Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6 'Pathétique' (Ferenc Fricsay)

Information

Composer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

• Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 - "Pathétique"
• Eugene Onegin, opera, Op. 24: Waltz & Polonaise

Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Ferenc Fricsay, conductor

Date: 1959

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Ferenc Fricsay (9 August 1914 – 20 February 1963) was a Hungarian conductor. Born in Budapest, his teachers included Hungary's most famous composers: Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernő Dohnányi and Leó Weiner. Fricsay spent much of his time from the 1950s onward in Germany as conductor of the Bavarian State Opera, the RIAS Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic, recording for the Deutsche Grammophon record label. He was known for his interpretations of the music of Mozart and Beethoven, as well as that of his teacher Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály.

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