''Djong Victorin Yu has come to London via Eastern Europe'', says the booklet, but he is originally from South Korea and wrote an official march for the Seoul Olympics. He also conducts the Philharmonic Orchestra of Kharkov (the old Ukrainian capital) and has some evident sympathy with Tchaikovsky's style. However, although the grandeur of the Serenade comes across clearly, the playing here is self-consciously monumental, something emphasized by a markedly bass-heavy recording. The other essential quality, charm, is in short supply, not least in the conductor's deliberate delivery of the ''Waltz''. Predictably, Yu is better in the ''Elegy'' and shapes it nobly: one is reminded here that Elgar probably learned something from his Russian predecessor. But, after a nicely moulded quiet introduction to the finale, we soon enter heavier waters. This performance does not offer all Tchaikovsky's expressive colours, including half-lights, and therefore fails to take off as it should.
Much the same, alas, must be said of the Souvenir de Florence. This conductor, using his own orchestral arrangement, loads it with an interpretative forcefulness that it cannot bear: just one example of such playing is the opening of the Andante cantabile e con moto second movement. Though the Allegro moderato and finale have a defter touch, these two Tchaikovsky works are much better served by a super-bargain Naxos disc in which Philippe Entremont directs the Vienna Chamber Orchestra elegantly as well as expressively: there's excellent playing here and a recording to match. In his review, described it as ''a major addition to the catalogue''.'