"Mengelberg's charting of the Fourth Symphony's first movement is a masterpiece of interpretative rhetoric: the central development is angrily impatient, the final build-up a terrifying tread towards some unimaginable catastrophe. Under Mengelberg's inspired baton, the Fifth's first movement in particular is like a tightly-coiled spring that snaps loose whenever the temperature rises..." - Gramophone
Willem Mengelberg had a long history as a champion of Tchaikovsky going back to some of his earliest appearances as chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1895. The rhythmic flexibility, passionate intensity and inexorable forward momentum of his performances were ideally suited to the Russian composer's works. Mark Obert-Thorn's new transfers of Mengelberg's early electrical recordings shed new light onto these brilliant interpretations.
- TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in F minor
- TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor
- TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet - Fantasy Overture
- TCHAIKOVSKY Waltz from Serenade for Strings