Eine Kleine 'Tchaikovsky Research' While Awaiting Greater Time For 'Renaissance Research' -- [Thanks, Bob! (Vladimir Davydov)]

Tchaikovsky (left) with his nephew, Vladimir "Bob" Davidov, who dissuaded the composer from totally abandoning the E flat Symphony, which was completed and orchestrated by Soviet composer Semyon Bogatyryov in 1951-55 as Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No 7 in E-flat major."

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"The ultimate essence of the symphony is Life. First movement - all passion, confidence, thirst for life. Must be short (finale death - result of collapse). Second movement - love; the third - disappointment; the fourth ends dying away (also short)"

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In a letter dated December 19, 1892, 'Bob' wrote, "I feel sorry of course, for the symphony that you have cast down from the cliff as they used to do with the children of Sparta, because it seemed to you deformed, whereas it is probably as much a work of genius as the first five."

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Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered and recorded the Bogatyryev reconstruction of Symphony #7 in 1962. Since then, four other conductors have recorded it: [Estonian-American conductor] Neeme Järvi, Sergei Skripka, Kyung-Soo Won, and Leo Ginzburg.

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Source and photo credits: Wikipedia. With thanks.

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Sharon Percy Rockefeller's Classical WETA-FM, in the Nation's Capital, programs the older Tchaikovsky, but not the younger Charles Ives, above.