Interactive Web Sites
From the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Beyond the Score to Michael Tilson Thomas Keeping Score program, these resources combine musical performance with biography to put Tchaikovsky’s music in historical context.



6/11/2009 - 7/30/2009 ~ Thursday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
This course will give Tchaikovsky his due as a Russian nationalist and reveal how gracefully he navigated between the sometimes rough-hewn Slavocentrism of his contemporaries, “The Five,” and the technical demands of Western cosmopolitanism. With his profound melodic gift, Tchaikovsky also entranced audience after audience and provided us with a living soundtrack for 19th century Russia. Works studied: Swan Lake, the magnificent Pushkin operas Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, the supposedly autobiographical fourth and sixth symphonies, and more.
Syllabus - Week 1
The course syllabus is in process, but for the first class on Thursday, June 11 we will cover Tchaikovsky at the School of Jurisprudence and the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky and Balakirev. Works discussed: 1st Symphony, 1st String Quartet, and Romeo & Juliet.