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Romeo and Juliet, Fantasy-Overture in B minor
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Born May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka province

Died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg
Tchaikovsky began work on the Fantasy-Overture Romeo and Juliet in September 1869. By the end of November he had completed the scoring, and arrangements were made for the work to be premiered in Moscow on March 16, 1870, with Nicholas Rubinstein conducting. During the summer of 1870 Tchaikovsky revised the work, making considerable changes. The score is dedicated to Mily Balakirev (1837-1910), one of the leading figures of "The Mighty Five" (a group of 19th century Russian composers including, in addition to Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, all of whom were united in their aim to create a distinctive nationalist school of music.) It was Balakirev who suggested the idea to Tchaikovsky for the Fantasy-Overture as well as its general outline. It is of interest that at a later date Tchaikovsky contemplated writing an opera on the Romeo and Juliet theme; a duet was sketched but left unfinished.

The Fantasy-Overture consists of an introduction followed by a movement in sonata-allegro form. The introduction, beginning with the stately Friar Lawrence theme, is marked Andante non tanto quasi moderato. It commences in the key of F-sharp minor and then proceeds to move through a variety of keys before settling into the "home" key of B minor. The first theme, with its evocation of the Montague-Capulet conflict, builds up to a tremendous climax before subsiding quietly into the second theme. The following section, depicting the love motive, is in the key of D-flat major; the melody is heard first in the muted violas and doubled by the English horn. The reflective love music is suddenly interrupted by a return of the principal theme, which is highly developed and ingeniously combined with the Friar Lawrence motive of the introduction. In the recapitulation section which follows, the second theme (love motive) appears in D major. To conclude the work, the principal B minor theme is combined in the full orchestra with the Friar Lawrence theme and, as the music subsides, there are motives from the second theme section. The work concludes in the key of B major.

Tchaikovsky revised the work yet again in 1880, this time however, making only minor alterations in the scoring. Due to the fact that Romeo and Juliet was belatedly published, it is the only important orchestral work of Tchaikovsky not to have a designated opus number.

© 1999 Columbia Artists Management Inc.




Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35



PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Born May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Vyatka province

Died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg
In the summer of 1877, Tchaikovsky undertook the disastrous marriage that lasted less than three weeks and resulted in his emotional collapse and attempted suicide. He fled from Moscow to his brother Modeste in St. Petersburg, where he recovered his wits and discovered he could find solace in his work. He spent the late fall and winter completing his Fourth Symphony and the opera Eugene Onégin. The brothers decided that travel outside of Russia would be an additional balm to the composer's spirit, and they duly installed themselves at Clarens on Lake Geneva in Switzerland soon after the first of the year.
In Clarens, Tchaikovsky had already begun work on a piano sonata when he was visited by Joseph Kotek, a talented young violinist who had been a student in one of his composition classes at the Moscow Conservatory, who brought with him a score for the recent Symphonie Espagnole for Violin and Orchestra by the French composer Edouard Lalo. They read through the piece, and Tchaikovsky was so excited by the possibilities of a work for solo violin and orchestra that he set aside the gestating piano sonata and immediately began a concerto of his own. He worked quickly, completing the present slow movement in a single day when he decided to discard an earlier attempt. (This abandoned piece ended up as the first of the three Meditations for Violin and Piano, Op. 42.) By the end of April, the work was finished. Tchaikovsky sent the manuscript to Leopold Auer, a friend who headed the violin department at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and who was also Court Violinist to the Czar, hoping to have him premiere the work. Much to the composer's regret, Auer returned the piece as "unplayable," and apparently spread that word with such authority to other violinists that it was more than three years before the Violin Concerto was heard in public.
It was Adolf Brodsky, a former colleague of Tchaikovsky at the Moscow Conservatory, who first accepted the challenge of this Concerto. After having "taken it up and put it down," in his words, for two years, he finally felt secure enough to give the work a try, and he convinced Hans Richter to include it on the concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1881. Brodsky must have felt that he was on something of a crusade during the preparations for the performance. There was only a single full rehearsal allotted for the new work, and most of that was taken up with correcting the parts, which were awash with copyist's errors. Richter wanted to make cuts. The orchestra did not like the music, and at the performance played very quietly so as not to enter with a crashing miscue. Brodsky deserves the appreciation of the music world for standing pat in his belief in the Concerto amid all these adversities. When the performance was done, the audience felt that way as well, and applauded him. The piece itself, however, was roundly hissed. The critical barrage was led by that powerful doyen of Viennese conservatism, Eduard Hanslick, whose tasteless summation ("Music that stinks in the ear") irritated Tchaikovsky until the day he died.

