A Guided Tour of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for String Orchestra in C major, Op. 48 (1880)

This is, in my opinion, the greatest of the late 19the century orchestral serenades, written with a view to certain compositions from the previous century.
The recording is from a performance by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Terje Tønnesen, artistic director. Here's a link to a video of their performance: • Tchaikovsky: Serenade ...

[@Jasper_the_Cat]

That was wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing!

[@user-gi2qr1gi2q]

Thanks so much for explaining this masterpiece of Tchaikovsky.

[@iwilldi]

how come that we often know just one movement from a Serenade or other collection? (Assuming that most of us have recognized movement 2)

[@warrenj3204]

I blame classical FM radio stations. They’re always looking to fill an hour so they grab whatever will fit to bring them up to the news or station ID or whatever.

[@warrenj3204]

A remarkable piece. At first I thought “this could work as a string quintet” but I really don’t think so. Five instruments is too sparse. Too difficult to pull off those broad singing lines. On the other hand this particular performance sounds a bit cavernous. I listened to a studio recording of Karajan / Berlin perform this also because Karajan does Tchaikovsky well and Berlin under Karajan has silky smooth strings.