Chill with Tchaikovsky
At first glance Tchaikovsky does not seem easily to fit the
“Chill” bill. He is known for pieces such as the 1812 Overture, music which is
impassioned and animated in distinctly Russian style, often fiery, even
ballistic, and infused with darker moments inspired by the composer’s personal
turmoil. However he also wrote some of the most beautiful, fragile and ethereal
ballet music that has ever been choreographed, as well as lyrical slow
symphonic movements and haunting songs. His unique talent lay in his inspired
and inventive use of melody, seen at its best in works such as the Nutcracker
with its myriad infectious tunes. Many of Tchaikovsky’s melodies are based on
folksongs he collected, predominantly Russian and Ukrainian but also Polish,
Italian, Spanish and French (this last seen in the Piano Concerto No. 1, in
this collection).
Tchaikovsky is a troubled figure in the list of great
composers, perhaps more so than most. He was a highly sensitive child, prone to
shyness and anxiousness, and the death of his beloved mother when he was 14
further compounded these traits. His later life brought public accusations of
homosexuality, leading him to enter hastily into marriage with an admirer of
his music whom he barely knew, a marriage which failed almost immediately when
the composer found himself physically repulsed by his wife. The stress of this
episode, coupled with his lifelong attempts to conceal his homosexuality, led
to several nervous breakdowns and an attempt at suicide. However a more
constructive platonic relationship soon followed in the form of Nadezhda von
Meck, a wealthy benefactress whose patronage of Tchaikovsky allowed the
composer to abandon his teaching and concentrate exclusively on composition.
Her only stipulation: that the two never met, and accordingly they corresponded
intimately by letter from 1876 until 1890, a relationship which provided a
much-needed stability and emotional support for the neurotic composer.
Although music allowed him an outlet for his emotions, as a
composer Tchaikovsky found himself somewhat out of place with his
contemporaries: the group of Russian composers known as the “Mighty Handful”
(Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Balakirev and Mussorgsky) often fiercely
criticised Tchaikovsky and his music for its lack of nationalism. While they
were proudly self-taught and set great store by use of Russian folksong in
purely Russian idioms, Tchaikovsky chose to use Russian influences but in
Western forms, learned during his time at the St Petersburg conservatory.
Ironically, Stravinsky later called him “the most Russian of us all”, and for
many Tchaikovsky remains the Russian composer, leaving a legacy of incomparably
beautiful and powerful music with Russian nationalism at its very heart.
Track 1
The Sleeping Beauty Op. 66: Entrance of the Good Fairies
Despite Swan Lake’s rather lukewarm reception eleven years
before, when Tchaikovsky was asked by the Director of the Imperial Theatres in
St Petersburg to provide the music for a ballet based on the Perrault fairytale
La belle au bois dormant he was immediately enthusiastic, writing: "It
suits me perfectly, and I couldn´t ask for anything better than to compose the
music for it." The Tsar attended the dress rehearsal and damned it with
faint praise, calling it "very nice", yet Sleeping Beauty was an
instant success with the public and has often been described as the greatest
ballet score ever written.
To
hear The Sleeping Beauty in its entirety, try:
8.550490-492 The
Sleeping Beauty (3 CDs)
Czecho-Slovak
State Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew
Mogrelia
Track 2
Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 19, No. 4
The Nocturne was written in 1873 and was originally intended
for piano, although Tchaikovsky himself arranged it in the version we hear here
for cello and orchestra, probably as a result of his meeting in Paris with a
young Russian cellist, Anatoly Brandukov whom he greatly admired. This is one
of many pieces Tchaikovsky wrote to aid children learning the piano.
To
hear the Nocturne in C sharp minor in its original arrangement for piano, try:
8.553330 Piano
Music, Vol. 2
Oxana
Yablonskaya (piano)
Tracks 3, 4, 5 and 13
Nutcracker: Danse Arabe / Danse Chinoise / Danse des
mirlitons / Danse de la fée
Nutcracker was written to a text by E.T.A. Hoffmann (a
celebrated writer of grotesque horror stories) and concerns a little girl,
Clara, who is given a toy nutcracker in the shape of a soldier for Christmas by
a mysterious guest at her parents’ party. The Nutcracker comes alive during the
night along with the other toys and leads a battle against an army of mice.
