Pyotr 11"yich Tchaikovsky (1887) TCHAIKOVSKY. ORCHESTRAL WORKS. London Symphony Orchestra / Geoffrey Simon. Chandos digital DBRD2003 (two records, nas, £13.00); DBTD2003 (£13.00). Notes, texts and translations.

Hamlet—Incidental Music, Op. 67a (with Janis Kelly, sop; Derek Hammond-Stroud, bar). Romeo and Juliet—Fantasy Overture (1869 version). Festival Overture on the Danish national hymn, Op. 15. Serenade for Nikolai Rubinstein's name day. Mazeppa—Battle of Poltava and Cossack Dance.

To Edward Johnson—a keen Tchaikovskian and, incidentally, Stokowskian—must go the credit for the appearance of this enterprising set. His enthusiasm and lobbying (see his letter to the Editor on page 213 of the August 1980 issue) have finally borne fruit; and Chandos have done Johnson and Tchaikovsky proud, producing a demonstration-worthy digital recording of spectacular depth and resonance, and securing from the London Symphony Orchestra under Geoffrey Simon performances of striking commitment and spontaneity (only once in the Cossack Dance from Mazeppa did I detect a momentary lack of unanimity of ensemble and the performance itself is so exhilarating that all is forgiven). Why, the reader may ask, go back to the 1869 version of Romeo and Juliet when the final 1880 version is one of the great masterpieces of music, arguably the greatest symphonic poem ever written. Well the answer is clear; Tchaikovsky's first thoughts were so different from his final revisions that the 1869 piece is virtually a completely different work. The fact that it shows signs of immaturity is not important; it remains a fascinating and rewarding listening experience that all Tchaikovskians will want to experience for themselves.

As we know, Balakirev had great influence on the composition of Romeo and Juliet (he suggested the idea in the first place) and it was at his instigation that Tchaikovsky rewrote the work, with a new introduction featuring the familiar chorale that represents Friar Lawrence and which lends itself so well to interpolation in the development section. The 1869 version opens instead with a sombre andante heard first on bassoons, cellos and double-basses, and freshening when taken up by the full strings. At the end of this introduction there is a hint of the love melody on the woodwind; then the feud music, as we know it, enters abruptly and the magical transition to the love theme follows. The working out of the allegro is somewhat less spontaneous than the final revision but it leads effectively to a brass restatement of the opening motif. Again, we are back to familiar material as that glorious love theme blossoms, but the climax is different and there is a fascinating new and exciting—almost Berliozian—extension of the material until the second part of the love theme returns transmuted on trombones and tuba, eloquent and sonorous, with a snatch of the main string melody reappearing on top. There is then an elegiac, almost pastoral, reference to the opening idea before a much shortened coda. It really makes a very good piece, especially when the advocacy of the performance is so telling.

I cannot quite share the composer's enthusiasm for the Festival Overture—he thought it superior to I812—but it is well worth dusting off and playing now and then. The Serenade for Rubinstein is quite brief, and engaging enough. The Cossack Dance we know from the 78rpm era: with a brief cut in the coda it fitted nicely on one side of a 12inch shellac disc. The Battle of Poltava is vigorously descriptive and has genuine vitality if not real memorability. The music for Hamlet, however (which fills a whole LP), is very much worth having. It includes quite a few short pieces of course—all beautifully scored—including fanfares, but there are several quite substantial pieces. The little funeral march which forms the

Act 5 Entr'acte has a delightful gentle melancholy. It reminds one of the slow movement of the Little Russian Symphony. The two Entr'actes for strings which precede Acts 3 and 4 are characteristic of the composer at his finest and that for Act 4 is a rhapsodic elegy of poignant beauty, worthy to stand beside the famous Andante cantabile in melodic appeal. Ophelia's Mad Scene is partly sung and partly spoken. It is splendidly done by Janis Kelly who catches its fragile atmosphere admirably. Like the more robust Gravedigger's song the chosen language is French (the production of Hamlet for which the music was written was performed in French) and Tchaikovsky had a feeling for this language. The Overture is a shortened version of the Hamlet Fantasy Overture. It is given a powerful performance, although Tchaikovsky's cuts are impossible to cover up—the longer work is a much better construction. For the Act 2 Entr'acte Tchaikovsky borrowed the Alla Tedesca from his Third Symphony and here the abbreviation is nicely managed. Altogether this set makes thoroughly rewarding listening, particularly as it is so well played and recorded—the string sound in the idyllic Entr'actes is very beautiful indeed. There are excellent notes by Edward Johnson, and a translation of the vocal items is also included. An invaluable addition to the catalogue. I.M.