Description
The melancholic Andante Cantabile is the second movement from Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Opus 11, his first completed string quartet. It was reportedly based on a folk song the composer heard whistled by a house painter at his sister's house. Alexandra Orlova quotes that when the quartet was performed at a tribute concert for Leo Tolstoy, the author was said to have been brought to tears by this movement. Tolstoy, sitting next to me and listening to the Andante of my First Quartet, burst into tears" Grade 5 level