Elisabeth Leonskaya offers a well-organized, business-person-like view of Tchaikovsky. But especially for the academically inclined Tchaikovsky on display in these two works, that is a far from satisfying approach—the music simply fails to ignite.
In the concerto there is the partial compensation of some eloquent playing from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra—contrast the clarinet and horn in the first lyrical theme (first movement from 2'22'') with Leonskaya's pale statement of the same idea at 11'12''. But even here there are problems; tastes in string-playing vary, of course, but for me the solo violin's wide, unvaried vibrato in the slow movement is a major turn-off. For a solidly recommendable account I would suggest Donohoe on EMI; for something more controversially personal try Pletnev on Virgin Classics.
The G major Piano Sonata makes a generous coupling, and in many ways it is less flawed than either Katin on Olympia or Douglas on RCA. But it suffers from the same basic limitations as the concerto—a disappointing lack of tonal variety at dynamic extremes, unimaginative declamation, rudimentary shaping and a curiously gutless recording quality. The gulf between all three versions of the Sonata and Richter (on Eurodisc—not submitted for review) is enormous.'