Alexander Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Music Volume One

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Catalogue No: TOCC0587
EAN/UPC: 5060113445872
Release Date: 2021-02-05
Composer: Alexander Tchaikovsky
Artists: Dmitry Vasilyev

The Muscovite Alexander Tchaikovsky (b. 1946) – nephew of Boris Tchaikovsky but no relative to Pyotr Ilich – is one of the most highly respected composers at work in contemporary Russia, and yet his music has had little exposure to western audiences. His symphonic style owes something to that of his uncle: it likewise patiently develops enormous power over large expanses of sound, although there is also room for gently ironic touches of nostalgia. Much of the Third Symphony (1995–2002), scored for a huge orchestra, is infused with waltz rhythms: it uses material from sketches for an abandoned ballet based on Dostoyevsky’s The Devils. The Seventh Symphony is very much a work de nos jours: Tchaikovsky composed it during the Covid-19 pandemic, scored it for a socially distanced orchestra of strings, percussion and piano – at which point, as he writes, ‘the virus then took revenge’, and he fell ill himself. The message of the work is clear, as the turmoil of the first movement gives way to a message of hope in the second.

Siberian Symphony Orchestra
Andrey Lopatin, violin (Track 4)
Dmitry Vasiliev, conductor

Listen To This Recording:

    Symphony No. 7, Op. 139, Quarantine Symphony, for strings, percussion and piano (2020)

  1. I Andante – Allegro molto
  2. II Adagio
  3. Symphony No. 3, Op. 75 (1995-2002)

  4. I Allegro
  5. II Allegro molto
  6. III Andante

FIRST RECORDINGS
LIVE PERFORMANCES

1 review for Alexander Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Music Volume One

  1. :

    ‘Dmitri Vasiliev has demonstrated the vitality and range of his conducting on his many discs for Toccata. Here he is especially notable for the dynamism and excitement of his performance of the Symphony No 3, while the precision and depth of his reading of No 7 is even more impressive. After more than 15 years under his direction the Siberian Symphony Orchestra knows exactly what Vasiliev requires from them and is ready to oblige.’

    —William Kreindler, MusicWeb International

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