Tchaikovsky thought kindly of Ippolitov-Ivanov personally, but had reservations about his talent as a composer. Perhaps he detected too much of his own manner in the younger man, whose symphony does indeed reflect a style that even in 1908, the year of the premiere, was beginning to sound out of date. But Tchaikovsky also doubted his originality, and over a symphonic span no amount of orchestral colourfulness can do duty for substance. The Scherzo, for instance, sets off as bright as Borodin, but for lack of real rhythmic or harmonic drive is soon forced to collapse into a fruity slow section that does not prove quite succulent enough. The Larghetto similarly goes through the motions of a grave elegy, without real sustaining melodic strength, and the outer movements expose still more another of the problems, a lack of harmonic direction to keep the attention alert.
Ippolitov-Ivanov is on much steadier ground with Mtsiri (a work not before recorded), which is based on a Lermontov poem actually sung towards the close. The simple events of this tale of a lay brother refugee from a monastery are graphically depicted, the more successfully when the method is pure narrative illustration without much need for musical organization. The Armenian Rhapsody and the March from the Caucasian Sketches are cheerfully appealing short pieces of travelogue. Gary Brain and the Bambergers do excellently by them, and make out as good a case as they can for the symphony.'