Happy Birthday Tchaikovsky!

Today is Tchaikovsky's 170th birthday - a milestone for even the best of us! Some of you have had the pleasure of listening to his music through our composer series. For those of you who haven't, today would be a wonderful day to put on Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, or The Nutcracker Suite.

Below is the finale from Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture; it definitely shares the stage with Beethoven's symphonies and Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries in terms of exciting pieces of music. Listen for the massive tempo changes, the "canons", and the church bells. The first time I heard this piece live was when the VSO performed it at Deer Lake Park; they used real (though not loaded) canons and set off fireworks during the last moments of the piece. This version doesn't have all of that, but it is quite amazing. Enjoy!