Much of Tchaikovsky's piano music is trivia written for the salon, so a pianist must select carefully to hold our interest. Ashkenazy plays the entire series commonly mistranslated as The Seasons (it should be The Months, of course), pieces Tchaikovsky ground out under pressure for a monthly magazine. The pressure seems to have inspired him, as these are lovely miniatures. The additional pieces are also lovely, especially the Berceuse from Op. 72 (Tchaikovsky's last piano music), a breathtakingly beautiful piece. Best of all, Ashkenazy plays this music with total sympathy and a kind of rich piano tone he doesn't always exhibit, convincingly caught by Decca's engineers. Tchaikovsky completists may want to look elsewhere, but this is as fine a single-disc selection of his piano music as you will find. --Leslie Gerber
