Tchaikovsky: Marche slave, Op. 31

The Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado studied under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa and amongst other awards won first prize at the Leonard Bernstein International Competition in 1995. Sado was also involved with Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas in founding the Pacific Music Festival. On this new hybrid SACD recording of Tchaikovsky’s ever popular Fifth Symphony and the same composer’s Marche Slave, Yutaka Sado directs the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

Yutaka Sado was born in Kyoto, Japan. In 1987 he studied with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood Music Festival and became Bernstein’s assistant during his concert tour with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. He won the Premier Grand Prix of the 39th International Competition for Young Conductors Besançon in 1989 and later the first prize in the Leonard Bernstein International Competition (1995). Sado assisted Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas in founding the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo (Japan), where he appeared as permanent conductor and guest conductor. In 1993 Sado was appointed chief conductor of the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux; and in 1999 he was appointed First Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “Giuseppe Verdi”.

The world premiere of the Fifth Symphony took place in St. Petersburg on November 1888 under Tchaikovsky’s baton, and it was an immediate success. Since then it has become one of the most frequently performed and popular pieces in the repertoire. Like the Symphony No. 4, the Fifth is a cyclical symphony due to the recurrence of the "motto" theme in more than one movement. Unlike the Fourth, however, the theme is heard in all four movements, a feature Tchaikovsky had first used in the Manfred Symphony, which was completed less than two years before the Fifth.

Following acclaimed recordings of Shostakovich, the third release on the Mariinsky Theatre's new label features a selection of popular and rarely-heard works by Tchaikovsky.

Unlike the majority of his Russian predecessors, Tchaikovsky’s fame meant he received regular commissions for new work – he was the first ‘professional’ Russian composer. A new generation followed in his footsteps including Stravinsky and Prokofiev; for them, commissions were the norm.

Many of the works for which Tchaikovsky was commissioned were required to celebrate great state and political events. The Danish Overture was written to mark the marriage of the future Tsar Alexander III to the Danish Princess Dagmar. He was later commissioned to to produce the Moscow Cantata and Coronation March as part of the celebrations to mark Alexander’s coronation.

The patriotic Marche Slave was written for a charitable concert staged to raise funds for Russian volunteers in the Serbo-Turkish War. Although the 1812 Overture depicts Russia’s earlier war with Napoleonic France, the piece was actually commissioned for the opening of the Christ The Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. The cathedral itself was built to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Russia’s victory in the 1812 campaign of the wars.