The final programme featuring the correspondence between the composer and his patroness, read by Alex Jennings and Anna Massey. "My mind is with you," writes von Meck, as Tchaikovsky battles to regain control of his life. At the Moscow
Conservatoire he finds teaching a drudgery, rumours about his private life abound, and he feels like a criminal on the run. He yearns for freedom, for a lonely, nomadic life, for recognition and fame, and he muses on the origins of musical composition.
The Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conductor Mark Ermler. Repeated from Friday 27 December