greatest cellists of all time, Deutsche Grammophon presents a truly encyclopaedic boxset which for the first time brings together Slavas complete recordings for Decca, Philips, and the Yellow Label (as cellist, pianist & conductor).

Mstislav Rostropovich's 75th birthday is the occasion for this two-disc set of prime recordings by the protean artist. The Dvorák Concerto with Karajan's overrefined conducting, one of the better of the cellist's five recordings of this masterpiece, is not as lively as his version with Ozawa or as idiomatic as his early recording with Talich and the Czech Philharmonic in monophonic sound. The Schumann Concerto, here with Rozhdestvensky and the Leningrad Philharmonic, is incisively Romantic, but disciplined and done with a ravishing tone, vividly recorded.