The BBC is currently programming The Tchaikovsky Experience across its radio and TV channels, and spotlighting the composer in the latest edition of BBC Music Magazine. Therefore, we here at the Culture Club thought it would be a good opportunity to focus on his 6th Symphony, the Pathetique, and to tie in with this other contemporary Russian works of the period (1890s). So, the works we’ll be discussing over the next few weeks, and at our next meeting, are:

• Symphony No. 6 in B minor (Pathetique) – Tchaikovsky
• Eugene Onegin – Tchaikovsky
• Master And Man – Leo Tolstoy
• The Seagull – Anton Chekhov
• Uncle Vanya – Anton Chekhov

I’ll be posting thoughts, observations and links on these works, with the occasional diversion into general cultural matters, until the next meeting of the Culture Club on 20th March, 2007.