While I have said that IMO, Beethoven was the greatest of all composers and Bach was the geuius without whom ALL western music as we know it today regardless of genre would not be possible, there is no doubt that Tchaikovsky is right up there among the greatest of all time. To me he has always been the "master of melody" and nobody wrote more beautiful melodies or more of them than he did. It's hard to believe that such a tortured soul could have given the world so much beautiful music. If you are at all interested in what symphonic music is all about or if you just want a fine recording of the late symphonies of Tchaikovsky, Deutche Grammaphone DG 453-088-2 Tchaikovsky Symphonies 4,5,and 6 played by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan IMO is an excellent choice.

I am going to say right off the bat that I am not a fan of the 4th symphony. Although it is written with the same incredible skill and orchestrations as his great works, as with lesser works by other great composers like the Dvorark violin concerto and the Mendelsohn piano concerto, it has practically nothing to say, at least not to me. I will admit however that the last movement is very exciting. The third movement is almost entirely pizzicato (plucked strings) and is an excellent test for the deep bass and mid bass of plucked cellos and double basses which is so often not well rendered on many recordings or by many fine sound systems. (This alone gives me reason to belive that there is something very wrong with the way we measure loudspeaker systems.)

If I had to choose between the 5th and 6th, I prefer the 6th. Both are immense works right up there with Dvorak's 9th (New World), Mendelsohn's 3rd (Scotch), and Bethoven's 3rd(Eroica), 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th(choral). Both have many unforgettable melodies that are beautifully orchestrated. Both have long passages that build to soaring climaxes. But the 6th (pathetique) is possibly unique in that the last movement appears to be Tchaikovsky's suicide message to the world. Nine days after its premiere, he killed himself by drinking poison. The sixth also seems to make references to the Serenade for Strings. Although Tchaikovsky was not one of the "Russian Five" he towered far over all of them. If you like this music, try some of his ballets like the Nutcracker or Swan Lake or his overtures like Romeo and Julliet. His violin concerto and his first piano concerto are among the greatest works for those instruments and he wrote tons of other great music. BTW, these recordings will give you lots of massed violin passages, an excellent test of accuracy of high frequency reproduction and its massive orchestrations will also give you something to test the overall tonal balance of your sound system. You will also understand the meaning of dynamic range and why vinyl records can't contain them without compression.

There are many other fine recordings of these two symphonies but I think these are about as good a combination of great performances and excellent sound as you will find.