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We're having a little bit of a Russian fest in work at the moment, it would appear. Not that I'm complaining. Playing as much contemporary music as the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Orchestras do leaves you craving a full throttle, red blooded, all guns blazing, melody and rhythm in equal measure programme every so often. And Russian music is rather good for that.

After last week's Rachmaninov and Stravinsky, this week the a href="/now/">National Orchestra of Wales moves on to some more Rachmaninov and two of the most over the top, self-indulgent, heart on sleeve works in the orchestral repertoire: the Pathétique and Manfred Symphonies, by the king of pulling at the heart strings himself, Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, holds a very special place in my heart as it was the first full symphony I played. It has been really nice to reacquaint myself with the work. It has a very prominent viola part (as every good work should have, frankly) and is technically rather tricky in places, but remains musically satisfying at all times (in my opinion).

The work is quite a feat of stamina, and you have to pay close attention to maintaining a good sound, especially in the last movement. After the exhilaration of the third movement (incidentally, the subject of this weekend's metronome practice), facing the last movement can seem like a very long way off the finish line.

Tchaikovsky wrote in his correspondence to his nephew Vladimir Davydov that the programme of the symphony would be an enigma, but that has not stopped scholars and music lovers alike from trying to unravel its mysteries since the work was first performed in 1893.

The uncertainty that still surrounds Tchaikovsky's death so soon after the first performance of the Pathétique (Was it cholera? Was it suicide? No one will ever know), makes it very tempting to read into what he may have been communicating to his audience with this work. We can only surmise what the programme may have been (birth - adolescence - falling in love - the dying breaths of an old man, as the popular theory goes), but I still have to reach for the Kleenex when I hear the last movement.

Manfred is a new work for me and I will report back later in the week on how it is going!

I always think it a great shame that for many people, Tchaikovsky is the man who wrote the 1812 Overture, The Nutcracker and the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy. Not that these works are substandard in any way, it's just that there is so much more to hear of Tchaikovsky.

If you love Tchaikovsky's symphonies, try his operas; the letter scene from Eugene Onegin could slot perfectly in to any of his symphonic works. If you are a stringed instrument student and only know the violin concerto, get thee to the library post haste and listen to the quartets and Souvenir de Florence. I challenge you not to want to play them all by the end of the first movements!

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ National Orchestra of Wales will be performing Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony at St David's Hall, Cardiff, this Friday at 7.30pm. For tickets and information call 0800 052 1812.