Victor de Sabata - Pittsburgh Symphony guest conductor 1948 through 1952. He was also a composer and you'll hear Plato's Night on this week's Pittsburgh Symphony Radio broadcast. Guest conductor Daniele Rustioni also conducts Suites 1 and 2 from Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe. Kirill Gerstein plays the Tchaikovsky First Concerto.
Peter Tchaikovsky, part I (1840-1893) - Bill launches into the first part of a two-part series on the Russian Romantic composer Peter Tchaikovsky. Though shunned by some other Russian composers as sounding "too Western", Tchaikovsky was loved throughout the world as a great Russian composer. Caught between East and West, he created his own sound- a sound that to this day is still treasured and that Russians are proud to call their own.