Fantasizing symphonically

Donald Macleod explores the rich vein of fairy tale and fantasy in Tchaikovsky's music. Today, a pair of symphonic fantasies - one inspired by Shakespeare, the other by Dante.

Should there be a tempest in The Tempest? That was one of Tchaikovsky's questions for the leading Russian art and music critic Vladimir Stasov, who had asked the composer what his next work would be. Tchaikovsky had several ideas in mind, and it was Stasov who pushed him in the direction of Shakespeare's tale of shipwreck on Prospero's enchanted isle. Stasov was very much of the opinion that Tchaikovsky should indeed include music depicting said severe weather event, and he obliged magnificently. Severe weather was also a feature of the scenario for Francesca da Rimini, which tells in music the story of Francesca, the beautiful daughter of a noble Italian family, and her lover Paolo, whose adulterous love affair was rewarded with punishment in the second circle of hell, lashed for all eternity by terrible whirlwinds.

The Tempest - symphonic fantasia after Shakespeare, Op 18
Berlin Philharmonic
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Cradle Song, Op 16 No 1
Joan Rodgers, soprano
Roger Vignoles, piano

Francesca da Rimini - symphonic fantasia after Dante, Op 32
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra
Evgeny Mravinsky, conductor

Produced by Chris Barstow.