Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky : NPR

Tchaikovsky, Meet The Bard: Gustavo Dudamel's New CD

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel makes magic in Tchaikovsky's symphonic takes on Shakespeare plays. Luis Cobelo/Deutsche Grammophon hide caption

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Luis Cobelo/Deutsche Grammophon

Review

Music Reviews

Tchaikovsky, Meet The Bard: Gustavo Dudamel's New CD

March 23, 2011 • The dynamic conductor makes magic with Tchaikovsky's symphonic version of Shakespeare's enigmatic play The Tempest. Set on a far-off island, the motion of the sea rises and falls within patterns in the strings.

Tchaikovsky, Meet The Bard: Gustavo Dudamel's New CD

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On her new CD, Hilary Hahn combines concertos old and new. Peter Miller hide caption

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Peter Miller

Deceptive Cadence

Hilary Hahn And Jennifer Higdon Chat

September 20, 2010 • Composer Jennifer Hidgon won this year's Pulitizer Prize for her Violin Concerto, written for Hilary Hahn. The two musicians come together today for a live web chat at 12 noon, EST.

Hilary Hahn and Jennifer Higdon: Hear the conversation with NPR's Tom Huizenga

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Hilary Hahn And Jennifer Higdon: Live Chat on September 20th At Noon

On her new CD, Hilary Hahn pairs off concertos old and new. Peter Miller hide caption

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Peter Miller

Deceptive Cadence

Hilary Hahn And Jennifer Higdon: Live Chat on September 20th At Noon

September 16, 2010 • Hilary Hahn and Jennifer Hidgon will come together for a live web chat on September 20th. Listen to Hahn's recording of Higdon's Pulitzer-winning violin concerto.

First Listen

First Listen: Hilary Hahn Violin Concertos, Old And New

September 12, 2010 • The young violinist's new record contains an unusual pairing of two concertos -- one warhorse and one freshly minted. They may seem like unlikely bedfellows, but the works have more in common than one might think. Hear the album in its entirety until Sept. 23.

Comic Tchaikovsky: 'The Tsarina's Slippers'

January 1, 2010 • Tchaikovsky is famous for dark, brooding symphonies, and of all his operas, only one is a comedy. Yet his fanciful score The Tsarina's Slippers is surely among the most charming of all Russian comic operas.

An Audio Introduction to the Opera

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Classical 2009: Next Generation And Beyond

Decca Classics

The Best Music Of 2009

Classical 2009: Next Generation And Beyond

90.9 WGUC

December 4, 2009 • With these 2009 releases, you'll find a few fresh faces: musicians hovering around age 30, including the young Jonathan Biss and the sublime Dutch fiddler Janine Jansen. Plus, this year proved exceptionally strong for music by and from Russians. Enjoy a sampling of both classic and less-familiar fare.

Classics in Concert

Janine Jansen's Supercharged Tchaikovsky

American Public Media

September 8, 2009 • The young Dutch violinist was once known as much for her good looks as for her good playing. Today, she turns heads with a fearless approach to music and excellent technique. Hear Jansen play Tchaikovsky's classic Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

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Evgeny Mravinsky's intense Tchaikovsky recordings are among the most hair-raising performances captured on disc. hide caption

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The NPR Classical 50

Mravinsky's Supercharged Tchaikovsky

August 25, 2009 • No one possessed the nerve, or ability, to perform Tchaikovsky's final symphonies with as much dark and passionate intensity as the Russian conductor Evgeny Mravinsky.

Ted Libbey And Fred Child Recommend Symphonies 4-6 by Tchaikovsky

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Getty Images

The NPR Classical 50

Van Cliburn's Classic Tchaikovsky

June 2, 2009 • Hear the lanky Texan's iconic 1958 recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, made on the heels of his historic victory at the very first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Ted Libbey Recommends Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1

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Perilous Passion: Tchaikovsky's 'Mazeppa'

May 8, 2009 • Historic upheavals, a perilous romance, a father's death and a daughter's madness are all wrapped up in one of Tchaikovsky's most intimate, and passionate operas.

Tchaikovsky's 'Mazeppa'

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Music Interviews

Insults And Praise On The Classical Campaign

October 23, 2008 • Commentator Miles Hoffman offers a classical variation on a political theme: insults and endorsements among the great composers. Invectives hurled at their colleagues and competitors were effective means of shaping public opinion. Whether positive, negative or the all-too-common flip-flop, classical-music criticism, just like political commentary, is little more than biased opinion in time.

Insults And Praise On The Classical Campaign

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Music

Rejection Revisited: 'Eugene Onegin'

September 12, 2008 • Tchaikovsky combined a personal, romantic entanglement with a passionate story by Pushkin to create Eugene Onegin, a fiery drama that soon became the composer's most popular opera.

Teatro Carlo Felice on World of Opera -- 'Eugene Onegin'

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Favorite Sessions

Wu Han Plays Tchaikovsky, Month by Month

American Public Media

June 30, 2008 • In 1876, Tchaikovsky composed musical snapshots of each month of the calendar year for publication in a St. Petersburg magazine. Pianist Wu Han performs the entire cycle, and discusses the music with Performance Today host Fred Child in NPR's studio.

Herbert von Karajan's Symphonic Obsessions

Herbert von Karajan Siegfried Lauterwasser/DG hide caption

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Siegfried Lauterwasser/DG

Music Interviews

Herbert von Karajan's Symphonic Obsessions

April 4, 2008 • Karajan shot to the top of the classical music scene in the 1950s, remaining supremely powerful until he died in 1989. He left a legacy of gorgeous recordings, as well as a fair amount of controversy.

Herbert von Karajan's Symphonic Obsessions

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Driveway Moments

Van Cliburn: Treasuring Moscow After 50 Years

March 1, 2008 • Fifty years ago, a tall 23-year-old Texan shook up the music world by winning the first Tchaikovsky Competition, in Moscow at the height of the Cold War. Van Cliburn reminisces about his victory and his unconventional career.

Van Cliburn: Treasuring Moscow After 50 Years

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