Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky: "1812 Overture"

Not all the admirers of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky underwent the fate of the one who he married by mistake, Antonina Milyukova. Around the same time of the unfortunate marriage, Nadezhda Philaretovna von Meck appeared in the life of Tchaikovsky staying close by his side through correspondence, for thirteen years.
The widow of a German railway entrepreneur, from whom she inherited an immense fortune that she managed to administer with great skill, Mrs. von Meck proved to be a sophisticated woman, intelligent and passionate about music. After attending a concert covering recent works from the maestro she became captivated by his art. Being aware of the composer's economic difficulties, she decided then to become his patroness. From then on, Pyotr Ilich was able to devote himself full-time to his work, with no economic hardship.

Nadezhda von Meck (1831 - 1894)

But as nothing lasts forever, around mid-1890 no longer the rumor but the confirmation of the composer’s sexual orientation came to Mrs. von Meck's notice. It is not unlikely that Nadezhda had believed for all those years that the maestro did love her. Although they never met personally, their voluminous correspondence, where beauty and art as predominant themes are profusely debated, gives reasons for Nadezhda to believe it.

In December of that year, claiming bogus financial difficulties, Mrs. von Meck decided to put an end to such a prolonged friendship, and never again wrote to him. Despite this irreparable rupture, for the rest of her days, Mrs. von Meck kept abreast of the composer's career. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky died in 1893; attentive to each of his moves, she was courteous enough to depart this life only two months after her protégé did it.

1812 Overture
It's its popular name but the official title of the work is a bit more extensive: "The year 1812, Festival Overture for large orchestra, composed for the occasion of the Consecration of the Church of the Savior". Composed in 1880, it is a composition requested by his friend Nicholas Rubinstein, who was in charge of organizing the music that would accompany the Great Exhibition of Moscow, to be held in 1882. The Church of the Savior had been erected in commemoration of the Russian triumph of 1812 over the French troops but its inauguration had to wait until 1883.

Although being one of Tchaikovsky's most performed and recognized works today, the maestro did not recognize himself in this piece and so he told Mrs. von Meck. Thus, she was the first to learn that the piece "is very loud and noisy but without artistic merit, because I wrote it without warmth and without love".

Nevertheless, its great popularity is undeniable, due precisely to the novel use of artillery and bells that accompany a frieze of various themes taken from Russian folklore, along with the Russian imperial anthem and La Marseillaise. The score demands a total of sixteen cannon shots, and its final, exalted, adds to the cannons a triumphal pealing of bells.
Several sections have been incorporated into an endless series of films, some of them as unexpected as "Help", with The Beatles.

The rendition, with an approximate duration of 16 minutes, is from the "Leningrad Philharmonic" directed by Yuri Temirkanov, in 1990, on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of Tchaikovsky's birth.

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