Clara saves the Nutcracker as he is about to be defeated by the Mouse King and
witnesses his transformation into a handsome prince. In gratitude the Prince
transports Clara to his kingdom, Confiturenburg, a magical land of sweets.
Nutcracker was not an immediate success, but has since
become one of Tchaikovsky’s best-known works and a perennial Christmas
favourite. The two pieces included here are both taken from the Nutcracker
Suite, a collection of eight of the most popular short pieces from the ballet,
compiled to enable them to be performed as concert pieces without a full ballet
production. Danse arabe has an elegant swaying 3/4 rhythm with muted strings
and soft woodwind providing an vivid picture of an exotic Arabian dance, while
the dainty Dance de la fée (Dance
of the Sugar-Plum Fairy) employs the celeste as its principal instrument, an
instrument which had only recently been invented at the time and which
Tchaikovsky had heard while on a trip to Paris.
To
hear the Nutcracker Suite along with another of Tchaikovsky’s ballets, Swan
Lake, try:
8.553271 Nutcracker
(Highlights); Swan Lake (Highlights)
Slovak
Philharmonic Orchestra, Slovak Symphony Orchestra
Ondrej
Lenard / Michael Halász
For
a narrated version of Nutcracker, try:
8.555342 Nutcracker
(paired with Rimsky-Korsakov: Christmas Eve)
Prunella
Scales (narrator)
Slovak
Philharmonic Orchestra
Michael
Halász / Igor Golovschin
Track 6
Chanson triste in G minor
The Twelve Pieces, Op. 40, were written in 1878, the year
after the breakdown of Tchaikovsky’s marriage and his attempted suicide.
Tchaikovsky was living abroad following advice from his doctor and wrote these
piano pieces concurrently with the Violin Concerto in Italy and Switzerland,
completing them at his brother-in-law’s estate at Kamenka in the Ukraine where
he had often found solace. The popularity of his piano pieces is illustrated by
the prices he demanded of his publisher: 50 roubles for the violin concerto,
300 for Op. 40.
To
hear Chanson triste and other piano pieces from Tchaikovsky’s collection, try:
8.550233 The
Seasons; Chanson triste; Songs Without Words; Nocturne
Ilona
Prunyi (piano)
Track 7
Serenade for Strings: Waltzer
The Serenade (1880) began its life as a symphony or string
quintet but Tchaikovsky eventually decided that “the larger the string
orchestra employed, the better” and rewrote it for string orchestra. Upon its
completion the work occasioned rapturous praise from the normally fiercely
critical Anton Rubenstein, Tchaikovsky’s former teacher, largely owing to the
exquisite string writing and the unusual (for Tchaikovsky) sparseness of the
scoring, seen in the refined, ballet-like Waltz here.
To
hear the complete Serenade and more of Tchaikovsky’s chamber music, try:
8.550404 Serenade
for Strings; Souvenir de Florence
Vienna
Chamber Orchestra
Philippe
Entremont
Track 8
The Snow Maiden Op. 12: Declamation of the Fairy of Spring
The Snow Maiden, written by playwright Alexander Ostrovsky,
was intended to be a combination of play, ballet and opera with a fairytale
story. Tchaikovsky was asked to provide incidental music for the production,
staged in 1873, and the score immediately won greater praise than the play
itself. However Tchaikovsky was not amused when Rimsky-Korsakov chose to use
the story a few years later, producing a full-length opera which has now
overshadowed Tchaikovsky’s music.
To
hear the Snow Maiden, try:
8.553856 The Snow
Maiden
Moscow
Capella
Moscow
Symphony Orchestra
Igor
Golovchin
Track 9
Symphony No. 6 in B minor Op. 74 ‘Pathétique’: Allegro con
grazia
This is perhaps the most revealing of Tchaikovsky’s works.
