Arguably the greatest 19th-century Russian composer, for whose music the public appears to have an insatiable appetite, Tchaikovsky had a natural gift for beautiful and deeply expressive melodies which, in his most successful works, was allied to a hard-won and often original compositional technique. Among the least-known of Tchaikovsky’s works, the hundred or so songs enjoyed considerable success in his lifetime. As in his large-scale compositions, Tchaikovsky uses them as expressive vehicles for his highly charged life and they rank amongst the most beautiful and lyrical of his output.