PIOTR TCHAIKOVSKY

Piotr Tchaikovsky, an idiosyncratic and distinctive 19th-century Russian composer, an exceptional figure of Romanticism, greatly influenced not only the development of Russian, but also Western European music. Some appreciate Tchaikovsky’s music for subtly conveyed human psychological world and philosophical reflections, others for songful melodies and lush orchestral sound. In the history of music, he is considered to be the father of Russian symphonism. Tchaikovsky dubbed symphonic music a “confession of the soul”. In doing so, he emphasized that the focus is on a man and his inner world. Symphony No. 1, Op. 13 in G minor is probably Tchaikovsky’s most significant early opus, also known as the Winter Daydreams. The work was written in 1866–1868, after the composer began teaching at the Moscow Conservatoire. The First Symphony is dedicated to Nikolai Rubinstein, the composer’s friend and conductor of the premiere. Tchaikovsky kept revising the symphonic score for a long time. After the premiere, listeners and critics were impressed, and Tchaikovsky himself was also pleased. “… although in many ways the symphony may seem immature, in essence it surpasses many of my mature works”, wrote Tchaikovsky in a letter to his patron Nadezhda von Meck in 1883.

Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony is performed by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of maestro Modestas Pitrėnas.