Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 ‘Polish’ Rob Cowan’s choice for BBC Radio 3 Building a Library

In my blog of 3^rd March 2012 ‘Tchaikovsky – the reputation they tried to destroy’ I was enthusiastic about a release by Newton Classics of Igor Markevitch’s terrific Tchaikovsky symphony cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra from the 1960’s.

On this morning’s BBC Radio 3 Building a Library Rob Cowan chose Igor Markevitch’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony as his building a library choice. However, there was only one snag in that it is only available as a download from Decca or as part of that same Newton Classics set that I had recommended in March. Rob felt, understandably, unable to recommend the Newton Classics set due to ‘drop outs’ at the start of the third symphony.

I was somewhat surprised at this and immediately went to my own copy to see if my ears were giving me trouble. Not so – I listened carefully all the through the third symphony and could find no problem whatsoever.

My next enquiry was to have been with Newton Classics so I went to their website www.newtonclassics.com to get an e-mail address but I found an apology posted against details of the Tchaikovsky set. This is what Newton have to say,

‘Please note that new masters of this album (Ref: 8802036) are currently being shipped to retailers due to a few playing gaps on the first batch of recordings. Please see your retailer to exchange your copy. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused.’

It seems then there are a few rogue copies of the set out there to be wary of but now that Newton Classics are aware of the problem you should be sure that if you do get one of these rogue copies then it can be exchanged for a good copy.

I hope that this doesn’t put anyone off buying these wonderful recordings.