music-durham-logo-white-shadow-500px

Music in Durham

Tchaikovsky – Capriccio Italien

This is the piece that I used to play as a ritual to make me happy before all my school exams.

One of the first classical recordings that was actually mine, on cassette, and not my Dad’s records, was a big hits compilation album – if I remember rightly, it had Finlandia, Fingal’s Cave, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the Peer Gynt Suite, March Slav, the 1812 and this, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien. The Capriccio Italien always made me feel so happy that it became my ritual to listen to it in the morning before all my GCSE and A-level exams. Unfortunately it would appear that the recording I had was insanely fast, because every other recording I’ve heard of it feels too slow, but this one by The Hallé comes close to what I remember and has a lovely swing of its own. My school doesn’t exist anymore, except as a former student’s facebook group, which is where I pinched the cover picture from.

This is the piece that I used to play as a ritual to make me happy before all my school exams.

Share:

More Posts

Composer Ailsa Dixon in woodland

Introducing Ailsa Dixon’s Music

Composer Ailsa Dixon studied at Durham in the 1950s. Ahead of a concert celebrating her music, her daughter Josie Dixon tells Ailsa’s story and introduces the music on the programme.

EXAUDI – In dew of roses

Stunning vocal music spanning six centuries, including brand new compositions by A-level students at St Leonards RC comprehensive school

Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus

Guest reviewer Olivia Hamilton is enthralled by Rolf Hind’s expressive intentions as he gives a remarkable performance of Olivier Messiaen’s piano masterpiece for MUSICON