Among older recordings, for me, the first choice is David Oistrakh, with either Konwitschny in Dresden or Ormandy in Philadelphia:
My next choice would be violinist Michael Rabin, with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Alceo Galliera (though Rabin was technically a better violinist than Oistrakh, & just about everyone else for that matter):
My third choice would be Nathan Milstein--his classic recording with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Steinberg (which is better than the later Abbado recording, if memory serves...):
.
& my fourth choice would be violinist Arthur Grumiaux with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, conducted by Bernard Haitink, who's an underrated and often illuminating Tchaikovsky conductor, IMO:
. (I find Grumiaux's violin playing to be more interesting than Henryk Szeryng's, who likewise recorded the work with Haitink on Philips.)
As for digital era recordings (or nearly so), my top five picks for this work are: (1) Oleg Kagan (a student of Oistrakh's), with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Diansug Kachidze:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZXXDUAxa8Uto; (2) Uto Ughi with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Sanderling (on RCA Red Seal):
&
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8366602--tchaikovsky-dvorak-concerto-per-violino; (3) Boris Belkin with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (or a live 1975 video in New York with Leonard Bernstein:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzX9GSao1QI); (4) Vadim Repin with the Kirov Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev (though Repin has recorded the work a number of times, and I'm not certain this is the best of them):
, and (5) Maxim Vengerov with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado. (Gil Shaham is excellent too, but I'm not crazy about Sinopoli's conducting. I have not heard Lisa Batiashvili with Barenboim on DG, despite that I am a huge fan of her violin playing. However, I was disappointed with Barenboim's conducting of the Sibelius VC coupling--as he's no Sibelian.)
As usual, there are a lot of good ones to choose from...