Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a master of orchestration, creator of six symphonies, symphonic poems and fantasies, as well as ballets and operas, is rarely associated with chamber music. The Polish Meccore String Quartet decided to familiarize audiences with this lesser known output of the great symphonist.

String Quartet in B major Op. posth. is a composition written in 1865, therefore just after Tchaikovsky's studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and probably performed there for the first time by its students. The work was discovered only after the creator's death and was published in 1940. Only one part of it is known – Allegro con moto. It is not known today whether the work was unfinished, whether the other parts were missing, or whether it was supposed to function as a one-movement composition.

String Quartet No. 1 in D major Op. 11 also belongs to Tchaikovsky's youthful work. In contrast to the B major Quartet, it is a fully complete composition, traditionally built of four parts, the first of which is sonata allegro, while the third is kept in the form of a dance scherzo. The second part Andante cantabile, the best known, was later instrumented by the composer for a string orchestra. The whole quartet also bears the clear influence of Russian folklore.

String sextet "Souvenir de Florence" in D minor Op. 70 is, in turn, an example of the mature style of the Russian composer. The work was dedicated to the Society of Chamber Music in St. Petersburg, where Tchaikovsky became an honorary member in 1886. The composition has a classic four-part structure, with a sonata form at the beginning, a lyrical second part and an energetic finale, based, as usual with Tchaikovsky, on a Russian folk melody. He began working on Sextet in 1887, during his stay in Florence, hence the subtitle of the work. His first presentation took place in 1890 in St. Petersburg in the Russian Music Society. Later, the work was repeatedly reviewed by the composer and was finally released two years later, and in the following year instrumented for a string orchestra by Anton Seidl.