Agreed! This is my favorite of the Orchestral Suites although I love them all dearly.

Tchaikovsky and Dvořak became friends in 1888 when Tchaikovsky did a concert in Prague and in Europe. Dvořak invited him home and they spoke of music. Tchaikovsky wrote in his diary about the success of the concerts Czech people liked. He wrote in his diary how Dvořak told him with emotion how Brahms helped him to promote his music. They were together on Verdi´s Otello in Prague. Tchaikovsky handed Dvořak a gift of a printed score of 3. suite. Dvořak gave him a score for the 4th symphony.

They first met on Tchaikovsky Eugen Onegin. Tchaikovsky wrote on the printed copy of score of 3 suite for Dvořak, in Czech language "Nezapomenutelnemu příteli Antonínovy Dvořákovi" 22. February 1888 "To unforgettable friend Antonín Dvořák" and he handed it to him on the train station in Prague as he was moving away probably to the tour. Dvořák handed him a score of his 4th symphony. It's interesting because 4th symphony's third movement has a train motif. It's a nice piece too. Dvořak send a note to Tchaikovsky Your Opera Eugen Onegin impressed me very much. Tchaikovsky replied I appreciate your comment not just because you are a great artist but because you're an honest and truthful man. The Czech art club invited the Tchaikovsky and they made a concert of Dvořak´s piano quintet Op. 81 and Tchaikovsky praised the concert in his diaries. Tchaikovsky admired also Mozart, Verdi, Rimsky-Korsakov and wrote nice comments.

Of course, in fact the title was of great importance. A symphony was treated as a rather more prestigious work than a "mere" suite by the public and critics; there's a reason why Brahms dithered with his own first symphony for such a long time, writing a half-dozen symphony-like works before committing to it. Tchaikovsky was a mortally insecure artist, and I guess it's possible he got cold feet. Also, this work is unlike the other three suites in many respects.

I love that movement; playful and light!

Agreed!

I think the reason Tchaikovsky called his suites by that name instead of symphonies is that they depart from the traditional sonata allegro form 1st mvt, slow movement and scherzo, and rondo last movement. This masterpiece is rivaled only by the Pathétique Symphony.

HR Frankfurt Sinfonie has two principals for flute seat. Here is Sebastian; the other is Clara. Both excellent flutist!

@@alvarito45 I'm talking about the 3rd Flutist not the principles. The black guy with the glasses.

Ah yes! Well it's the first time I see him in this orchestra!!! And they also have a black flutist who also plays the piccolo.

@Quotenwagnerianer His name is Sebastian Wittiber - Flöte - Flute. In 1989, at the age of 21, Sebastian Wittiber became deputy principal flutist of the hr-Sinfonieorchester and has been his its principal flutist since 1999. Sebastian Wittiber has been a flute lecturer ( in german "Dozent" ) at the Frankfurt University of Music since 1999. One video for you, Qualität - Quality - 1080p50 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pZyFrZiSsNqWZ2w.html Enjoy!

But the reduced string section leads to an imbalance. Especially in the lower register.

@@Quotenwagnerianer Ok, but awesome through my headphones. Merry Christmas!

@@Quotenwagnerianer My thought, too. This grandiouse work with symphonic dimensions calls for more than just two double basses. Otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this brilliant performance, to me as an "oldtimer" it proved to be a real discovery, of something you hardly come accross in any concerthall.

Always wonder why there is some veiled/insidious allusion to a dwindling 'Western civilization' on so many classical music videos... Especially ironic in the case of Tchaikovsky who was much derided in his life for being too close to the 'Eastern' style of 'thoughtless' composition with which many Russians were tainted but who himself had a great sympathy with Jewish/Roma and Steppe melodies... There is no such thing as 'Western' other than in the construction of a racial myth, the insulation of music from the folk or broader global currents is persistently shown to be misleading. Its a beautiful piece, it doesn't have to stand in for some lazy conservative ideal, the Orthodox celebration of Christmas couldn't be further from that of the Anglican tradition anyhow...

