The Souvenir de Florence and Serenade for Strings are two of Tchaikovsky’s sunniest works and have often been paired on record. The Souvenir, despite its title, is not a Capriccio italien-type travelogue. Although originally written for string sextet, it works very well for string orchestra. The Serenade was composed in 1880, around the same time as the 1812 overture, a festive piece written to commission and, according to the composer, ‘of no artistic worth’. But he wrote the former ‘from inner compulsion. This is a piece from the heart … I’m terribly in love with this serenade.’ Its Waltz used to be a popular lollipop but the work is rarely performed in concert these days – you’re more likely to hear it played in Balanchine’s ballet (where the elegiac third movement is placed last).

The works are played here by the United Strings of Europe under leader and artistic director Julian Azkoul and they’re fine performances. BIS’s recording, in St Silas Church, Kentish Town, is robust and captures a big string sound, although I sense a loss of detail in such a warm acoustic. The USE sound dynamic in the opening movement of the Serenade; the Waltz has a nice lilt and the doleful serenade of the Elegy – dripping with pizzicato tears – is rather lovely. With mutes on for the start of the finale, the strings have a veiled, misty quality not unlike the cover photo, before heading into the busy Russian theme, hale and hearty.

I confess to preferring the Souvenir in its original sextet form, believing it loses some of its vitality in its more bloated string-orchestral form. Azkoul has tweaked the usual arrangement to better reflect the original’s chamber qualities by giving occasional solos, such as the lyrical violin theme in the Adagio cantabile second movement or the viola solo at the start of the third, which adds a nostalgic quality. I’m not convinced that the USE play the work’s opening with quite the same thrust that the Chamber Orchestra of Europe or Vienna Chamber Orchestra inject, but this is an attractive performance nonetheless.

Unlike my two comparison discs, there are a couple of fillers here, both arranged by Azkoul. The Andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet is a crowd-pleaser that tugs the heart-strings, sweetly played, but At Bedtime – an early a cappella chorus composed when Tchaikovsky was a student at the St Petersburg Conservatory – is a delightful discovery, bringing the album to a suitably restful close.