Boris Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 3 “Sebastopol“ (1980) - Vladimir Fedoseyev

Orchestra: Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra Conducted by: Vladimir Fedoseyev Boris Tchaikovsky (1925-1996) Chandos - 2005 - CHAN 10299 H The Sebastapol Symphony (1980) was written about the port city on the Black Sea in the Crimea. Formally, it fits the universal mould for sea music: it begins with the portrayal of seagull cries and the tranquil rhythm of the waves, and is full of startlingly vivid visual imagery. It is interesting that Tchaikovsky himself had never visited Sebastopol prior to writing the symphony. He says: One does not need to figure out whether the Sebastopol portrayed in the first Theme, or in the end, is the Sebastapol of 1942, or of today, or of the Crimean War of the nineteenth century. It’s all of them. I was more imagining that I could speed time forwards, or backwards, or I could freeze it, or that I could do all three at once.