Rossini | Tchaikovsky

The premiere of "William Tell", the last of the operas by Gioachino Rossini, took place in Paris in 1829, but despite the excellent cast and very detailed work on the composition, it did not succeed. Although the action takes place in fourteenth-century Switzerland, the political overtones of the songs worried the established rulers, mainly the Habsburgs, so the work was shortened and censored. The overture remains the most frequently performed fragment of the opera that is so rarely staged in theaters. Today it is hard to believe that the first piano concerto in B flat minor Op. 23 by Pyotr Tchaikovsk that so enthralled audiences and performers was never liked by his friend, pianist Nikolai Rubinstein, the intended addressee and first performer of the work. The Russian virtuoso viewed the piece as trivial, and even advised amendments to the composer, which he rejected. In this situation the first performance of the concert was instead made in 1875 by the famous German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow with the Boston Orchestra. The concert with the Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra will be performed by the excellent Swedish pianist, Peter Jablonski.

The second most popular composition in Tchaikovsky's output, though with a completely different overtone, is the last work of the Russian artist, Symphony No.6 in B minor Op. 74 "Pathétique". This emotion filled piece is also one of the most mysterious – for a long time it was suspected that the program within it was hidden. It was only in recent years that people began to talk more openly about the composer's unexpected death, reportedly caused not by cholera, but rather by forced suicide due to the composer's homosexuality. In this context, the symphony takes the form of a requiem written for himself and a peculiar farewell to the world.