This is a tour de force, of one woman, her violin – Hilary Han is one of the modern greats – and an impressive orchestra and conductor – oh, and a genius composer, whatever his moral failings. The violin concerto in D major was composed in 1878, on the shores of Lake Geneva, as Tschaikovsky was recovering from his separation from his wife, Antonina Ivanovna Miliukova, after only a few weeks of marriage, and the situation devolved into a mess, as do most marital breakdowns.
Anon, I’m just finishing up reading the life of Solzhenitsyn – a man of more refined and noble conscience, who helped bring down Communism – and this music, at least, seemed to go along with his love for his native land, before Communism, and, then, western materialism got their rotten grip. But we hold on to what is good, for only that will bring any nation, and each one of us, back to what it – and we are – meant to be.