Tchaikovsky Fest with the LA Phil

We experience Tchaikovsky Fest with Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Phil on Thursday and Sunday.  This weekend ends a season celebrating the works of Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Russian, 1840-1893 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  Earlier in the year I marveled in a full orchestra performance of the entire Nutcracker Suite.  On Thursday we heard his Polonaise and Waltz from his opera, Eugene Onegin, and Variations on a Rococo Theme Op 3 with cellist Alisa Weilerstein.  After intermission we were blow away with the full orchestra's performance of Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op 64.  The melodic sounds are with me as I hum away still.

Alisa Weilerstein

Gustavo Dudamel

On Sunday we delighted to the combined orchestras of the L.A. Phil and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, over 200 musicians on the stage under the direction of Dudamel, the conductor and music director of both orchestras.  We were delighted with the Capriccio Italien, Op 45, Francesca da Rimini, Op 32 and after the intermission the Waltz from The Sleeping Beauty, Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker, Waltz from Eugene Onegin, and the Waltz from the Swan Lake.  The principles in each section traded, starting with the L.A. Phil principles, then the Simon Bolivar principles playing the lead solos for each section.  The finale was the 1812 Festive Overture, Op 49.  This is only the third time it has been played inside by the LA Phil in over 40 years.  Rather than cannons and fireworks in the finale, we were blown away with two sets of tympani, six base drums, several sets of bells, the pipe organ playing bells, and a dozen brass playing from the organ balcony above the orchestra.  It was a major WOW ending to a great year of Tchaikovsky.