His Compositions
Tchaikovsky is known for composing many pieces such as 1812 overture, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, March Slave, Violin Concerto, Symphony No.6, and many other works. He was one of the contributors for "The Five," a Russian nationalistic group, and he was a famous composer in and out of Russia. His studies at Saint Petersburg Conservatory helped him work in both European and Russian style. He also showed a wide-range of technique, and incorporated the style of Russian nationalism and musical idioms to express his own emotions.
Gift for Ballet Compositions
His ballets are very famous and no doubt that everyone in the world knows about his work or at least he or she has listened to the tune of his Ballet compositions. The three major ballets he wrote were Swan Lake, Nutcracker, and the Sleeping Beauty. One musicologist has said that "Tchaikovsky was made for Ballet." Tchaikovsky's gift for melody and orchestration, and his skill to be able to express dance music with great fluency makes him uniquely qualified as one of the best ballet composers in history. His ballets have a combination of symphonic and dramatic forms that put the genre on the same level as his works of symphonies and operas.
His Symphonies
He completed six symphonies and you can substantially tell the difference in style of the symphonies nos. 1-3 and symphonies nos. 4-6. While the first three symphonies focuses the style on combining Russian folk songs with his own innate perchant for melody, the last three symphonies focuses the style on imposing his personality to the symphonies to give the music a form of life. The symphonies nos. 4-6 are categorized as "highly original" examples and are performed quite frequently around the world.