Sunday, June 1, 2008

Sleeping Beauty

Charles Hazlewood's enthusiasm for Tchaikovsky is infectious in the excellent two-part BBC documentary Discovering Tchaikovsky.

Not only did Tchaikovsky produce a lot more music than the popular compositions that usually come to mind when his name is mentioned (here's a complete list of his works), but he also wrote extensively; over 5,000 letters and eleven diaries.

The documentary features astonishingly beautiful performances in St. Petersburg as well as historical re-enactments of key moments in Tchaikovsky's life, including his death nine days after the premiere of his final symphony in 1893.

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