TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO. 6. Chicago Symphony conducted...

TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO. 6. Chicago Symphony conducted by James Levine. RCA Red Seal ARC1-5355 (digital). Levine stresses drama, often at the expense of sentiment, and while he skirts the abyss of mawkishness, he evades, too, the well of genuine feeling. Levine’s affinity for consummately finessed details infuriates all the more here because it serves nothing but the articulation of notes. The Chicagoans play with their customary splendor, but RCA’s recording registers the strings with annoying opacity. The review copy was riddled with substandard surfaces.