Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy Overture, Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet, fantasyoverture for orchestra in B minor, 1880. Maestro Valery Gergiev with the London Symphony Orchestra. Numerous composers have responded to Shakespeare s timeless drama of forbidden and youthful love, but Tchaikovsky s response (along with Berlioz s and Prokofiev s) is at the top of the list. It is the only one of the three to be intended as a number in a symphony concert, and, hence is by default the most famous of the lot. Tchaikovsky, a lawyer, was still developing as a composer at age 29 when Mily Balakirev (selfappointed father figure to Russian composers) persuaded him to write an orchestral work on the subject of the starcross d Balakirev outlined the form, planned the keys, and even suggested some of the actual music. After the 1870 premiere, he convinced Tchaikovsky to revise it. The work s success in this form did much to transform the composer s tendency toward crippling doubt into usef
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