Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.1, The Tempest Op.18

It was the Russian winter, with its contemplative melancholy and picturesque excitement, that inspired Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.1 of 1866. Featuring a genuine folk song in its rousing finale, it is the composer's earliest notable work. Tchaikovsky was also well-read and cosmopolitan, and his sophistication shines through in the rarely recorded symphonic fantasia on Shakespeare's Tempest. Composed in 1873, it was performed with great success at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1878. Pablo Heras-Casado leads the New York-based Orchestra of St. Luke's, one of America's most versatile and distinguished orchestras, in splendid performances of these two Russian masterpieces.