Symphony no. 3 in D major 'Polish' Op. 29 / Dances from the operas

"Järvi's reading of the symphony… exhibits great vitality and, more importantly, an abiding warmth and affection for what one can safely say is…. Tchaikovsky's most lyrical symphonic creation. The middle movements especially repay Järvi's lightness of touch, spontaneous and luminous." Gramophone Magazine, November 2009

This disc is the final instalment in BIS's Tchaikovsky symphony cycle with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi, a cycle which as a whole can be described as resolutely unsentimental, aiming to rid the score of the melodramatic excess that has become part of the performance tradition. The disc features the Third Symphony, nick-named 'The Polish' thanks to the marking of the final movement -Tempo di Polacca.

This disc also includes a number of shorter works, among which the dances from Eugene Onegin and extracts from two lesser-known works The Voyevoda and Introduction and from the music to the play Dmitri the Pretender and Vassily Shuisky. Equally unusual is the brief Serenade, written in 1872 in honour of Nikolai Rubinstein.