Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 2 & 4

Karabits and Nelsons are thirty-something conductors who grew up on the fringe of the Soviet empire – the former in Ukraine, the latter in Latvia – and now lead, respectively, the Bournemouth and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras. Nelsons has the wider stylistic palette but these discs give Karabits an edge in the core Russian repertoire. His studio recording of the “Little Russian” symphony has everything we expect from a Tchaikovsky interpreter of the Moscow school – colour, sweep, majesty, but not a whiff of indulgence.

The Bournemouth orchestra responds with style and drive – all wind sections in superlative form – and a symphony that is often dismissed as a poor relation of its better known successors comes across as a masterpiece, bursting with atmosphere, melody and martial splendour. Karabits follows up with a Mussorgsky Pictures from an Exhibition that is not so much a filler, more another knockout performance. Nelsons imbibed his Tchaikovsky from Mariss Jansons, a schooling that illuminates the opening track of his live disc – a highly charged reading of the Francesca da Rimini fantasy. But while his Fourth Symphony whips up a similar storm in the finale, it lacks the overall flair and idiomatic touch of Karabits’ CD.

Tchaikovsky

Symphony No 2

Kirill Karabits

(Onyx)

Tchaikovsky

Symphony No 4

Andris Nelsons

(Orfeo)