Tchaikowsky and His Orchestral Music 3

Tchaikowsky and His Orchestral Music 3

In November Tschaikowsky went to St. Petersburg for a rehearsal of

_Pique Dame_. While there he arranged for a private hearing of the

sextet by friends. The performance left him cold and he resolved to

rewrite the Scherzo and Finale. By the following May the work was

thoroughly remodelled. It was not till June, 1892, while in Paris, that

he actually completed the revision to his satisfaction.

 

The four movements comprise an _Allegro con spirito_ (D minor, 4-4),

an _Adagio cantabile e con moto_ (D major, 3-4), an _Allegretto

moderato_ (A minor, 2-4), and an _Allegro vivace_ (D minor-D major,

2-4). The form is largely that of the classical string quartet, though

characteristically bold and novel devices of color and structure

abound. Often the strings are ingeniously treated to suggest wind

instruments, and one senses Tschaikowsky’s frequent striving for

orchestral effects.

 

Research has failed to unearth the “opprobrious epithets” Tschaikowsky

is alleged to have heaped upon this slight but appealing work.

 

 

OVERTURE-FANTASY, _Romeo and Juliet_

 

Shortly before the overture-fantasy on Shakespeare’s tragedy took

shape in Tschaikowsky’s mind, he had been jilted by the French soprano

Désirée Artôt, then enjoying a prodigious vogue as opera singer in St.

Petersburg. The twenty-eight-year-old composer and Mlle. Artôt had

become engaged in 1868, but the lady promptly left him and married the

Spanish baritone Padilla y Ramos. The theory is that Tschaikowsky’s

composition grew out of the resulting emotional upset, or at least that

his frame of mind conduced to tragic __EXPRESSION__ on a romantic theme.

 

The Artôt episode acted as stimulus, but the concrete suggestion for

using Shakespeare’s tragedy in a symphonic work came from Balakireff

during a walk with Tschaikowsky and their friend Kashkin “on a lovely

day in May.” Balakireff, head of the group of five young Russian

composers (Tschaikowsky was not one of them) bent on achieving a pure

national idiom, went so far as to outline the scheme to Tschaikowsky,

unfolding the possibilities of dramatic and musical co-ordination so

vividly that the young composer took eagerly to the project. Balakireff

even furnished the keys and hints for themes and development.

 

However, four months went by before Tschaikowsky plunged into the

actual composition of the overture-fantasy. Balakireff kept in close

touch with him and virtually supervised the process. His dogmatism and

narrowness often bored and irritated the young composer. Balakireff

accepted this and rejected that, was pitilessly graphic in his

comments, and yet somehow egged on the hypersensitive Tschaikowsky to

completion of a taxing assignment. Finally, in January of the following

year, Balakireff and Rimsky-Korsakoff came to visit him and he could

write: “My overture pleased them very much and it also pleases me.”

Still, the Moscow public responded coolly, and Tschaikowsky felt

obliged to revise much of the score that summer. Further rewriting was

done for the definitive edition brought out in 1881.

 

The thematic scheme is easy to follow. Friar Laurence takes his bow in

a solemn andante introduction for clarinets and bassoons in F-sharp

minor. The feud of the Montagues and Capulets rages in a B minor

allegro. Romeo and Juliet enter via muted violins and English horn in

a famous theme in D-flat major suggesting Tschaikowsky’s song _Wer nur

die Sehnsucht kennt_ (“None But the Lonely Heart”). The strife-torn

Montagues and Capulets return for another bout. Chords of muted violins

and violas hinting at mystery and secrecy bring back the love music.

The themes of Romeo and Juliet, the embattled families, and Friar

Laurence are heard in succession, followed by a fierce orchestral

crash, and the storm subsides to a roll of kettledrums.

 

 

_Francesca da Rimini_, FANTASIA FOR ORCHESTRA (AFTER DANTE), OPUS 32

 

Written in 1876, Tschaikowsky’s symphonic treatment of the celebrated

love story of Paolo and Francesca grew out of an original project for

an opera on the same subject. He abandoned the idea of an opera when

the libretto submitted to him proved impossible. Later Tschaikowsky

again read through the fifth canto of Dante’s _Inferno_, in which the

tragedy is related. Stirred by the verses and also by Gustave Doré’s

illustrations, he resolved to write an orchestral fantasy on the

subject.

