The overture and the first mvt of the 6th are quite similar in form and mood. You could pass them off for each other respectively. Just a thought!

Yes, they are, although Ive never made that connection. Sporadic climaxes and a very memorable Romantic theme played throughout. Those pieces, along with the Pno Concerto, are why I like Tchaikovsky!

I have all his symphonies now(need a decent 4 & 5 tho). For years I only had Pathetique,and then I got no. 4 as part of The Classical Collection,then No 5 free with BBCMusic magazine. I then got a 2 CD Philips Classical set of 1-3.
The Little Russian is special!

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An artist must have the freedom to create-Edward Weston

My favorite is Symphony #6. So dark and brooding. It's very unique among Tschaikowsky's own works.
And my least favorite...The Nutcracker. Tschaikowsky didn't like it, either. I think it's a pity that this ballet is more famous than the rest of his works. Oh, well.

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I stared at him wide-eyed for a few dreadful moments, thinking he had lost all sense of reality. Then I said to him, choosing my words with agonizing caution and reluctance, "Listen to Mozart, my young man."

Oh I like the Nutcracker, and have the complete work on one disk.

My orchestra is currently playing Tchaik 5 and it's so much fun. Got to love the fff markings!
It's a pity we're only a small community orchestra and some of our players aren't very good. But we still go ok. Also that orchestra can't afford enough timps atm.

My girlfriend has played some of his violin concerto and I instantly fell in love it. When she was plying the second movement I instantly fell in love with this man how good it would be to write such amazing music for such a beautiful instrument.

And also everything else he writes too is pretty fantastic just too much to say.

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"The next few years of your life are going to be hard and miserable if you want to be good" - My percussion teacher..
Damn

Why isn't the "Winter Dreams" first symphony played far more often??? It's great!

Huh, forget fff markings in Tchaikovsky's fifth: what about the pppppp markings in the sixth? Yes, there really are six "p"'s in the scoring sometimes. It's great. INTENSE!

The first time I heard Tchaichovsky's 6th made me feel certain depth of sadness music has never before made me feel. You've got to be a good composer if you can do that.

You can't beat Mariss Jansons with the Oslo Philharmonic.

It' seems to have gotten a lot more notice recently, as I've heard it on 90.1 (my local classical station) a couple times in the past week or so. I have a great recording of it with Michael Tilson Thomas (coupled with Debussy's Images, which is the reason I bought the disc).

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Take a look at the Bandit's blog, The Classical Corner.

That's an interesting coupling! Where did you get that one?

I bet the only reason (a very unjustified one at that) that Tchaikovsky's symphonies 1-3 aren't played way more often is because they're more classical with their restraint and that they don't quite measure up to the last three. I mean, come ON, it's the 21st century!!!

[Short] Rant over.

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"Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n
wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu!
Was du geschlagen
zu Gott wird es dich tragen!"
-Gustav Mahler

I feel that I've heard of his Violin Concerto like hundreds times but have never felt bored. I also love many of his ballet music. I like him for being so romantic. I am glad that we have had such a great composer.

Love his Serenade for Strings and the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. He's really one of the greats.

"The Russian composer Tchaikovsky is surely not an ordinary talent, but rather an inflated one, with a genius-obsession without discrimination or taste. Such is also his latest, long and pretentious Violin Concerto. For a while it moves soberly, musically, and not without spirit. But soon vulgarity gains the upper hand, and asserts itself to the end of the first movement. The violin is no longed played; it is beaten black and blue. The Adagio is again on its best behavior, to pacify and to win us. But it soon breaks off to make way for a finale that transfers us to a brutal and wretched jollity of a Russian holiday. We see plainly the savage vulgar faces, we hear curses, we smell vodka... Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto gives us for the first time the hideous notion that there can be music that stinks to the ear."

Eduard Hanslick, the most influential of Viennese critics

Any music that can make you smell vodka must be powerfully written - the pinnacle of Romantic endeavour. Unless, of course, Hanslick was synesthetic (which I doubt).

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 was one of the first pieces that got me interested in classical music. It's just so - well, clever, is the only way I can put it.

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Everyone loves harpsichords, right? Erm, anyone?
-- Compositions page, on my website --