Karajan Conducts Tchaikovsky (8 CD) (2000)

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, seven symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Born into a middle-class family, Tchaikovsky's education prepared him for a career as a civil servant, despite the musical precocity he had demonstrated. Against the wishes of his family he chose to pursue a musical career, and in 1862 entered the St Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1865. This formal, Western-oriented training set him apart, musically, from the contemporary nationalistic movement embodied by the group of young Russian composers known as "The Five", with whom Tchaikovsky sustained a mixed professional relationship throughout his career. As his style developed, Tchaikovsky wrote music across a range of genres, including symphony, opera, ballet, instrumental, chamber and song. Although he enjoyed many popular successes, he was never emotionally secure, and his life was punctuated by personal crises and periods of depression. Contributory factors were his suppressed homosexuality and fear of exposure, his disastrous marriage, and the sudden collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck. Amid private turmoil Tchaikovsky's public reputation grew; he was honored by the Tsar, awarded a lifetime pension and lauded in the concert halls of the world. His sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, but some attribute it to suicide. Although enduringly popular with concert audiences across the world, Tchaikovsky has at times been judged harshly by critics, musicians and composers. However, his reputation as a significant composer is now generally regarded as secure. In the early and mid-20th century, Western critics dismissed his music as vulgar and lacking in elevated thought, but this disdain has largely dissipated.

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Box set information: CD1: APE (TRACKS), NO CUE,NO LOG, 283 MB CD2: APE (TRACKS), NO CUE,NO LOG, 216 MB CD3: APE,CUE,LOG,281 MB CD4: APE,CUE,NO LOG,286 MB CD5: APE,CUE,NO LOG,364 MB CD6: APE,CUE,NO LOG,296 MB CD7: APE,CUE,NO LOG,337 MB CD8: APE,CUE,LOG,306 MB

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Track listing:

CD1
Symphony No. 1 in G minor (”Winter Dreams”), Op. 13
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Eugene Onegin, opera, Op. 24 Unspecified excerpts
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Slavonic March, for orchestra, Op. 31
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan


CD2:

Symphony No. 2 in C minor (”Little Russian”), Op. 17
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

1812 — Festival Overture, for orchestra in E flat major, Op. 49
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan


CD3:

Symphony No. 3 in D major (”Polish”), Op. 29
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Capriccio Italien, for orchestra (or piano, 4 hands), Op. 45
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan



CD4:
Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Variations on a Rococo Theme, for cello & orchestra (or cello & piano) in A major, Op. 33
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
with Mstislav Rostropovich
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

CD5:

Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Serenade for strings (or piano, 4 hands) in C major, Op. 48
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

CD6:

Symphony No. 6 in B minor (”Pathétique”), Op.74
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Romeo and Juliet, fantasy-overture for orchestra in B minor (3 versions)
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

CD7:

The Sleeping Beauty, suite for orchestra, Op. 66a
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

The Swan Lake, suite, Op. 20a
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
with Michel Schwalbe
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Nutcracker, suite from the ballet, Op. 71a
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

CD8:

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Vienna Symphony Orchestra
with Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Composed by Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Vienna Symphony Orchestra
with Christian Ferras
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan