Composer of the Week - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) - Episode 1

Donald Macleod takes a series of snapshots of a period that lay at the centre of Tchaikovsky's creative life, from 1876 to 1890. He begins with an exploration of music written and performed in 1876, the year before Tchaikovsky's short and catastrophic marriage. Swan Lake (Act 1 Waltz) Montreal Symphony Orchestra Charles Dutoit (conductor) Decca 436 212-2 CD1, Tr 2 String Quartet No 3 (excerpt, 3rd mvt) Borodin Quartet Teldec 4509 90433-3 CD2, Tr 7 Cherevichki (Act 1 Sc 2) Oskana ...... Ekaterina Morozova (soprano) Vakula ...... Valery Popov (tenor) Orchestra of the Cagliari Lyric Theatre Gennady Rozhdestvensky (conductor) CDS 287/1-3 CD1, Tr 5 Francesca da Rimini London Symphony Orchestra Igor Markevitch (conductor) BBCL 4053-2, Tr 1.