Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 & Serenade for Strings

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky is one of the most eminent and revered conductors of the day. Born in 1931, he began conducting only a few years after the end of World War II and became one of the world’s most popular Soviet era conductors as a result not only of tours with Soviet orchestras but the first Soviet conductor — a novelty at the time — ever to be appointed principal conductor of various foreign orchestras: the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Rozhdestvensky continued to maintain a high profile both in Russia and internationally.

Rozhdestvensky’s wide-ranging repertoire includes a number of high-profile world premieres, but also a natural focus on Russian music of the romantic era. Alto is pleased to make available for the first time outside the former Warsaw Pact Rozhdestvensky’s outstanding recording of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony with the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, coupled with Vladimir Fedoseyev’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.

• Essential Tchaikovsky from an internationally renowned Soviet-era giant of the podium – first CD release outside of Eastern Europe!

On Rozhdestvensky’s recorded versions of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4: “First-class… a very striking performance, Russian in feeling yet… never going over the top… holds back his big guns… slow movement is phrased very evenly… scherzo is like an arabesque, the string pizzicatos light and gentle. … Then the finale bursts on the listener… with its power to shock at that first fortissimo” — Gramophone