This is one of those discs you might pass over if you see it in the bins, and you'd be making a big mistake. Tchaikovsky is one of those composers whose style is so personal that even its chips and discards sound characteristic, if not always as impressive as his fully realized masterpieces--and in any case many of the items in this collection show him at his best. Take the symphonic poem Fatum, which really is formally dysfunctional and hardly from Tchaikovsky's top drawer thematically. When performed as here, with a take-no-prisoners directness and excitement, it comes off as the best orchestral work that Liszt never wrote. The overture from the opera The Voyevoda (not to be confused with the late symphonic poem) is a welcome rarity--and when was the last time we had a chance to savor the prelude to The Queen of Spades as a separate item?

All of the other items are interludes and dances, and as you no doubt know, dance music almost always finds Tchaikovsky at his best. The Gopak from Mazeppa is relatively well-known, but the similar character numbers from The Maid of Orleans, Cherevichki (The Slippers), The Enchantress, and The Oprichnik are all marvelous and well worth hearing. Best of all, Theodore Kuchar and his Ukrainian orchestra deliver powerful, thrill-packed performances full of color and rhythmic excitement. The sonics capture Tchaikovsky's vivid scoring with often overwhelming impact: bass drum and cymbals leap from the speakers, while the brass bellow powerfully, hovering on the edge of that splendidly muscular vulgarity that seems to have disappeared from today's Russian orchestras. In short, this disc offers nearly 70 minutes of pure enjoyment. [3/16/2006]

--David Hurwitz