Interesting thing about best-of collections: while the albums may indeed contain some of the most popular and enduring works by a given composer, they all too infrequently feature the best performances of those pieces. Since the quality of the performance has a significant impact on the impression a composition makes, this collection of The Best of Tchaikovsky is problematic. The only complete work included on the program is the First Piano Concerto. While an adequate performance, it is neither musically memorable nor technically remarkable. The third movement is incredibly fast, which could be very exciting if it were executed well. However, the excitement quickly deteriorates into sloppiness by both the pianist and the orchestra, with notes of the rapid descending scale passages blurring together into a wash of sound. Moving along in the program, the recording turns to the familiar drawback to this kind of anthology; that is, offering only movements of pieces. With the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture, it goes so far as to play only one theme from the piece. This seems analogous to playing only the first four notes of
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and leaving the rest up to the listener's imagination. The Waltz from the String Serenade sounds very thin, almost like it's being performed by a string quintet rather than a string orchestra. Overall, listeners would be much better off choosing one of the pieces from the program and investing in a complete recording of the work that features not only the enduring popularity of the composition, but also the esteem and quality of a superior performance.