Ruggiero Ricci’s Tchaikovsky/Mendelssohn Concerto coupling was one of the more desirable items in Decca’s defunct Weekend Classics budget line. Along comes Universal’s Eloquence budget line, and presto chango! The Mendelssohn is replaced by Viktoria Postnikova’s slow and soggy Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto. I reviewed this when it appeared on Australian Eloquence (type Q964 in Search Reviews for my comments), and my negative opinion remains unchanged. What I admired in Ricci’s 1950 recording of the same composer’s Violin Concerto (reissued by Pearl; see my review by typing Q3721 in Search Reviews) is somewhat tempered here by the violinist’s slightly less adroit intonation, although Jean Fournet’s alert and sympathetic accompaniment is attractively multi-miked. My advice is that you pass this one up, and hunt down the aforementioned Tchaikovsky/Mendelssohn disc. If you find two copies, keep one, and save the other for me.
