Canter Bridge

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The planets aligned when the young Tchaikovsky, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Igor Markevitch came together between 1965 and 1975 in London for performances that Philips has had the good sense to issue in their high-value Philips Classics series. This two-disk set is a classic that yearns to be played on a high-quality sound system that will bring out the concert-hall effects it includes.

Though the digital remastering fails to eliminate a low hum when played at high volume, the authenticity of the sound is worth this minor inconvenience. At one point, the listener can hear a page turn—perhaps a page of Markevitch’s score. A cantankerous music lover might ask with annoyance how the hell they allowed a microphone close enough to Markevitch’s podium to fall into a glitch like that. This astonished and less demanding reviewer almost pulled his truck off the road at the sheer historical thrill of becoming privy to such a human ‘error’ four decades after the fact.

In these three symphonies, Tchaikovsky is working out the tonalities that will appear in full flower later in his career, not least in the heart-rending struggles of the underrated but profoundly beautiful ‘Pathetique’. The plausibilities available to a late Romantic composer like Tchaikovsky allowed the elasticity of tempo and tone that made possible the climb-and-descend motifs that Tchaikovsky explores in these first three of his recognized symphonies, a modality that becomes almost a Tchaikovsky signature when his body of work is considered as a whole.

Markevitch’s baton is patient with Tchaikovsky, allowing the LSO and the New Philharmonia Orchestra to work unhurriedly though some of Romantic music’s most memorable passages.

A reviewer would be remiss not to underscore the value of the Philips Classics series, where almost canonical performances by legendary performers of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are made available at two-for-one pricing under digital remastering that rescues valuable sounds for the ages.

This 1995 issue would serve well even as a listener’s sole recording of Peter Ilyich’s first three symphonic steps towards becoming the rather immortal musician we know as Tchaikovsky.