Christmas is coming and so are flavours… and tales… In this period of the year, The Nutcracker plays the leading role, so the orchestral suite will crown our Tchaikovsky programme. Before that, the violin will take centre stage with two related pieces, the Meditation and the Concerto for Violin in D major that follow each other intentionally: originally, the gorgeous instrumental cantilena was meant to be the slow movement of the Concerto. However, the Meditation became a piece on its own and became popular as the first part of Souvenir d’un lieu cher. The “beloved place” referred to in the title is Brailov, the Ukrainian estate of Nadezhda von Meck, a generous patron who had a platonic relationship with Tchaikovsky. This was the place where the composer was able to spend a few peaceful weeks composing, and that is what the dedication of the piece also refers to: “To B***”. Although Tchaikovsky was a highly skilled composer of theatre music genres, such as operas, ballets and incidental music, it was his ballets that were of the highest significance in his time, and these are the stage works that are still performed most frequently today. Nevertheless, as ballets cannot be performed all the time, the composer considered compiling an orchestral suite: “The other day Swan Lake came to my mind. I want to prevent my music from being forgotten as it does have some respectable aspects,” he wrote to his publisher. This is probably how both of his orchestral suites were born.