Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 / Debussy: Images
This is an extremely welcome release for fans ofMichael Tilson Thomas: the first CD appearance of a legendary recording with the Boston Symphony he made (as its new assistant conductor) in March 1970. At that point (still only in his mid-20s), Tilson Thomas was becoming notorious for introducing provocative new music by the likes ofSteve Reich, but he was also stirring up a rather moribund classical music scene. Just imagine the ethos in those days, when talk of the demise of the symphony orchestra as an absurd irrelevance was gloomier even than it is now: in rushed MTT with a super-infusion of excitement and confidence to rouse the players--and the audience. MTT was already proving his deep affinity with Russian composers (which would be followed many years later by his enormously successful accounts ofProkofievandStravinsky).This is, in fact, one of the finest readings on record of Tchaikovsky's First Symphony (subtitled, with greater programmatic élan than usual,Winter Dreams), lushly expansive in its reveries (the veiled beauty of the slow movement as it unfolds its mournful folk song) but also crisp and pointed, dramatically tense, and featuring sinewy balances of wind, brass, and strings. The Tchaikovsky is worth the price of purchase itself, but the CD also includes a bracing vision of Debussy'sImages. MTT's view of this sonic triptych shows a rhythmic vigor that will overturn stereotypes of vague, amorphous "impressionism" (a labeling Debussy, of course, always detested). At midprice, this is a must-have for your collection.--Thomas May