Tchaikovsky - time to rehabilitate?

[Beef Oven!]

Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite composers, always has been ever since I can remember. In fact he's a desert island composer for me.

It's queer, that having said that, I play his music less often than I used to and he rarely gets a mention on the forum.

When I was a kid, his music seemed to be everywhere, even more than Beethoven's, now it's a rarity.

Is it not time to restore him, especially given our preference for music from the 1800s?

Lest he suffers the fate of Mendelssohn

[cloughie]

Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite composers, always has been ever since I can remember. In fact he's a desert island composer for me.

It's queer, that having said that, I play his music less often than I used to and he rarely gets a mention on the forum.

When I was a kid, his music seemed to be everywhere, even more than Beethoven's, now it's a rarity.

Is it not time to restore him, especially given our preference for music from the 1800s?

Lest he suffers the fate of Mendelssohn

Yes bring him on - starting with the Manfred Symphony, Francesca and Hamlet.

[jayne lee wilson]

I just watched Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men on BBC4... what a scene when the old medic puts Swan Lake into their player, the tears and the study of faces...

Tchaikovsky was never out-of-favour for me, if I play him less now it's simply due to (over)-familiarity...or over-indulgence - just 5 or 6 years ago I bought up all the Pony Canyon HDCDs of Svetlanov's recordings in Moscow and Japan and dwelt upon them a little too much... (fishing by obstinate isles, perhaps....) this music can cast a spell which is almost narcotic, but then you may get clean...all passion spent...

But he'll always be (re)-discovered and loved as long as orchestral music is played.

[Beef Oven!]

Yes bring him on - starting with the Manfred Symphony, Francesca and Hamlet.

Three fabulous works

[Beef Oven!]

I just watched Xavier Beauvois' Of Gods and Men on BBC4... what a scene when the old medic puts Swan Lake into their player, the tears and the study of faces...

Tchaikovsky was never out-of-favour for me, if I play him less now it's simply due to (over)-familiarity...or over-indulgence - just 5 or 6 years ago I bought up all the Pony Canyon HDCDs of Svetlanov's recordings in Moscow and Japan and dwelt upon them a little too much... (fishing by obstinate isles, perhaps....) this music can cast a spell which is almost narcotic, but then you may get clean...all passion spent...

But he'll always be (re)-discovered and loved as long as orchestral music is played.

[David-G]

"Eugene Onegin" and "The Queen of Spades" are both very special. And whatever the fate of Mendelssohn, he stands high with me at the moment - I have just come home from a wonderful performance of the violin concerto with Isabelle Faust and the OAE in Basingstoke.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Recently, i invested in recordings of all Tchaikovsky's operas. My favourite remains The Maid of Orleans, but there's wonderful music in all of them. There's no recording of Vakula the Smith, though there was a broadcast of this in Radio 3's Tchaikovsky/Stravinsky feste some time ago.

[teamsaint]

Not our of fashion round here, though a good deal of his music seems to receive little attention. The wonderful First symphony has had some high profile run outs this year, but I remember one or two knowledgable MB members saying earlier this year that they didn't know it at all !

What was the fate of Mendelssohn again?

To be revived by the hand of Isabelle Faust , from where I was sitting last night.

[teamsaint]

"Eugene Onegin" and "The Queen of Spades" are both very special. And whatever the fate of Mendelssohn, he stands high with me at the moment - I have just come home from a wonderful performance of the violin concerto with Isabelle Faust and the OAE in Basingstoke.

I was there last night too D2K+2. The VC was sheer magic , wasn't it?

[Suffolkcoastal]

Tchaikovsky certainly does rather well on R3 and still seems as popular as ever, in fact this year he has already achieved his highest ever number of works/chunks since I began doing my survey in 2009. It is true that some works, notably the operas, fare less well than many of his other works especially chunks from the ballets (which account for around 20% of the Tchaikovsky broadcast on R3) which are overplayed. Generally the broadcast balance of Tchaikovsky isn't too bad.

[cloughie]

Tchaikovsky certainly does rather well on R3 and still seems as popular as ever, in fact this year he has already achieved his highest ever number of works/chunks since I began doing my survey in 2009. It is true that some works, notably the operas, fare less well than many of his other works especially chunks from the ballets (which account for around 20% of the Tchaikovsky broadcast on R3) which are overplayed. Generally the broadcast balance of Tchaikovsky isn't too bad.

I suppose he was also well represented at The Proms this year.

[ardcarp]

Never been out of favour with me. As students we put words to the 'big tunes' from some of his symphonies, e.g.

Have a cup of tea Mrs Jackson

I've got the key to the toilet

and my favourite


Once I was a virgin, now I am a whore; used to do it nightly, now I do it more and more and more


Anyone else remember these? And match them to the right symphonies?

[Richard Tarleton]

Strains of the Nutcracker floating in from the next room as I type, someone must have switched over to Breakfast. Actually the complete Nutcracker generally gets a seasonal spin around here.

Never been out of favour with me.

Likewise - some great live performances stick in the memory - Cotrubas' Tatyana in Yevgeny Onegin, Fonteyn and Nureyev in Sleeping Beauty, Dowell and Makarova in Swan Lake, Ida Haendel, Rostropovich (Rococo Vars.,), Queen of Spades with Gergiev and the Kirov inc. Gorchakova, Gilels in 1st concerto with Svetlanov.....

Lots of favourites. For home listening these days it tends to be chamber music and, very occasionally, one of my favourite discs, Olli Mustonen playing the Children's Album - a gem at 24 minutes that I've never heard on radio. I tend to leave the orchestral stuff for concerts these days.

Tchaikovsky's own particular blend of Romanticism and classicism is part of what appeals. By contrast I'm allergic to Rachmaninov, but that's another story.

PS love the tawny owl, cloughie!

[Dave2002]

Once I was a virgin, now I am a whore; used to do it nightly, now I do it more and more and more

This one perhaps - http://open.spotify.com/track/6VYcq2Oq7bboPGP6e9vP0X I tried to get a direct link (failed) - select 3rd movement.

Is the other Symphony 4, finale perhaps?

[verismissimo]

Recently, i invested in recordings of all Tchaikovsky's operas. My favourite remains The Maid of Orleans, but there's wonderful music in all of them. There's no recording of Vakula the Smith, though there was a broadcast of this in Radio 3's Tchaikovsky/Stravinsky feste some time ago.

I've been car-listening to the Tchaikovsky operas in the last month or two. Such fine music in all of them, as you say. Hard to know how the lesser performed ones would cope with the theatre - especially with an unsympathetic director.

Aside from the often-done ones - Onegin and Queen of Spades, I particularly enjoy Iolanta, and recall a fine concert performance by LPO/Jurowski. Currently in the middle of The Sorceress (Charodeika). Mazeppa yet to come.

Of course, Vakula is on record only via its reworking as Cherevichki, which I caught in a not-very-memorable production at CG.

Any sign of The Voyevoda?