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Available for over a year

Rob Cowan for Building a Library sifts through some of the available recordings of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. Considered one of his very greatest works, the 4th was written at a time of emotional turmoil. Tchaikovsky said that the fanfare first heard at the opening stands for "the fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness ...There is nothing to be done but to submit to it and lament in vain...all life is an unbroken alternation of hard reality with swiftly passing dreams and visions of happiness." Recommended recording: Budapest Festival Orchestra / Iván Fischer Coupled with: TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo & Juliet - Fantasy Overture Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer (conductor) CHANNEL CCSSA21704 (Hybrid SACD) Other recommended recordings: Below is a shortlist of other recordings which Rob Cowan also liked, although we can’t guarantee the availability of these discs. Philharmonia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti (conductor) WARNER CLASSICS 0979992 (7CD) Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Evgeny Mravinsky (conductor) DG 4775911 (2CD) New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein (conductor) SONY G010002680869X London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati (conductor) MERCURY LIVING PRESENCE 4756261 (5CD) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Willem Mengelberg Pearl GEMM CDS 9070 (3CD)