BORIS TCHAIKOVSKY (1925-1996): Fantasia on Russian Folk Themes, Sinfonietta for String Orchestra, Capriccio on English Themes (Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra; Alexander Gauk. Rec. 1952, 1955 and 1954 respectively), Slavonic Rhapsody (Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra; Samuil Samosud. Rec. 1957).

Description: All of these early works except the Sinfonietta (1953) use folk music - two Russian (the 1950 Fantasia, which is probably the first orchestral work Tchaikovsky wrote entirely without supervision, and the 1951 Rhapsody) and one English (1954) a practice the composer was never to revisit. The Sinfonietta, in four movements (Sonatina, Waltz, Variations and Rondo), inhabits the genre of Slavic string music in the tradition of Suk and Dvorák but also fits in with the English string music being written in the first half of the 20th century. In other words, this is Boris Tchaikovsky like you'll never hear again as the composer develops toward his mature voice. The old, mono recordings sound infinitely better than you could have expected.