The hidden history of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake solos

Ask anyone to hum a bit of Swan Lake, and they'll give you that heart-wrenching Tchaikovsky theme we all know so well. It's the epitome of classical ballet music and, arguably, one of the most recognizable scores in the entire classical music repertoire. One of the most undervalued features of Swan Lake are Peter Tchaikovsky's violin solos. These gems are not your run-of-the-mill solos. Instead of the usual brief dances that can be as short as 47 seconds, the three

Ask anyone to hum a bit of Swan Lake, and they'll give you that heart-wrenching Tchaikovsky theme we all know so well. It's the epitome of classical ballet music and, arguably, one of the most recognizable scores in the entire classical music repertoire. One of the most undervalued features of Swan Lake are Peter Tchaikovsky's violin solos. These gems are not your run-of-the-mill solos. Instead of the usual brief dances that can be as short as 47 seconds, the three violin pieces in Swan Lake ar…