It was premiered just nine days before the composer’s death on November 6th
1893 and concerns itself largely with mortality, with a progression through
life, love, disappointment and death as set out in the composer’s notes of
1892. The second “love” movement is scored unusually in 5/4 time, lending the
music a lilting light-hearted air, before the middle section brings in
forbidding descending scales reminding us of the onset of death.
To
hear Symphony No. 6, try:
8.550782 Symphony
No. 6; Francesca da Rimini
Polish
National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Antoni
Wit
Track 10
Swan Lake: Scene
Swan Lake was the first of Tchaikovsky’s ballets, with its
early origins in a home entertainment the composer had devised for his sister’s
children. The story concerns a princess, Odette, who is changed into a white
swan by a wicked magician. When Prince Siegfried meets and falls in love with
her the spell is all but broken.
However the dastardly magician Rotbart attempts to foil her
happiness by substituting his own daughter Odile for Odette, in the form of a
black swan. Yet true love conquers in the end and the lovers live (in most
versions) happily ever after. The famous “swan” theme recurs all the way through
the ballet and is undoubtedly one of the most recognisable pieces of classical
music, although the ballet itself only won fame after the composer’s death.
To
hear Swan Lake in its entirety,
try:
8.550246-247 Swan
Lake (complete ballet) (2 CDs)
Czecho-Slovak
Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)
Ondrej
Lenárd
Track 11
Album for the Young Op. 39: Sweet Dreams
Like the Nocturne in C sharp minor, this collection of 24
short pieces was intended to make learning the piano more enjoyable for
children, with each piece providing a study in a song form. Each has a
descriptive title and an individual personality and as its name suggests, Sweet
Dreams has a lullaby feel, with its sweet melody and 3/4 time signature.
To
hear the other 23 pieces from Album for the Young, try:
8.550885 Piano Music
for Children
Idil
Biret (piano)
Track 12
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35: 2nd movt (Canzonetta:
Andante)
One of Tchaikovsky’s most enduring and popular works, the
Violin Concerto was written during a stay in the Swiss resort of Clarens in
March 1878. Tchaikovsky wrote the first movement in an astounding two days and
the entire concerto was completed a week later. However it did not receive its
première until two years later, when it was roundly condemned by the well-known
critic Eduard Hanslick, who saw it as a trivial and barbarous work.
To
hear the rest of the Violin Concerto , try:
8.550124 Violin
Concerto; Sérénade Mélancolique; Souvenir d’un lieu cher
Takako
Nishizaki (violin)
Slovak
Philharmonic Orchestra
Kenneth
Jean
Track 14
Valse sentimentale in F Minor, Op. 51 No. 6
This was originally written for piano and constitutes the
last of a set of six pieces written in 1882 when Tchaikovsky was in severe
financial straits. As a letter to his brother Modest shows, these pieces were
written entirely for the money they would provide. Here the Valse sentimentale
is arranged for flute and harp.
To
hear the Valse sentimentale in its original arrangement for piano, try:
8.553063 Piano Music
Vol. 1
Oxana
Yablonskaya (piano)
Track 15
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat-minor, Op. 23: Second
Movement (Andantino semplice - Prestissimo - Tempo 1)
When in January of 1875 Tchaikovsky played an early draft of
the Piano Concerto to his teacher, Nikolai Rubenstein, the response was not
what he had hoped for. Rubenstein, to whom Tchaikovsky had intended to dedicate
the work, described it as “worthless and unplayable... bad, trivial, vulgar”.
The critics were not much kinder, one even going so far as to compare it as
“like the first pancake… a flop”. However the public gave it an enthusiastic
reception and the work has justly become a standard in the piano repertoire as
well as a romantic favourite, due in no small part to the lyrical second
movement performed here.
To
hear the rest of the Piano Concerto No. 1, try:
8.550819 Piano
Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
Bernd
Glemser (piano)
Polish
National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Antoni
Wit