The Roar of Cannon and the Ringing of Bells
Peter Tchaikovsky’s Festival Overture 1812
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture is one of the most popular Russian compositions. It is worth listening to not only because of the bombastic instrumentation and acoustic effects. The work is also an important historical source. However, it reveals more about the background of the period in which it was created than about the events of 1812. As a “virtual war experience” written for the inauguration of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 1882, it plays a special role in Russia’s politics of memory.
(Osteuropa 1/2013, pp. 83–92)