@@jamilalessandrokowcun9389 What on earth are you talking about? Where is this veiled allusion you mention?

Its not a symthony

I agree! It's almost like a smaller ensemble allows the players a more expansive space to really play out and gives the overall sound a chance to "bloom". Sometimes less is more.

All of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral pieces are masterpieces.

@@masterboy7249 I was going to comment the same thing, you beat me to it 😉

Agreed!

Yes!

I totally agree, the public was so stingy

Thank you so much for your support and your kind words!🙏☺️

@@floriniliescu You are great!!!!

@@santiagomaldonado1153 ☺️🙏,thank you!!!

@@floriniliescu I immediately went back and watched the solo again. So satisfying!

@@Bnio Ohhh,thank you so much!🤗

I suspect Kochanovsky watched the video of Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Barishnikov dancing Balanchine's ballet Theme and Variations. His tempos in the last movement are spot on.

Grazie mille!!🙏

Indeed! And sad that few venues will put in any facilities for clean air like filters or UV lights that could start to make something like that even remotely reasonable in the midst of an age-accelerating, brain-damaging, disabling pandemic!

Indeed it does!

Last movement reminds me Smetana´s Má vlast .... Šarka, and Blanik made 1874-1879

My dear fellow sufferer, Tchaikovsky was for me from the beginning of my life up to this day (I am now almost 76) what parents are for most people: he was the ONLY one who was always there and always understood! Please allow yourself to fall into Tchaikovsky's arms, into his infinitely big and warm consoling soul, and weep with him - nothing else brings such relief, such a sense of being sheltered and comprehended!!

@@fredrickroll06 for us in this corner...scrounging for the scraps of meaning that fall like flakes of dandruff. but i have the key....just be in the shadows of the convenience store. i have learned how to pretend to not care. just to keep my head down and FOCUS on my work....use the environment as your pallet.....

@@fredrickroll06 Tchaikovsky saved my life when I was emotionally abused by my stepfather for years. At nine years old I discovered Tchaikovsky and his music became my outlet and consistently filled me with hope and awe that human beings were capable of creating such profound beauty. Because of him I started playing piano & clarinet at age 11 and almost 30 years later I’m still ardently in love with his music more than ever!

@@thesilvershining You have my fullest sympathy! I was existentially “abused” by my father's having instilled in me an insatiable thirst for becoming a “great” composer. I fear that I have failed in this endeavor on all counts; nonetheless, I have made a fairly good stab at it. My composition which comes closest to Tchaikovsky, in my own estimation, is Hester Prynne's aria in Act 3 of my opera, The Scarlet Letter: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pauTfdykpp2RgXk.html. The Hamburg Chamber Opera produced a kind of Readers' Digest Condensed Version of the entire work - in German, onstage, with costumes, a seven-piece orchestra and with an audience. The whole production is on KZfaq, starting at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ir2ng7aAv67deHk.html. The recitative before Hester's aria is spoken, not sung, at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qr6qjbJ8u5qxZ6M.html, 19:25; the same Armenian soprano Arpine Oganyan as in the other recording reveals here her prowess not only as a singer, but also as an actress. She begins to sing at 19:25. Another testimony to my accomplishments as a composer is the rendition of my Italian song cycle Frantumi (“Shards of Glass”) by the absolutely top-notch mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Kulman, who is renowned here in Europe and in Japan, but apparently still unknown in the U.S. You can read subtitles in English and many other languages by clicking on the cogwheel: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/edmdkqWHnbWudqs.html. There are many other compositions of mine on KZfaq - the most important ones are perhaps the Pablo Neruda setting Los versos más tristes, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rdqRh9yrvNDHlIU.html, and Den ungeborenen Enkeln, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rJynjJRzpuCsaGw.html.