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Donald Macleod explores Tchaikovsky’s life away from home. He spent significant parts of his peak years travelling or staying with friends, and a remarkable amount of his music was composed whilst staying with friends, on holiday or concert tours, or sometimes as a fugitive on the run. This evolved into a full decade of rootless wandering, which is peculiar given his frequent homesickness for Russia.

Today, we look at Tchaikovsky’s early Grand Tour of northern Europe, taking in Germany, France, the Ukraine, Belgium, Finland and the UK, where he heard Handel’s Messiah performed in the Crystal Palace.

Souvenir de Hapsal, Op 2 (No 3, Chant sans paroles )
Mami Shikimori, piano

Overture in C Minor
Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Sergei Skripka, conductor

Symphony No 1 in G Minor, Op 13, "Winter Daydreams"
I. Allegro tranquillo (Dreams of a Winter Journey)
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Mariss Jansons, conductor

Cherevichki, Op. 4:
Act I Scene 2: Scene and Duet: What's all this noise? (Oksana, Vakula)
Ekaterina Morosova, soprano (Oksana)
Valeri Popov, tenor (Vakula)
Teatro Lirico Orchestra
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, conductor

Symphony No 2 in C Minor, Op 17, "Little Russian"
IV. Finale: Moderato assai - Allegro vivo
London Symphony Orchestra
Geoffrey Simon, conductor

Produced by Iain Chambers for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Audio Wales & West