Fantasia after Dante : Francesca da Rimini played by the. BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Sargent
Tchaikovsky's 'Francesca da Rimini ' was iketched out in Paris in the summer of 1876 and completed in November of than year. In the meantime Tchaikovsky had attended the memorable first Beyreuth Festival in August, and, in spite of his dislike of Wagner's music, a few echoes of Wagner teem to have crept into ' Francesca '. Perhaps that is the reason why he came to dislike the piece in later life.