Composer's Bio:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – November 6, 1893 [O.S. October 25]),often called Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. As his style developed, Tchaikovsky wrote music across a range of genres, including symphony, opera, ballet, instrumental, chamber and song. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, his last three numbered symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.
Piece comment: The 1812 Overture (originally titled: Festival Overture: ?1812?, op. 49) is an orchestral work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky commemorating the unsuccessful French invasion into Russia, and the subsequent devastating withdrawal of Napoleon's Grande Arm, an event that marked 1812 as the major turning point of the Napoleonic Wars. The work is best known for the sequence of cannon fire, which is sometimes performed, especially at outside festivals, using real cannon. When performed indoors, orchestras may use computer generated cannon sounds or huge barrel drums. Although the composition has no historical connection with the US-UK War of 1812, it is often performed in the US alongside other patriotic music. The overture debuted in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on August 20, 1882.
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