Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, (Primakov, Pletnev)

Most pianists who play The Seasons do them a pretty big disfavour — you get the sense that they don’t take the pieces seriously, and so the suite’s melodic invention, its harmonic tangents and deliciously orchestral articulation, all get lost in a rather lazy sentimental soup. It’s easy to understand why this suite is played this way — we know for certain that Tchaikovsky didn’t really put much effort into them (he was more preoccupied with Swan Lake and Francesca da Rimini at the time), and they were com