Piotr ilyich tchaikovsky

Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia

This is the only one of Tchaikovsky's four fine orchestral suites that was not conceived originally as a projected symphony. It is also the only one with just four movements. For Tchaikovsky, Mozart was a "musical Christ," a composer whose formal clarity and perfection accentuated his own acute sense of deficiency. It is not surprising that he should wish to pay tribute to his idol and transform, with idiosyncratic skill, a most enterprising and unusual selection of Mozart's piano pieces.

Tchaikovsky started thinking about the music in 1884, but did not actually turn to its composition until 1887. "Mozartiana" was composed at a time in his life when the composer felt the need to relax from more strenuous creativity and offer "older things in a new presentation."

The four movements are based on a number of lesser-known pieces by Mozart, strikingly recomposed to be wholly consistent with Tchaikovsky's own style and temperament. The first movement, "Gigue," is based on Mozart's Gigue in C, K. 574; the second, "Minuet," on the Minuet in D, K. 355. These are brief, straightforward arrangements, lightly scored, and retain more of the quality of their originals than do the remaining two movements. The third movement, "Preghiera," ("Prayer") is an orchestration of Liszt's piano transcription of Mozart 's motet Ave verum corpus . K. 618. It is sonorous and regal, notable for its remarkably effective harp part.

The final part, "Theme & Variations," is notably longer than the other three movements combined. It is based on Mozart's Theme and Variations, K. 455, on a theme (Unser dummer Poble meint) from Gluck 's opera The Pilgrimage to Mecca. The orchestration is again brilliant, with its own dramatic progression established by the distinct orchestral sound chosen for each of the ten variations. There are some notably exotic touches in the Variations, with percussion and flourishes or cadenzas for a variety of soloists that provide a distinctly personal and Russian flavor.

Mozartiana has such grace and elegance that it has often been choreographed, perhaps most famously by Balanchine. Some 25 years after Tchaikovsky's death, his countryman Igor Stravinsky performed a similar exercise with Tchaikovsky's music to produce the ballet The Fairy's Kiss, transforming the sound of the older composer's scores into his own idiomatic style. Although some have accused Tchaikovsky of a "cavalier" treatment of Mozart's works, Tchaikovsky's affection as well as his playful ingenuity in this artful homage to his idol are never in doubt.
Pétrouchka (1911; Revised 1919 and 1945)

IGOR STRAVINSKY

"Before tackling The Rite of Spring, which I knew would be a long and difficult task, I wanted to refresh myself by composing an orchestral piece in which the piano would play the most important part -- a kind of Konzertstück. In composing the music, I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios. The orchestra, in turn, retaliates with menacing trumpet blasts. … I struggled for hours … to find a title that would express in a word the character of my music.

The First Tableau is set in the Shrove-tide Fair in 1830's St. Petersburg, on a winter day. Crowds of merrymakers mill about. An organ grinder competes with a music-box man. The crowd grows more and more exuberant. Suddenly two drummers silence the crowd and a Magician appears from behind a curtain. The impression his hocus-pocus makes on the gullible crowd is reflected in the mysterious mutterings of the orchestra. Then the Magician plays an insipid tune on his flute, and touches it to three puppets (Petrushka, the Ballerina and the Blackamoor) who have been revealed from behind a curtain. To everyone's astonishment, they begin to cavort without strings (the Russian Dance). The drums roll again, and there is a change of scene.

In the Second Tableau, the setting shifts from the real world to the fantasy world of the puppets, all of whom have been endowed by the Magician with emotion. Petrushka feels and suffers the most. We see him kicked into his bare, prison-like room. At this point his despondent wail, the "Petrushka chord," is heard as an arpeggio in two clarinets. He curses and paws the walls, hoping to escape. The door opens and the vacuous Ballerina dances in. Petrushka, ugly and unwanted, has fallen in love with her, but she is repulsed by his grotesque antics and flees. In despair, Petrushka hurls himself at a portrait of the Magician, but only falls through a hole in the wall.

The Third Tableau is the luxurious room of the Blackamoor, who is lying on a divan playing with a coconut. He performs a posturing dance. The Ballerina enters playing a trumpet, and finds the brutal Blackamoor very romantic. The empty-headed banality of the music and of their mutual enchantment makes the tragedy of Petrushka all the more poignant. Consumed with jealousy, Petrushka bursts into the room, heralded by the screaming of muted trumpets, but is driven out by the Blackamoor.

The scene returns to the festive crowd outside for the Fourth Tableau. Various dances overlap. A peasant plays a pipe and leads a bear walking on its hind legs. At the climax of the gaiety, Petrushka dashes from behind the curtain of the puppet theater, the Blackamoor in hot pursuit with his scimitar. Once again the worlds of reality and fantasy have merged. There is a fatal blow, and Petrushka falls with a broken skull (accompanied by the sound of a dropped tambourine). A policeman arrives with the Magician, who demonstrates that Petrushka was, after all, only made of wood and sawdust. The crowd disperses in the snowy dusk as the Magician drags off the lifeless puppet. Suddenly Petrushka's ghost appears above the theater, taunting and threatening (muted trumpets). The Magician drops the puppet in terror and flees into the darkness.