Every Fourth of July, the Boston Pops concert on the Esplanade ends with a bang. And it isn't just fireworks. The high point of the 1812 Overture includes firing cannons. The piece is about Russia's ...

Somehow, over the past half-century and with hardly anyone noticing, the 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has become as integral to the Fourth of July as George Washington and ...