Russian Life & People Digest
Question by Alexander H: What is your favorite recording of Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony?
Mine has to be Mravinsky with the Leningrad Philharmonic.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Malcolm D
Your choice is pretty much definitive.
A good alternative is Von Karajan and the Berlin Phil.
Read all the answers in the comments.
Give your own answer to this question!
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sTurandot13 says
As for recordings of the Tchaikovsky 6th Symphony … None – and I do mean NONE – has ever surpassed the 1991 recording by Mikhail Pletnev and his (then) newly-formed Russian National Orchestra. I had heard just about all there was out there. Many were good; but none has ever topped the mastery of "light and shadow" in musical form or the many variations of mood as well as this recording. Not even the subsequent recording by the RNO in the boxed set could equal the excellence of that first recording for the RNO w/ Maestro Pletnev. Everything just seemed to come together just right. I remember my reaction when I first listened to that recording – knowing that this was the first recording for the RNO – and I thought: "Wow! Where do you go from UP?"
del_icious_manager says
My fave is a live version which the Moscow Philharmonic made with Kirill Kondrashin in 1978.
Mravinsky made 3 recordings of the 'Pathétique' the one most people refer to is the Deutsche Grammophon one from 1961. It's excellent but Kondrashin just does it for me.
Karajan in Tchaikovsky makes me shudder (he makes me shudder in most things).
Another classical version is Mikhail Pletnev with the Russian National Orchestra.
Lance B says
I also have a fine version of Von Karajan with Berlin. He is responsible for many recordings that could be considered definitive, particularly of Brahms and Beethoven. Regrettably, I do not own a version of Tchaikovsky 6 performed by a Russian orchestra.