Tchaikovsky’s last opera has eluded successful recording, and still does. A Bolshoi version (HMV Melodiya, 8/78 – nla) was notable for the sensitive conducting of Mark Ermler, and has a performance of the title-role by Tamara Sorokina which was in many ways touching but was also marred by a disturbing vibrato at moments of crisis. Rostropovich’s 1984 Paris concert performance centred round Galina Vishnevskaya, more queenly than princessly but singing warmly and strongly, with a fine Vaudemont from Nicolai Gedda; however, the recording did less than justice to a score that certainly has its problems.
The present one is no real improvement on the old Erato set, whose difficulties were detailed by Geoffrey Horn in his review, except in the matter of audience noise. The singers are awkwardly placed with the orchestra, and often too much obscured though not always to the benefit of Tchaikovsky’s scoring: some of the orchestral passages sound reasonably well, but much detail is lost, such as the fanfarings and other effects as the hunt arrives. There is too little differentiation between the singers in their dramatic prominence at any given moment. This does not sound like the fault of the conductor, who has a good feeling for the work and directs much of it with a fine sense of its originality and its shifting tensions. Michaela Gurevich is quite a sympathetic Iolanta, especially in the opening scenes before the arrival of the young men who unwittingly reveal to her the secret of her blindness. Arutiun Kotchinian delivers Robert’s apostrophe to Mathilde vigorously, and is answered by a well-turned serenade to the as yet unseen Iolanta by Ian Denolfo; the King and the Moorish sorcerer Ibn-Hakia make a less positive impression.
It should be emphasized that the recording is the product of a summer school for young singers, and gives them an early chance of performance. That doesn’t necessarily make it recommendable for those seeking a recording for their libraries, especially as in this case there is no text or translation.'