Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden), Op. 12, Act II – Melodrama (1873)
String Quartet in B-Flat major (arr. N. Brucher for string orchestra)* (1865)
Elegy to the Memory of J. Samarin (1884)
Serenade For Strings, Op. 48 (1880)
String Quartet No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 30 – Andante funebre e doloroso (arr. Glazunov for string orchestra)* (1876)
Baltic Chamber Orchestra/Emmanuel Leducq-Barôme
*premiere recordings
rec. 2019, St Petersburg Recording Studio, Russia
Brilliant Classics 96520 [65]

I recently very positively reviewed a Tchaikovsky recital disc by the United Strings of Europe which included the famous Serenade for Strings; they are a relatively small band of players whereas the Baltic Chamber Orchestra is a somewhat larger ensemble which produces a slightly “fuller fat” sound – but nothing like as luscious as Karajan’s BPO strings.

The Melodrama which opens Act II is just one of the nineteen pieces of incidental music Tchaikovsky wrote for Alexander Orlovsky’s play The Snow Maiden; its neglect is puzzling given that it is typical of his plaintive, plangent melodic invention, with a theme centred on “a dying fall”, and indeed Tchaikovsky expressed his affection for the music, whereas the next item is all that remains of an even more youthful work from Tchaikovsky’s student days at the St Petersburg Conservatory, purportedly the first movement of a string quartet later destroyed or never even completed by the composer. Either way, again, its disregard seems unwarranted; its folk-tune origins are very evident and its variety is impressive. The arrangement here was first played until 1931 and this is its first recording. The Elegy for veteran actor Ivan Samarin is a typically soulful, doleful work (although it was actually written as a tribute to him before his death and only later renamed as an ”Elegy”) and is played here with rich, burnished tone.

I have never encountered a poor performance or recording of the Serenade for Strings and this is no exception. It is among my very favourite string works and is surely the most popular piece of its kind ever written alongside Eine kleine Nachtmusik. It is music to bring out the best in an ensemble; its timings here are virtually the same as the performance I mention above and not far off Karajan’s, which means it is ripely Romantic rather than veering more towards the greater astringency of tone and tighter tempi I also enjoy in another favourite account by the Radio Chamber Orchestra of Poland on the ASV Quicksilva label.

The final item in the programme is the world premiere of Glazunov’s arrangement of the Andante funebre e doloroso from the Third String Quartet. I refreshed my memory of the movement as played by the Brodsky Quartet and have to say that I still think it works much better in its original, intended format, but the fact that this arrangement was made for Tchaikovsky’s funeral lends it a special aura and there is no doubt that Glazunov’s recasting of the music is skilful and sympathetic. The extra weight and sonority afforded by a larger body of strings lends it an appropriately dark and  funereal dignity.

The recorded sound is a tad over-reverberant but not damagingly so, especially as it is to accommodate a larger string band.

(The listing incorrectly designates the posthumous arrangement of the 1865 String Quartet as B-flat minor. That should be major, and is corrected above; Robert Matthew-Walker’s helpful and informative note gets it right.)

Ralph Moore

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