Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet (Excerpt)

In 2011 and 2012, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented a series of live simulcasts called LA Phil LIVE. This special series included full-concert performances with the LA Phil, led by dynamic Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, live from both Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles as well as Dudamel’s home nation, Venezuela. See Gustavo Dudamel conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in another fantastic performance of Tchaikovsky’s music July 24 and July 25, 2015, at the Hollywood Bowl! The Tchaikovsky Fireworks Spectacular will feature Symphony No. 5, selections from Swan Lake and the Nutcracker — and, of course, the 1812 Overture! Tickets to see Gustavo Dudamel and LA Phil perform those pieces at the Hollywood Bowl (with fireworks!) July 24 and 25, 2015, are available now at ABOUT TCHAIKOVSKY’S HAMLET: This excerpt from the aforementioned LA Phil Live theatercasts features Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall in a performance of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Hamlet.“ As many know, Tchaikovsky held the great William Shakespeare in high esteem. As the result of his passion for the author’s work, Tchaikovsky composed three single-movement orchestral fantasies or overtures inspired by “Hamlet,“ “Romeo and Juliet“ and “The Tempest.“ The notion of a Hamlet piece was presented to the composer by his brother, Modest, in 1876 and he immediately responded that his work would “fall naturally” into three parts: “1. Elsinore and Hamlet, up to the appearance of his father’s ghost, 2. Polonius (scherzando) and Ophelia (adagio), 3. Hamlet after the appearance of the ghost, and Fortinbras.” Some sketches were obviously made at the time, but they have little or nothing to do with the music that would emerge in 1888 when the French director-actor-impresario Lucien Guitry, who was planning to tour a French-language production of Hamlet in Russia, asked Tchaikovsky to provide an overture and incidental music. The production itself came to naught, but Tchaikovsky decided to go ahead anyway with a Hamlet-based orchestral piece, the present Op. 67. To learn more about Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet, visit