Your Top 5 Favorite Tchaikovsky Works

[Mirror Image]

Another difficult poll for many I'm sure, but I regrettably bow out for now as I'm now only reacquainting myself with his oeuvre after years of neglect. I did have a Tchaikovsky 'phase' about six years ago and even then I felt that I hadn't explored the composer as well as I should have.

Anyway, time to pick your five favorites! Повеселись!

[Brian]

Hmmmm.

Serenade for Strings
Symphony No. 4
Symphony No. 5
Piano Concerto No. 2 (original/uncut)
Sleeping Beauty

Honorable mentions: Dumky for solo piano, Souvenir de Florence in the string sextet version

Best Tchaikovsky TRIBUTE work: Anton Arensky's String Quartet No. 2 (for violin, viola, and two cellos)

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Sleeping Beauty
Nutcracker
Swan Lake
Violin concerto
Symphony 1

[Brahmsian]

Sleeping Beauty
Orchestral Suite # 1 (and the variations movement of # 3) 
Symphony No. 3 'Polish'
Souvenir de Florence (string sextet original version)
Violin Concerto

Wow, could we have a favourite 20 instead? 

[springrite]

Same as my bottom 5 Tchaikovsky works! Haha!!!


Now, seriously:

Rococo Variations
Violin Concerto
Symphony #6
Symphony #5
Queen of Spade

[Karl Henning]

In this thread, there's no such thing as a bad list.

[Ken B]

Hmmm. For sentimental reasons the list MUST start with

The Swan's theme, in this recording specifically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKh3XddgN7Q

I don't listen to Piotr much anymore but ..

Symphony 6
Symphony 5
Serenade for Strings
Violin Concerto

[Brian]

Serenade for Strings

OOPS how did I forget my #1 favorite...gotta go edit my post

[Jo498]

top 5
Souvenir de Florence
6th symphony
1st symphony
1st piano concerto
String Serenade


bottom 2
Mozartiana Suite
Rococo variations

[Sergeant Rock]

Symphony No.1 G minor "Winter Dreams"
Symphony No.4 F minor
The Nutcracker
Swan Lake
Violin Concerto

[Ken B]

OOPS how did I forget my #1 favorite...

Wait 'til your second divorce. Then you'll understand.

[Wanderer]

Eugene Onegin
Piano Concerto No.2
Piano Trio
Violin Concerto
The Nutcracker

It could've been any of the ballets, really, but I do slightly prefer the Nutcracker (and mostly for the numbers that aren't in the suite). If I continued counting favourites, Piano Concerto No.1 would hold sixth place, followed by Symphonies 1 & 4.

Piano Concerto No. 2 (original/uncut)

Always.

[vandermolen]

Symphony 6 'Pathetique'
Serenade for Strings
Francesca da Rimini
Symphony 1 'Winter Daydreams'
1812 Overture 

[amw]

Serenade for Strings
Suite No. 3
String Quartet No. 1
Symphony No. 6
idk, depends: maybe Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom or maybe The Seasons or the 2nd Piano Concerto or some other thing

or something like that?

Someone (maybe Taruskin?) pointed out that Tchaikovsky was the only composer after Mozart to excel—and make a permanent repertoire contribution—in every single genre of classical music of his time: opera, symphony, symphonic poem, concerto, ballet, chamber music, solo piano music, songs/romances, sacred choral works, secular choral works (idk about his contributions there but there must be something) and etc. In particular ever since Beethoven/Rossini there has been a very notable opera/symphony divide which only Tchaikovsky bridged. I couldn't think of any counterexamples off hand though there are probably some. (going forward to the 20th century, in terms of repertoire contributions, obviously Prokofiev and a few others also wrote both major operas and major symphonies—but idk about contributing in "every" genre in any of their cases.)

[Marc]

Violin Concerto
Francesca da Rimini
The Nutcracker
Symphony no 6 "Pathétique"
Pique Dame

[springrite]

1812 Overture 

You get a yellow card for this!

[Jo498]

I am not sure if any solo piano or song/lied by Tchaikovsky is cornerstone repertoire, but otherwise it is true that in the 1870s/80s he was maybe the most versatile. But he was not the only one (major, of course there were plenty of second rate composers who wrote all kinds of stuff, e.g. Spohr).
Dvorak has no ballett (but neither has Mozart, in fact Tchaikovsky seems the first mainstream major ballet composer, so I think one should leave this genre out) and only one of his operas (Rusalka) really entered the repertoire. Smetana and Saint-Saens might also qualify although they might lack choral works (I don't know any) and have even fewer important solo piano pieces.
Schubert and Schumann also wrote "everything" but their operas were failures.

[PerfectWagnerite]

I really dig Manfred and the 5th Symphony, the rest I find pretty much unlistenable, especially the 1st PC and the Roccoco Variations

[Florestan]

PC 1
VC
Symphonies 1 and 5
SQ 2
Capriccio Italien
Serenade for Strings

[Marc]

I really dig Manfred and the 5th Symphony, the rest I find pretty much unlistenable, especially the 1st PC and the Roccoco Variations

I dig Manfred and the 5th, too. and I feel sorry I had to leave them out.

I'm not that fond of the 1st PC (except for the slow movement), but for the rest I've always had a weak spot for Pjotr's music.
Plenty of melody, plenty of skill, and plenty (and more plenty) of drama.

His chamber music is very enjoyable IMO, but I couldn't think of any piece 'worthy' of a Top 5 position.