Two Radio 3 listeners are keeping an online diary throughout The Tchaikovsky Experience.

Rosalind Porter

Welcome to the Listeners' Diary for Radio 3's Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky Experience.


I am looking forward tremendously to documenting my own musical travels as a listener during this exciting and challenging musical week. But most of all I am eagerly anticipating reading and debating many diverse ideas and opinions from other listeners about the R3 programmes; the website for the "Experience" along with all the invaluable resources linked to it (more about them tomorrow) and of course the tv broadcasts which will soon be available to view here online. If you've missed them, they've already provoked a wide range of controversial opinions and stormy debate on the message boards so it is well worth taking a look to see what YOU think.

As a musician, one is always painfully aware that there is so much music that one simply never has time to explore properly, even by mainstream composers such as Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. I've never been the kind of person who wants or needs to collect 20 recordings of 'The Rite of Spring' or any other piece, but quite the opposite - I love to simply have the opportunity to hear as much music as possible that I have not encountered before - to be able to listen to a performance with open ears and if the piece makes an emotional impact on me, or piques my curiosity, to then try to investigate it further. This is one of the most attractive and unique advantages of a week such as the 'Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky Experience', to have the rare chance of picking up repertoire one would otherwise not encounter, without having to hunt far and wide to find a performance or recording. Naturally, there are few of us who can listen 24/7 - so if you hear something which you think is unmissable - please flag it up so we can make a point of 'listening again'.

Unfortunately if I had a small initial gripe about the listings it would be the way in which the day is divided into quite large slots with no individual approximate timings within these slots in order to plan listening more efficiently. I have the feeling I am going to be seeking out timings of pieces on the internet and doing some fevered calculations and alarm setting in order to get myself organised.

The performance styles of different orchestras past and present is an area which especially fascinates me and for that reason I shall be homing in not only on some of the legendary recordings which are featured, but also trying to make a point of especially picking up on the Russian artists. Although many Russian orchestras have now homogenised their sound to approach something more akin to your average European band, there are still some prime examples of a real Russian aural treat to be found over the next week. For example: Original Russian french horns are sonically unique - listen out for them - Tchaikovsky's Pathétique with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Mravinsky should be a great place to start on Friday in the 1000-1300 slot!

Since coming to The Sage Gateshead, one aspect of my duties has involved looking after Northern Sinfonia Chorus - which has served to wake up my somewhat dormant interest in choral music - I've become increasingly aware of how vitally important language is in choral singing and what a striking difference it can make to an interpretation when a top chorus is confident and fluent in the sung language. So I'm going to pin down some choral pieces that I am unfamiliar with and it would be fascinating if any Russian speakers around can comment on Russian pronunciation and singing, especially in the context of how Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky wrote for the voice. I love the sound of the Russian tongue.

So what's going to be my unmissable 'Top Ten' in my listening diary for the next week? I will probably have changed my mind by tomorrow but for an initial pick - here goes:

1) Tchaikovsky - Manfred Symphony - 2040 on Saturday - I am reliably informed it is being performed uncut by Maestro Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic, more about this wonderful piece tomorrow...
2) Stravinsky - 'Soldier's Tale' - 1000 on Tuesday
3) Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto - 0629 on Friday (has to be Heifetz!)
4) Stravinsky - Cantata 'Babel'; Symphony of Psalms; Abraham and Isaac - 2230-0100 slot on Sunday
5) Stravinsky - 'Firebird' - 1930 on Sunday for the whole thing
6) Stravinsky - Violin Concerto 1000-1300 on Wednesday
7) Tchaikovsky - various Violin pieces - 1300 on Wednesday
8) Tchaikovsky - Iolanta - 1300-1700 slot on Monday
9) Tchaikovsky - Moscow, Coronation Cantata - on Tuesday in 1030-1300 slot
10) Stravinsky - Elegy for JFK - on Thursday in 1030-1300 slot

Pieces have been chosen because they are personal favourites (the 2 violin concerti) or have been significant discoveries for me along my musical road (Firebird, Manfred and Soldier's Tale) or are those I really am intrigued to hear and get to know better...

Look forward to a week of stimulating listening and listener discussion.

Robert Stubbings War-time school boy, Blackpool Lancashire. Both parents working civil servants. Was a 'key under the mat child'. Would race home to turn on the 'Home Service', well it was that or the 'Light Programme', only the two. I was finding music and particuarly Tchaikovsky! So was the war-time government who desperately needed to turn around the anti-Russian feeling here nationally due the plight of the brave Finnish Army who had withstood the attempted and failed subjugation of that brave little nation. So, day after day the BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the batons of (then Mr.) Adrian Boult and Basil Cameron pizzicatoed their way through the scherzo of No. 4 in F. and drew tears of sheer wonder in the 6th from this impressionable 14 year old. Of course it was different a decade later, the Cold-War was upon us - and would you musical historians perhaps agree that the rise to emminence of Mahler was more than simple audience choice? I loved him then, I love him still but where once he was my God, now he has to share that place with so many others. Thanks for all the music which as a team you splendid people make possible for this old man to enjoy.

Tchaikovsky's works on Radio 3

Stravinsky's works on Radio 3

Full Radio 3 schedule