Festival Coronation March

First performances#

The Saint Petersburg premiere was on , conducted by Hans von Bülow.

Modern revisions#

During the Soviet Era, Russian performances and recordings of the music were revised to omit the excerpts from the Czarist national anthem, replacing it with thematic material used earlier in the march. Other works that quoted or otherwise used the anthem, such as Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave and 1812 Overture, were also revised, due to an official Soviet ban on the anthem. Starting with Dmitri Medvedev’s inauguration in 2008, an abbreviated version of this piece is played during the Russian presidential inauguration accompanying the entrance of the incoming president. This version lasts less than two minutes, and so ends well before the playing in this piece of the Tsarist anthem God Save the Tsar. Unlike Tchaikovsky’s other major compositions, the Coronation March does not have an opus number. It has been given the alternative catalogue designations TH 50 and ČW 47.

External links#

• Tchaikovsky Research
• Various performances of this piece on YouTube
• One specific recording where the Soviets chopped out the God Save the Tsar music (at 4:10), causing a bad editing glitch
• Downloadable recordings of the march
• Video of Dmitri Medvedev’s entrance into his inauguration on , accompanied by an abbreviated version of this piece.
• Video of Vladimir Putin’s entrance into his third inauguration on , accompanied by an abbreviated version of this piece.