Description: Antal Dorati conducts the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Mercury LP MG50054 1955 (Original Scoring) Here's Part 2 of 2 www.youtube.com (Sorry for the scratches, she's 50 years old) Composed in 1880, more than a half-dozen years before Rimsky-Korsakov's equally celebrated 'Capriccio Espagnol', Tchaikovsky's 'Capriccio Italien' was intended by the composer to be as a frankly 'popular' piece. 'I think it has a bright future.' He once wrote from Rome;'It will be effective because of the wonderful melodies I happened to pick up, partly from published collections, and partly from out in the streets with my own ears.' The scoring is for very full orchestra, featuring as it does glockenspiel, triangle and tambourine in the percussion section, as well as cornets and English horn in the winds augmenting the the normal symphonic forces. The bugle call of the Italian Royal Cuirassiers (whose barracks adjoined a hotel at which Tchaikovsky once stayed) is sounded by the trumpets at thevery opening of the Capriccio Italien. There follows a plaintive and darkly hued melody, heard first in the strings, then worked gradually toward a climax that features a return of the cavalry call with trumpets and clashing cymbals. English horn and bassoons recall the plaintive melody for a brief space, but an ensuing change of tempo brings with it a lilting folktune played by the oboes in thirds then by the cornets, with tinkling glockenspiel chiming in at the close of each phase. Again, a climax is ...