Portrait of Tchaikovsky by Nikolai Kuznetsov in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow – via Wikimedia Commons
Oh to be in Los Angeles towards the end of February – when Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil are joined at Walt Disney Concert Hall by the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and by violinist Alina Pogostkina and cellist Alisa Weilerstein – for a 10-day TchaikovskyFest!
This exciting collaboration gets underway with a concert hosted by the Chamber Music Society on February 20, as musicians from these two great orchestras unite to play some of Tchaikovsky’s greatest chamber works – his String Quartet No 1 and the elegant Souvenir de Florence. The performance is, rather stylishly, preceded by a wine tasting.
Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Photo: Vern Evans
The celebrations really get underway – from February 21 to 23 – with three performances, by Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic – of the great composer’s first and last symphonic works – his Symphony No 1, Winter Dreams, a work influenced by Mendelssohn and also by Russian folksongs – and the heartrending Symphony No 6, known as the Pathétique.
Violinist Alina Pogostkina
Photo: www.25stunden.com
St Petersburg-born violinist, Alina Pogostkina, is the soloist in the February 21 program which features Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto – one of the most frequently performed in the classical repertoire. It’s paired with his Symphony No 2 – the Little Russian – so called because Tchaikovsky incorporated into it a number of folksongs from the Ukraine which was known at the time as ‘Little Russia’.
The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela takes center stage on February 22 and March 1 in two performances entitled Toyota Symphonies for Youth: Tchaikovsky’s World. Aimed specifically at a young audience, these performances will be conducted by a Dudamel Conducting Fellow, and staged by theater artists, who will perform a cross-section of the composer’s simply beautiful music. Each concert will be preceded by interactive workshops related to the musical themes of the program.
Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
Photo: Nohely Oliveros
Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos 3 and 4 feature in the February 24 performance by the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. The Third Symphony bears the nickname the ‘Polish’ because of the inclusion of a Polish dance, the polonaise, in the fifth – and final – movement. Tchaikovsky, who wrote most of his Fourth Symphony in Italy, considered it at the time to be “… definitely the best work I have written so far”, as he wrote to his brother, Modest.
A Shakespeare Fantasy is the title of the concert taking place on February 26. Performed, again, by the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, the program comprises three Tchaikovsky Fantasy Overtures – Hamlet, The Tempest and his achingly beautiful overture, Romeo and Juliet. Prior to the performance of each piece, the Orchestra will be joined by actors portraying a scene from these works by Shakespeare, a playwright so beloved of Tchaikovsky that he once thought of learning English, to enable him to read the Bard’s plays in their original language!
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein
Photo: Jamie Jung
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein is the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations – the composer’s homage to his musical idol, Mozart – to be presented on February 27 and 28, and March 1. Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in this program, which also includes the delightful Polonaise and Waltz from Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin, and his glorious Symphony No 5 – which was the main work in the concert in which Dudamel made his US debut at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005.
Gustavo Dudamel
Photo; Richard Reinsdorf
The TchaikovskyFest Finale takes place on Sunday, March 2, when Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in some of the composer’s best-known tone poems. Included are his Capriccio Italien, Francesca da Rimini, and waltzes from Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. Rounding off the performance and the season in fine style is Tchaikovsky’s stirring Festival Overture to Mark the Consecration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, built – in Moscow -to commemorate the Russian defeat of Napoleon in 1812 – known more simply as the 1812 Overture.
Details of this magnificent celebration of some of the greatest works in the classical repertoire are all to be found on the LA Phil website.