16 March 2020

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 16 March 12020 is Labour Day in Australia. On this day in 1870 the first version of Tchaikovsky’s overture-fantasia Romeo and Juliet was performed in Moscow to a lackluster response. It would take two overhauls to make it the concert standard that it eventually became, but fellow-composer Mily Balakirev (to whom the work was dedicated) encouraged him in the task and helped him out with numerous suggestions, some of which the composer went so far as to adopt.