The Consensus Reference Recordings of Tchaikovsky

Gil Zilkha, singer/collector/music enthusiast
In this installment of Essential Classical Music, I cover the consensus reference recordings of the major Tchaikovsky works. This video is taken from my larger video covering the consensus reference recordings of the core classical music repertoire.
Featured works:
Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6 "Pathetique"
Piano Concerto No. 1
Violin Concerto
1812 Overture
Ballet suites

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I have Mravinsky but it's a joke - all very exciting but ludicrously OTT. I prefer my Vaclav Talich with the Czech Phil on Suprafon and for the Piano Concerto No.1, Curzon with VPO/Solti, Decca Ace of Diamonds.
But that of course is just personal. I think the concept of a 'reference' recording is suspect - the idea that there can be one recording above all others. Based on what? What a certain group of critics agree on? You can't apply the idea of 'consensus' - critical in the sciences (and medicine in particular) - to art. Such an approach kills discussion, annihilates opportunity, anaesthetises thought, disparages originality and in the end only serves as constraint. If there has to be an authoritative version, then that surely can only be the one performed by the composer.