Tag Archives: Saturday Symphony

There are times when the circumstances of a given work’s creation almost inexorably lead to conclusions about its nature that probably aren’t quite true. Such is the case with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor, which concluded his symphonic … Continue reading →

In researching a little for this post, I discovered that Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor is not universally beloved. Shocking, but true: some critics find the finale “insincere and crude”. Well, really. While I’ve had issues with a … Continue reading →

OK, last week didn’t happen (we were out of town and I just didn’t get the post written), and this week’s supposed to be Tchaikovsky’s Fifth but I still didn’t get the post written (because it’s one of my favorite … Continue reading →

Tchaikovsky wrote one symphony that he did not give a number. This work is quite different from his other symphonies, in that not only is it not numbered, but it is a programmatic work that carries a title: Manfred. In … Continue reading →

We now reach the later period of Tchaikovsky’s career as a symphonist, which is where things go from “good”, “solid”, and “promising” to “great”. This is the Symphony No. 4 in F minor. I have to confess that I didn’t … Continue reading →

Sorry for missing last week, but here we are again. Tchaikovsky’s third symphony, the Symphony No. 3 in D Major, is an interesting work, almost experimental in its form. The symphony is in five movements instead of four, and in … Continue reading →

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor is very, very new to me: I first heard it a week ago, after I posted about the Symphony No. 1! I don’t really have a great deal to say about this symphony, … Continue reading →

Sorry to miss this feature the last couple of weeks! There’s a reason for that, though: I was finally going to address the symphonies of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, but just the last three, which are among the greatest symphonies ever … Continue reading →

This work may not even actually be a symphony, but I’m featuring it nonetheless, because for a time Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov actually did consider it a symphony (his Symphony No. 2), before redubbing it a “symphonic suite”, called Antar. His inspiration … Continue reading →