P. I. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 3 ‘Polish’ & Francesca da Rimini

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 in D major ‘Polish’ is cast, uniquely for the composer, in five movements. There is nothing particularly Polish about the piece (the subtitle was added by the conductor Sir August Manns six years after Tchaikovsky’s death) but it does display some characteristically German touches with echoes of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Schubert. The tragic and tempestuous symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini is based on scenes from Dante’s Divine Comedy. The much-admired Tchaikovsky recordings by the Utah Symphony Orchestra and Maurice Abravanel – who brought his orchestra to prominence as one of America’s most distinctive and respected – were originally released on VOX in 1974. The Elite Recordings for VOX by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.