This is as fine a rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations as you’re likely to encounter. Rostropovich, here in his first recording of the work, displays his fabled technical prowess and musical sensitivity. This, along with conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky’s keen interpretive insight, makes Tchaikovsky’s work sound much more substantial than the divertissement treatment it usually receives. Variation III is the highlight of this performance–Rostropovich’s lush tone and tender song-like phrasing, along with Rozhdestvensky’s slow yet rhythmically alert tempo, create a magical interlude that would be perfectly at home in Act 2 of Sleeping Beauty. The Leningrad Philharmonic provides its standard, well-disciplined playing, while the Melodiya recording sounds fairly decent for its early 1960s vintage.
From the same era comes this Souvenir de Florence, most recently available as part of a complete set of Tchaikovsky String Quartets on Chandos. This new transfer brings greatly enhanced clarity and openness on the top end, as well as cleaner, less reverberant bass. The result is that what was already a fine performance is now revealed as a great one, with incisive and stunningly virtuosic playing by the Borodin Quartet aided by Rostropovich and violist Genrikh Talalyan. In sum, an excellent coupling, and one of the more compelling releases in the Moscow Studio Archives series.
