Tchaikovsky's heartfelt piece is among the best he ever wrote. At the very time that Tchaikovsky was composing his nationalistic, powerful and undeniably noisy 1812 Overture, he was also writing this: ...

Antonin Dvorak helped revive string-orchestra music with a famous serenade in 1875. A few years later, Tchaikovsky followed in his footsteps with his own Serenade for Strings, which we feature, ...