Despite its initial reception, Brodsky remained devoted to the Concerto, and played it throughout Europe. The work soon began to gain in popularity, as did the music of Tchaikovsky generally, and it has become one of the most famous concertos in the literature. It is a revealing side-note that Leopold Auer, who had initially shunned the work, eventually came to include it in his repertory, and even taught it to his students, some of whom — Seidel, Zimbalist, Elman, Heifetz, Milstein — became the greatest exponents of the work in the 20th century.


The Concerto opens quietly with a tentative introductory tune. A foretaste of the main theme soon appears in the violins, around which a quick crescendo is mounted to usher in the soloist. After a few unaccompanied measures, the violin presents the movement's lovely main theme above a simple string background. After an elaborated repeat of this melody, a transition follows that eventually involves the entire orchestra and gives the soloist the first of many opportunities for pyrotechnical display. The second theme is the beginning of a long dynamic and rhythmic buildup leading into the development with a sweeping, balletic presentation of the main theme by the full orchestra. The soloist soon steals back the attention with breathtaking leaps and double stops. The grand balletic mood returns, giving way to a brilliant cadenza as a link to the recapitulation. The flute sings the main theme for four measures before the violin takes over, and all then follows the order of the exposition. An exhilarating coda asks for no fewer than four tempo increases, and the movement ends in a brilliant whirl of rhythmic energy.

The slow middle movement begins with a chorale for woodwinds that is heard again at the end of the movement to serve as a frame around the musical picture inside. On the canvas of this scene is displayed a soulful melody intoned by the violin with the plaintive suggestion of a Gypsy fiddler. The finale is joined to the slow movement without a break. With the propulsive spirit of a dashing Cossack Trepak, the finale flies by amid the soloist's dizzying show of agility and speed. Like the first movement, this one also races toward its final climax, almost daring listeners to try to sit still in their seats. After playing the Concerto's premiere, Adolf Brodsky wrote to Tchaikovsky that the work was "wonderfully beautiful." He was right.

© 1999 Columbia Artists Management Inc.

Polonaise, from Yevgeny Onegin, Op. 24
PIOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Born May 7, 1840, in Votkinsk, Russia

Died November 6, 1893, in St. Petersburg
It has been suggested that Tchaikovsky’s marriage in 1877 was as traumatic to him as the death of his mother when the composer was 14. As a homosexual man in the late 19th century, he felt that a marriage would “save his reputation.” On the contrary, it almost drove him to suicide. He ended up pouring out his feelings into two of his greatest and most powerful compositions, the Symphony No. 4 and his most popular opera Yevgeny Onegin.

Based on one of the greatest masterpieces of Russian literature, the narrative poem by Pushkin, Tchaikovsky wrote what he termed “lyrical scenes.” Once he decided on the subject, he produced the following scenario in one evening:



First Act. Scene I: Mme. Larina and the nurse are sitting in the garden, making preserves. Duet. A song is heard from the house: Tatyana and Olga sing a duet with harp-accompaniment. Enter reapers (with the last sheaf); they sing and dance. Suddenly the servant announces guests. Enter Yevgeny e and Lensky. Ceremony of introduction and entertainment (bilberry wine). Yevgeny e exchanges impressions with Lensky and Tatyana with Olga: quintet à la Mozart. The older women go away to prepare dinner. The young people stay and walk in the garden in pairs (as in Faust). Tatyana is reserved at first, then falls in love.

Scene II: Tatyana’s letter.

Scene III: Scene between Onegin and Tatyana.


Second Act: Scene I: Tatyana’s name-day. Ball. Lensky’s jealousy. He insults Onegin and challenges him. General confusion.

Scene II: Lensky’s aria and the duel.
Third Act: Scene I: Moscow. Ball in the Noble’s Hall. Tatyana meets a whole string of aunts and cousins. They sing a chorus. Appearance of the general. He falls in love with Tatyana. She tells him her story and agrees to marry him.

Scene II: Petersburg. Tatyana awaits Onegin. He appears. Big duet. Tatyana still loves him and fights a hard inner battle with herself. Her husband comes. Duty triumphs. Onegin rushes off in despair.


The final shape of the opera is not too far from what Tchaikovsky originally envisioned. The first act has some changes, and the final scene in the last act was abandoned for a new one. The opera was first performed by students at the Moscow Conservatory on March 17/29, 1879, and given its professional debut on January 11/23, 1881 at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

In Pushkin’s poem and in the opera itself, the characters appear as rather every normal people. Because of this, Tchaikovsky poured out his most dramatic music and musical effects in the purely orchestral sequences. This is quite apparent in the dance numbers. The Polonaise occurs during the Third Act at Prince Gremin’s ball in the St. Petersburg palace. A fanfare announces the arrival of the royal couple followed by the main body of the dance. There is a short lyrical section before the return of the effervescent dance and a brilliant conclusion.

© 2003 Columbia Artists Management Inc.

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