Reacquaintance with the liberating Jansons Little Russian (coupled with the Capriccio italien) always has me marvelling at the vision and the preparation: every bar (re)considered, dynamics rewritten (either in approach to climaxes or to vary repetitions), all accents sharply pointed and many new ones inserted (as are a few bars for timpani in the finale), note values occasionally shortened. All this comes with a light- and air-filled brilliance of texture (a superb wind/strings balance maintained at all times) and never a whiff of calculation.
Slatkin's reading is more traditional, though, as always with this conductor, intelligently planned and expertly and elegantly executed. There is an equally brisk tempo for the second movement march, and plenty of energetic drive throughout. The St Louis sound, as spaciously recorded, is weightier, with impressively full string basses and bass drum, and a big trombone sound. Slatkin takes care to control his trombones (rather more than Karajan did), and the balance is generally excellent, though, in the finale, I would like to hear more of the brighter voices of the woodwind and strings (and horns) in the development and coda. Slatkin's one significant departure from the score (or tradition) comes at the start of this finale's coda (8'32''), which he begins Moderato, slowly accelerating up to Tchaikovsky's preferred Presto; the change in pulse may raise a smile or cause the jaw to drop (as doubtless will the 'parfum pour l'homme' cover photo); I'd say the performance had earned it. Equally startling are the trombones (from 12'08'') doubling the lower strings in the feud music from an otherwise unremarkable Romeo and Juliet. This, though, and the 1812 are rarely more than efficient.'