Album: Tchaikovsky, Francesca da Rimini / Symphony No 4 – Nelsons / Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Orfeo)

Spiralling in torment, stung by the hurricanes of Hell, Dante's adulterous heroine Francesca da Rimini gropes blindly for salvation in Tchaikovsky's symphonic fantasy.

Under Andris Nelsons, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gives a live performance of tremendous vitality and discipline, the colours deep and lucid, the music intensely felt, the tempi bold. Anguish continues in the Fourth Symphony. Superlative playing under a superlative conductor.