The Lilac Tree

Learn about tree myths and legends from ancient Finland

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893 was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.
Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. There was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching that he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five with whom his professional relationship was mixed.

Andre Previn leads the London Symphony Orchestra, featuring violin solo by Ida Haendel, for this masterpiece from Tchaikovsky.

The fourth and final box in our monumental Doris Day retrospective. Here, on 8 CDs, is every song she recorded from 1960 to her last session for the label in November 1966. Nearly 200 songs, including some of her most popular and timeless albums such as 'Latin For Lovers', her 1964 Bossa Nova Collection and 'Doris Day's Sentimntal Journey' - her last Columbia album, which is a loving throwback to her musical roots in the big band Era. Also included is the 'Annie Get Your Gun' album with Robert Goulet and the title track to 'Move Over Darling' - a #8 in England in 1964.

André Previn Known as a successful classical conductor, jazz pianist, and composer of jazz, classical, and film music, André Previn frequently bridged the gap between popular and so-called "serious" music, and in doing so broadened the horizons of both. A German-American who fled Nazi Germany with his family in his youth, he went on to win four Academy Awards, all for his work on film musicals in late '50s and '60s, including his adaptation of My Fair Lady (1964). By the '70s, he had established himself as one of the world's leading classical conductors, with terms at the London Symphony Orchestra (1968-1979), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1976-1984), and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1985-1992). He also served as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1985 to 1989. During his tenure at the LSO, the BBC series André Previn's Music Hour made him household name.