Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Ray Chen

Also a crowd favorite is Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. At least, these days, because it wasn't like that whet it was first premiered in 1881. The influential critic Eduard Hanslick wrote that he wondered "whether there are sometimes violin concertos that stink", feeling that "the violin received a thorouth beating". But no one agreed with him - although anyone who wants to play this technically demanding piece may indeed have to practise themselves to pieces. Tchaikovsky wrote it in an idyllic setting, in Clarens on Lake Geneva. At his feet the blue lake with the white mountain peaks beyond. He had come here to calm down his overstrained nerves. Writing the Violin Concerto cured him.