Festive concert at Nymphenburg Palace

One of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's most popular works is the String Serenade in C major op. 48 - composed in 1880, when the first four symphonies had already been written. It is probably one of the works that Tchaikovsky's opponents, the composers of the ‘Mighty Cluster’ around Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev, considered to be ‘too Western’ and ‘not Russian enough’.

In fact, Tchaikovsky described Mozart in particular as his greatest role model. He must also have been aware that a universal musical language, which did not persist in narrow-minded folklorism, was essential in order to be understood in the West and to be able to keep up with the established Romantics. Tchaikovsky achieved this in a marvellous way, not least with the String Serenade, without us having to do without the proverbial depth of the Russian soul (which does not always have to express itself in a fateful minor key).