Adventures in Italy
Donald Macleod explores Tchaikovsky鈥檚 life away from home. He spent significant parts of his peak years travelling or staying with friends, writing the works we celebrate today
Donald Macleod explores Tchaikovsky鈥檚 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鈥檚 travels through various locations across Italy. The composer sought the southern sunshine partly as solace following his brief, disastrous marriage, accounts of which read as a not-very-inspired screenplay.
6 Morceaux, compos茅s sur un seul theme, Op 21 (No 1, Prelude in B Major)
Andrey Yaroshinsky, piano
Piano Concerto No 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op 23:
II. Andantino semplice - Prestissimo - Tempo I
III. Allegro con fuoco
Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano
London Symphony Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conductor
Eugene Onegin, Op 24:
Act III Scene 2, Onegin! Ya togda molozhe (Tatjana, Onegin)
Teresa Kubiak, soprano (Tatyana)
Bernd Weikl, baritone (Eugene Onegin)
Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Georg Solti, conductor
Swan Lake:
Act IV: Scene: Allegro agitato
Act IV: Finale
Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Dmitry Yablonsky, conductor
Symphony No 4 in F Minor, Op 36:
III. Scherzo - Pizzicato ostinato - Allegro
IV. Finale - Allegro con fuoco
Colorado Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Produced by Iain Chambers for 蜜芽传媒 Audio Wales & West
On radio
Broadcast
- Today 16:00蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
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