Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, an ode to love

With Tchaikovsky's overture to Shakespeare's timeless love drama Romeo and Juliet - just after Valentine's Day - love takes center stage in The Sunday Morning Concert. You will also hear loving works by Franck and Rachmaninoff.

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet
In a movie, do you see two lovers running toward each other in slow motion with their arms spread? Then chances are you hear the love theme from Tchaikovsky's Overture Romeo and Juliet there. The compelling melody in the strings, with a major role for the triumphant horns, is synonymous with yearning love. Tchaikovsky follows Shakespeare's drama closely, expressing both the stately Friar Lawrence, the fierce battle between the Montagues and the Capulets, the intense love between Romeo and Juliet and the dramatic denouement of the over-familiar story.

An ode to love
Just after Valentine's Day, love takes center stage in The Sunday Morning Concert, with Tchaikovsky's overture to Shakespeare's timeless love drama. Rachmaninoff's Spring Cantata sings of the arrival of spring, the season of love, in fresh colors. Baritone Boris Pinkhasovich performs the solo. Unlike the classical myth of Psyché falling in love with Eros, there is a happy ending for the couple in Franck's symphonic poem. Psyché has therefore been called Franck's "love symphony. So swoon in The Concertgebouw....