Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky rocks my socks off

Yesterday I practiced for a good long time.  And for the first time in a while, I really enjoyed practicing.  I played through some new music, which was pretty exciting, and then I played through the oboe part to Tchaik 5, since we're playing it in orchestra this semester.  Random fact: Tchaikovsky is my favorite composer of all time.  This deep love for his music probably started when I was too young to think about it.  As a little girl I used to dance in a production of the Nutcracker every year, which I absolutely loved.  Sometimes I wonder why I ever stopped ballet; dancing is such a physical and yet beautiful method of self expression that I think everyone, regardless of age or ability, should try at least once in life.  Anyway...that's a side note.  Tchaikovsky wrote the Nutcracker ballet.  Also, every Sunday I would come home from church, turn on the record player, and dance around our kitchen and living room accompanied by music that I attributed to Tchaikovsky.  (I later found out it was Shostakovich...but this particular ballet suite does have significant similarities.)  After I stopped dancing I left Tchaikosky alone for awhile, not being at a level of musical ability that was necessary to play his music.  But later, I reencountered it in our state youth orchestra when we played the fourth symphony.  It was glorious.  I loved everything about it.  There is something about the music that makes it incredibly meaningful; it is complex harmonically (my youth orchestra conductor at one point shouted over the rehearsal, "I LOVE Tchaikovsky!  He just keeps modulating and modulating!")  and yet the soaring but singable melodies ensure that it is still accessible to both the musician and to the audience.  He is able to express both deep sorrow and extreme joy within the space of a few measures, and each piece, while not programmatic, tells some sort of a story.  During exam week this year, I discovered that the waltz from Eugene Onegin and the first movement of the piano concerto are excellent study music for the stressed college student, seeing as it is so heroic-sounding that I found myself singing the orchestra part while grandly conducting instead of writing my essay.  Overall message - if Tchaikovsky can write something like that in the face of the crumbling Russian political system, I can finish my homework and still make it home alive.  

So now in orchestra we're playing the fifth symphony.  Needless to say, I haven't been this excited to go to rehearsal since we first played Tchaik 4 in VYO senior year of high school.  I think that fact explains why my practicing was so much fun yesterday.