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To us, the Rolston String Quartet, the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is simply irresistible - and so, a debut album containing only his finest chamber works was an obvious choice. Cherished for his memorable and beautifully simplistic melodies, Tchaikovsky's music is innately joyous, virtuosic, and heart-wrenching, often all at once- yet never violent in nature. As musicians, we adore the charm and childhood nostalgia that Tchaikovsky is able to encompass from start to finish. In this album, we have selected a work from each of his early, middle, and late periods his String Quartet No. 1 in D major, selections from his Children's Album, and his beloved Souvenir de Florence for string sextet. Not only could we showcase a quartet that we treasure, but we were given the opportunity to collaborate with two of the Chapel's brilliant professors violist Miguel da Silva and cellist Gary Hoffman. We gravitate towards Tchaikovsky's chamber music more than other composers' because of his stunning ability to write symphonically right form the opening chords of the D major quartet, Tchaikovsky expands the sonic possibilities of the traditional string quartet towards that of a symphony orchestra. To round out the program are five delicate and endearing pieces our favorite selections from Tchaikovsky's Children's Album for solo piano, arranged for string quartet by Rostislav Dubinsky, the founding first violinist of the Borodin Quartet.
