ProStudioMasters.com

The Czech Philharmonic’s first major undertaking with now Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov – The Tchaikovsky Project – will see an illustrious culmination in 2019. Over the past seasons, since the project’s inception in 2015, the orchestra and conductor have been delving into exhaustive exploration of Tchaikovsky’s music. The first two recordings in the project, released on Decca in 2016 and 2017, have received wide critical acclaim and the year 2019 sees a series of Tchaikovsky residences in Tokyo, Vienna and Paris as well as at home in Prague. Now, Decca Classics releases the complete boxset for The Tchaikovsky Project: all of the composer’s symphonies, the three piano concertos with soloist Kirill Gerstein, Romeo & Juliet, Serenade for Strings and Francesca da Rimini. The boxset marks the label’s first Tchaikovsky cycle in nearly 40 years and the first in high-definition 96K/24-bit sound. “The Tchaikovsky Project first originated when I was asked if I would be interested recording Tchaikovsky’s symphony cycle with the Czech Philharmonic. It took me about thirty seconds to realise that the idea was absolutely fascinating. I thought the combination of the Czech Philharmonic being what it is, and the orchestra’s country having its Western traditions and belonging in the West as well as the East, would create a very interesting approach to express the spirit of Tchaikovsky’s music. One that would be neither purely Russian, nor purely Western, but in a way a mixture of the two. And I think this is what makes the project so fascinating because at the end of the day, as is the case with all great music, the music of Tchaikovsky is universal.” - Semyon Bychkov