Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6 / Francesca da Rimini

Considered absolutely indispensable in the discography since its 1961 release on the yellow label, this set of Tchaikovsky's last three Symphonies offered a gripping synthesis of the conductor's art, his science of dynamics and inexhaustible poetic imagination. In a certain way, the public and critics raised Mravinsky to the rank of 'living legend', all the more so because his reputation as an implacable conductor, one of incomparable authority and high standards, was already spreading.

Mravinsky died in 1988. A few months later, the U.S.S.R. collapsed, artists began to travel more widely in the West, and the archives of the former bloc (radios, etc.) were 'liberated'. In 1992, Erato decided to release several concert recordings by the Russian conductor, indirectly resuming the work initiated by the Philips label at the very end of the 1980s. With these releases, Erato was able to keep Mravinsky's exceptional aura alive.