Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto

Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto

Pablo Urbina conducts the London City Orchestra and soloist Aisha Syed Castro in this performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. After a failed marriage and attempted suicide, Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky withdrew to the small Swiss town of Clarens to restore his health. Thus rested, Tchaikovsky took only eleven days to finish the scheme of a new violin concerto, and two weeks to compose the complete orchestration. Tchaikovsky dedicated this concerto to Hungarian violinist Leopold Auer, who refused to interpret the work on the pretext that it was "unplayable". At the premiere of the Violin Concerto, December 4, 1881, the solo was played by Adolf Brodsky. This first performance was not unanimously successful, and was even denigrated by the critic Eduard Hanslick, who nevertheless admitted that the piece had a certain touch of genius. Nevertheless, this work by Tchaikovsky has now become one of the favorites in the classical repertoire.