Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture

TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture and violin concerto
May 21-23

The 2008-2009 season finale will be one for the ages as the DSO performs Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and his 1812 Overture with the DSO Chorus directed by David R. Davidson. This is one concert you will not want to miss. Jaap van Zweden conducts.

Brahms: Schicksalslied (Song of Fate) (Dallas Symphony Chorus)
Tchaikovsky: Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra (soloist Simone Lamsma)
Intermission
Tchaikovsky: Capriccio italien
Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture (Dallas Symphony Chorus)

Simone Lamsma, violin
Dallas Symphony Chorus
David R. Davidson, chorus director
Jaap van Zweden, conductor

About the piece:

Tchaikovsky 1812, Ouverture solennelle, Op. 49
(Approximate duration 16 minutes)

Few works need less introduction than the 1812 Overture, a perennial favorite on
pops concerts, especially around the Fourth of July. Its explosive fireworks conclusion,
including scoring for military cannons, elicits delirious cheers from non-specialists and
occasional sheepish grins from the highbrows who are enjoying its bombast in spite
of themselves.
Tchaikovsky composed the overture to fulfill a commission from the conductor
Nikolai Rubinstein in 1880. Rubinstein was in charge of an Exhibition in Moscow
that coincided with Tsar Alexander II's silver jubilee and with the opening of the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which was being constructed to commemorate the
historic events of 1812.

Tchaikovsky Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 35
(Approximate duration 34 minutes)
Allegro moderato
Canzonetta: Andante
Finale: Allegro vivacissimo

In mid-May, 1877, Tchaikovsky received a letter from a young woman named
Antonina Milyukova, who declared that she had loved the composer since several
years earlier, when she was a student at the Conservatory. Tchaikovsky replied kindly
but cautiously, intimating that she had poured her heart out with excessive emotion.
Two more letters from Antonina followed within days, making clear that her infatuation
with him remained unaltered. She threatened suicide in the third letter. Tchaikovsky
was torn. He was a homosexual man in a society that disapproved of homosexuality.
One of his close friends had married early that year, and Tchaikovsky was considering
marriage - but to whom? Antonina's appearance in his life solved that conundrum,
but ultimately presented many more problems.