Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 7 - The Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy

Tuneful Exultant Tchaikovsky

I first remember this as a beat-up garage sale LP, which I dutifully put-on with a slight confusion as to the number 7 (OK I was still a kid then). And those opening bassoon bars didn't help me much. BUT they have stuck with me through the years; I actually started humming all sorts of little snippets from the symphony, as soon as I saw this album again on HDTT and decided to snag it. And I have not been disappointed -- what a great reconstruction of a quite-tuneful (if a bit quirky) symphony - just plain fun! A little wikipedia searching and I do get the impression the Maestro was on a journey into more soul-searching compositions, which led him to abandon this project. But now, looking backwards over the landscape of his deeper brooding works, this symphony welcomes us back into vintage sunny Tchaikovsky. Sonics here are a bit more veiled and closed-in, but the sound-stage is wonderful, and there is that sense of burnished tone coming through nicely.