Today Daniel Barenboim is internationally recognized and revered as an orchestral and operatic conductor, pianist, and a musical ambassador and also as a humanitarian. Partnering him is the remarkable conductor Sergiu Celibidache. “He was one of the greatest musicians I ever encountered”, says Barenboim. Sergiu Celibidache has been called a musical giant, a magician, a brilliant lion-tamer and an enfant terrible of classical music. He was a legend in his own lifetime, mesmerizing orchestras audiences and critics with his intensity and brilliance.
Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 is one of the most popular of his compositions and among the best known of all piano concerti. The Schumann concerto is no less influential with its influence heard in Grieg’s Piano Concerto. Both works show Barenboim at his consummate best.

This album of Russian violin concertos does what many modern orchestras do when programming concert repertoire. That is, feature one quite famous work (in this case, the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto) to draw in more tentative patrons, then throw in a few less well-known but still deserving pieces (in this case, the Arensky and Rimsky-Korsakov). This approach is both effective and appropriate. The programming of these three composers is also historically intelligent; Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were contemporaries, and Arensky was one of Rimsky-Korsakov's many successful students.

With a celebrated career encompassing five decades, Pinchas Zukerman reigns as one of today's most sought after and versatile musicians - violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician. He is renowned as a virtuoso, admired for the expressive lyricism of his playing, singular beauty of tone, and impeccable musicianship, which can be heard throughout his discography of over 100 albums for which he gained two Grammy awards and 21 nominations..

Natalia Makarova, one of the most important interpreters of the classical ballet repertoire in the twentieth century, has also had great success as a producer. Her staging of Swan Lake is based on the original choreography by Petipa and Ivanov, with additional choreography by the late Sir Frederick Ashton. Evelyn Hart and Peter Schaufuss dance the main roles in this studio recording. Makarova’s innovative interpretation presents the work as a story of perfect and eternal love. The main focus is on Siegfried’s love for Odette, her love for him, his unfaithfulness, for which she ultimately forgives him, and her self-sacrifice in going to her death with him in order to break the power of an evil curse.

A quick glance at the cover of this recording of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker might cause some to mistake it for the original orchestral music, because the words "arranged for solo piano" are in the smallest print. Stewart Goodyear's piano arrangement of the complete ballet is a fascinating example of the art of transcription, and the pianist deserves credit not only for his ingenious handling of Tchaikovsky's orchestration in terms of the keyboard's sonorities, but also for playing with close attention to details and tone colors that give the music its fantastic character.

Here is yet another major recording of The Nutcracker. Undoubtedly its great success stems a good deal from the superlative Berlin Philharmonic, but if also confirms Semyon Bychkov as a major new presence on the recording scene. He has the singularly important gift of bringing music to life in the recording studio as at a concert, and every bar of this performance is tingling with vitality.

The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg is one of the most prestigious opera and ballet venues in the world. Built in 1860 and named in honour of Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse-Darmstadt, wife of Czar Alexander II, it is home to the famous Mariinsky Ballet as well as numerous international stars and ensembles. After the turn of the millennium it was painstakingly restored; and since 2013, St. Petersburg's Theatre Square has been crowned with the "Mariinsky II" an imposing new arts and performance venue. At its inauguration on May 2, 2013, the highly gifted conductor Valery Gergiev led a veritable who's who of the classical music world.

John Cranko’s mastery of the art of the pas de deux finds its climax in Onegin, one of the most successful full length ballets of the 20th century. Set to sweeping music by Tchaikovsky, it tells Alexander Pushkin’s tragic love story of the world-weary aristocrat Onegin and the naïve country girl Tatiana in a superbly nuanced way. Featuring world stars Friedemann Vogel and Alicia Amatriain, this production is a must for all lovers of dramatic – and romantic – ballets. With Onegin, John Cranko secured his place in the pantheon of great 20th century choreographers. He created the three act work for the Stuttgart Ballet – of which he was Director – in 1965 and revised the ballet two years later.

Latvian violinist Baiba Skride proffers a collection of works for violin and orchestra by Tchaikovsky, the composer for which she feels the greatest affinity. Featuring the Violin Concerto, the album also includes Skride's interpretation of Tchaikovsky's triptych Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op.42 in this rarely-heard version for violin and orchestra. She completes her musical souvenir album of the great Russian composer with two pieces from Swan Lake.

There is a wonderfully vivid, pictorial quality to Tchaikovsky's colourful music. Soon after Tchaikovsky completed his ballet, The Nutcracker, Taneyev made a piano transcription of the entire work. When he finished his transcription, he gave it to Tchaikovsky. Taneyev may have thought about using this transcription for ballet practice and that he intended to try to capture all the sounds of the original piece when arranging it. But the overt frankness with which Taneyev reacted to Tchaikovsky's works made the composer nervous lot and they are often particularly dissatisfied with each other.

This recording derives from a production at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1974 conducted by Solti.The team of singers here is entirely strong and convincing . As Onegin, Bernd Weikl skillfully suggests a range of feeling: scorn, vindictiveness, regret and desolation. Teresa Kubiak is an endearing Tatyana, especially strong in the last scene. Stuart Burrows is unexcelled as Lenski. Almost stealing the show, is the Gremin of Nicolai Ghiaurov, whose solitary appearance in Act 3 is well worth the wait.

This set of two CDs holds the only recording Yehudi Menuhin made of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Sir Yehudi had nothing against the concerto and counted it among the first that he learned and played. Another recording of the concerto had been made with Sir Adrian Boult in 1959 by was never issued as Sir Yehudi was not pleased with the performance. It is a matter of conjecture as to why Sir Yehudi did not play the concerto in concert but this recording of the work is superb.

Graham Vick's production of Onegin, conducted by Andrew Davis, was one of Glyndebourne's most memorable achievements of the past 20 years. It was a staging with a wealth of psychological perceptions and beautifully rendered dramatic imagery, all held within the spare framework of Richard Hudson's designs, which still stand up superbly well under the close scrutiny of this video recording taken from performances in 1994.

Few record labels from the dawn of the LP era are recalled with more admiration and affection than Westminster Records – its first records from 1950 established Westminster as a pioneering source, exploring new and exciting corners of repertoire.

Let's say your tastes usually run to the Austro-Germanic, but you already have all of Beethoven's and Brahms' symphonies, most of Bruckner's and Mahler's symphonies, and many of Mozart's and Haydn's symphonies, so now you're thinking about trying out Tchaikovsky's symphonies. The question is: how many should you get? Should you get just the famous last three symphonies? Should you get all six numbered symphonies? Should you get all six symphonies plus the Manfred Symphony. Or should you get all symphonies six plus Manfred plus the orchestral suites? The answer, of course, depends on how much of Tchaikovsky's richly melodic, fabulously colorful, and extravagantly emotional orchestral music you're up for.