Grand Sonata, Op. 37 & The Seasons, Op. 37a

Featuring

Elena Margolina
Boris Hait
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Tchaikovsky considered music a "faithful friend, protector and comforter" and Heaven's most beautiful gift, making life worth living.

Performer Biography

Pianist Elena Margolina is a professor of piano at the University of Music in Detmold and has won first prize at the Fifth International Schubert Piano Competition in Dortmund.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Tchaikovsky believed music was not an illusion but a revelation, offering a beauty inaccessible elsewhere and reconciling humanity with life.

Composition History

The Seasons, Op. 37a, a cycle of twelve character pieces, was a commission from publisher Nikolay Bernard, who also provided the poetic epigraphs for each month.

Composition History

The Grande Sonate in G major, Op. 37, was dedicated to Karl Klindworth, a Liszt pupil and Tchaikovsky's colleague at the Moscow Conservatory, who also prepared the score for publication.

Composition History

Tchaikovsky's Grande Sonate in G major, Op. 37, is considered the first genuine piano sonata in Russian musical history.

Composer Biography

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, though not a virtuoso pianist himself, returned to piano composition throughout his career, from his early Theme with Variations in A minor to his Eighteen Pieces published in his final year.