What the booklet cover and jewel case spine both misleadingly term Tchaikovsky’s “Flute Concerto” is a four-minute fragment of entirely forgettable juvenilia–to be precise, Tchaikovsky’s Largo and Allegro for flute and strings, written around 1863-64. Its inclusion serves no useful purpose here, and anyway, it receives a pretty drab performance from Roberto Fabbriciani. The remainder of this CD is another matter, however, and these accounts of the string serenade and Souvenir de Florence are often superlative. Reduced forces (only 17 players are used here) can cast novel perspectives on the C major string serenade, and the conductorless Bavarian Radio ensemble treats the work as pure chamber music. The benefits are enormous: alert dynamic gradations in the first-subject group of the main first movement allegro; seamless and sinuous dialogues in the waltz and a breathtaking transition from the hushed, vibrato-less preamble into the Russian theme of the finale; the whole performance topped off convincingly in the triumphant re-appearance of the work’s opening statement; and the final exuberant coda.
There follows a powerfully driven, volatile, sometimes frenetic reading of the Souvenir de Florence, bristling with characterful detailing and vitality, and this version rates highly if you prefer the string orchestra version to the sextet score. Phillippe Entremont’s budget Naxos coupling of the Souvenir and Serenade (with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra) is more measured and noticeably less urgent in pulse and attack, though Jean-Jacques Kantorow’s colorful Auvergne Orchestra strings benefit greatly from Denon’s outstanding sound engineering. The best big-band version of the serenade remains Herbert von Karajan’s Berlin coupling, with Dvorák’s string serenade Op. 22. Lastly, the cello arrangement of the celebrated Andante cantabile (from Tchaikovsky’s first quartet) is affectingly played by Wen-SinnYang, the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra’s principal cellist. In sum: we get highly assured performances of the string works, and demonstration sound quality, but you can overlook the so-called Tchaikovsky “Flute Concerto”!
