Great piece. Oddly enough Tchaikovsky didnt think very much of the piece when he wrote it. Not thinking it would amount to much.
Little did he know it would become one of the most famous and most recognized pieces of classical music ever written.
Finding a truly great recording of this is difficult. Many try and do a decent job. but few quite get it right. Either the music is off. Or the cannon are lacking the proper resonance or very often improperly timed. You see the cannon are supposed to go off at specific times. This is why fireworks usually doesnt work very well with 1812.
Here is a much fuller version instrumentally. And the cannon arent bad at all but still lack a bit of depth in their sound
105's are nice but thee is something in the resonance of a true black powder gun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-vQKZFF-9sI used to have what I considered to be the best version I ever heard that was put out by London Records back in the 70's.
I've been looking for its equal ever since
