Tchaikovsky spent the summer and autumn of 1880 at his sister’s country estate in Kam’ianka, Ukraine, where he sought peace and relaxation. But after a short time the desire to work took hold of him again. “I’m sketching a symphony or string quintet just now; I don’t know where it’s going yet,” he wrote to his friend and patroness Nadezhda von Meck. In the end it turned out to be a Serenade for String Orchestra, which numbers among his most beautiful inspirations and is today a central work in t...