Tchaikovsky and Wagner

String quartets by Bartók and Tchaikovsky bookend this program—the visceral and cathartic former contrasting with the latter’s refined lyricism that famously moved the author Leo Tolstoy to tears in a moment Tchaikovsky called one of the proudest of his life. In between, musicians of the LA Phil perform a chamber reduction of the sweeping Prelude and “Liebestod” from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.