(Section A)
Leader, Paul Beard
Conducted by Basil Cameron
' Francesca da Rimini ' was sketched out in Paris in the summer of 1876 and completed in November of that year. In the meantime Tchaikovsky had attended the memorable first Bayreuth Festival in August, and, despite his dislike of Wagner's music, a few echoes of Wagner seem to have crept into ' Francesca '. Perhaps that is why he came to dislike the piece later in life.