St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, Edward Serov - Boris Tchaikovsky - Chamber Symphony, Signs of the Zodiac, Four Preludes, Clarinet Concerto (2003)

The St. Petersburg-based label Northern Flowers is connected with a cultural alliance led by conductor Yury Serov, which sponsors an annual music festival. Among the native composers whom they champion is Boris Tchaikovsky (1925-1996), whose greatest barrier in the West is the mere coincidence that he shares the same last name as a much better known Russian composer. The liner notes state in clunky English that "the works of Boris Tchaikovsky are among the most notable phenomena in the twentieth century Russian music," and the disc Boris Tchaikovsky: St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra pulls together some wholly unfamiliar Melodiya recordings of the '70s and '80s to plead his cause.
These recordings feature conductor Edward Serov and the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra in four works. The room sound, from the Capella Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, is big and boomy, making the harpsichord in the Chamber Symphony rather difficult to hear. Soprano Margarita Miroshnikova sings the song cycle Signs of the Zodiac beautifully, and the work itself is quite attractive, but one wants to hear a recording a bit better than this one, which is hissy and seems to come from a deteriorating master tape. When we get to the Preludes (4) for chamber orchestra, which are all combined on a single track, and the Clarinet Concerto, we are getting the goods, as performance and recording of both works are very nicely done minus some brief moments of bright high end that go over the top. Tchaikovsky's approach to musical form is somewhat episodic, and once in awhile he tends toward a severity of manner reminiscent of his teacher Dmitri Shostakovich. Nevertheless, one would never mistake Tchaikovsky's work for that of his master. Tchaikovsky employs some rather distinctive instrumental effects and makes effective use of short, repetitive rhythmic ideas that capture one's attention. His melodic gift is natural and well developed, and some of his themes are generally reminiscent of European film music, not surprising as Tchaikovsky wrote the music to more than 30 films.
Tchaikovsky's Chamber Symphony is also available on Hyperion with the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra under Alexander Rudin, which is a more crisply played and better-recorded performance. For an introduction to the music of Boris Tchaikovsky, the Hyperion disc is probably a better choice, but for those who are already won over by his music this is the only choice for the other works, and is thus self-recommending.