Retreading The Familiar

I mentioned that during the period I've now reached in my traversal of the shelf the BBC Music mag cover disks were going through a warhorse phase and this is illustrated here with a disk of music by Tchaikovsky including the Piano Concerto No 1. The performers are the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Alexander Titov with soloist Alexander Melnikov. Perfectly serviceable but lacking the force of nature of the version I have by Martha Argerich. The disk is filled out by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Altschuler playing Suite No 3 in G Op 55. This is a later work, not at all programmatic but an exercise in musical form. Not as dry as that may sound, it still has typical Tchaikovsky angst and passion beneath the surface. The closing theme and variations gives both composer and orchestra a thorough workout.