 

Prefacing the score are the following lines from Dante’s great poem:

 

“Dante arrives in the second circle of hell. He sees that here the

incontinent are punished, and their punishment is to be continually

tormented by the crudest winds under a dark and gloomy air. Among these

tortured ones he recognizes Francesca da Rimini, who tells her story.

 

“‘ ... There is no greater pain than to recall a happy time in

wretchedness; and this thy teacher knows. But if thou hast such desire

to learn the first root of our love, I will do like one who weeps and

tells.

 

“‘One day, for pastime, we read of Lancelot, how love constrained him.

We were alone, and without all suspicion. Several times reading urged

our eyes to meet, and changed the color of our faces. But one moment

alone it was that overcame us. When we read of how the fond smile was

kissed by such a lover, he, who shall never be divided from me, kissed

my mouth all trembling. The book, and he who wrote it, was a Galeotto.

That day we read in it no farther.’

 

“While the one spirit thus spake, the other wept so that I fainted with

pity, as if I had been dying; and fell, as a dead body falls.”

 

Tschaikowsky used to insist that the following titles be given in the

program-book at performances of his fantasia:

 

I. Introduction: The gateway to the Inferno

(“Leave all hope behind, all ye who enter here”)

Tortures and agonies of the condemned.

II. Francesca tells the story of her tragic love for Paolo.

III. The turmoil of Hades. Conclusion.

 

The composition starts with a descriptive setting, in which a sinister,

gruesome picture is painted of the second circle of Dante’s _Inferno_.

The awesome scene, with its haunting, driving winds, desolate moans,

and dread terror, is repeated at the end. In the middle occurs a

section featuring a clarinet in a plaintive and tender melody heard

against string pizzicati. This instantly evokes the image of Francesca

telling her tragic tale, which mounts in fervor and reaches its

shattering crisis, before the wailing winds of Dante’s netherworld

close in again.

 

 

BALLET SUITES

 

 

SUITE FROM THE BALLET, _Swan Lake_ (_Le Lac des Cygnes_)

 

All told, Tschaikowsky wrote three ballets, plus a scattering of

incidental dances for operas, beginning with the surviving “Voyevode”

fragments. The composition of _Swan Lake_, first of the trio—the

others being _The Sleeping Beauty_ and _The Nutcracker_—originated in

a twofold impulse, the need for ready cash and a fondness for French

ballet music, especially the works of Delibes and the _Giselle_ of

Adolphe Adam, which Tschaikowsky regarded as archetype.

 

He evidently thought little of his initial effort, for shortly after

the Moscow production of _Swan Lake_ he recorded in his diary: “Lately

I have heard Delibes’ very clever music. ‘Swan Lake’ is poor stuff

compared to it. Nothing during the last few years has charmed me so

greatly as this ballet of Delibes and ‘Carmen’.” Per contra, the same

entry bemoans the “deterioration” of German music, the immediate

offender being the “cold, obscure and pretentious” C minor symphony of

Brahms!

 

Tschaikowsky was probably sincere when he described his own ballet as

“poor stuff” compared with Delibes’. That was in 1877. Performances of

_Swan Lake_ at the Bolshoi Theater had been flat, shabby, and badly

costumed. A conductor inexperienced with elaborate ballet scores had

directed. Modeste Tschaikowsky, in the biography of his brother,

testifies to this. Numbers were omitted as “undanceable,” and pieces

from other ballets substituted. At length only a third of the original

remained, and not the best. The ballet dropped out of the Moscow

repertory, and it was not until 1894 that the enterprising Marius

Petipa wrote to Moscow for the full score and produced _Swan Lake_

with brilliant success at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg,

on January 15, 1895. It has since remained a repertory staple, both

the current Ballets Russes and the Ballet Theatre having staged it

successfully. Pavlova, Karsavina, and Markova, among others, have

interpreted the heroine Odette, and Prince Siegfried has been embodied

by Nijinsky, Lifar, Mordkin, and Dolin. _Swan Lake_ was one of the

first ballets witnessed in his youth by Serge Diaghileff, founder of

the famous Ballets Russes.

 

Tschaikowsky first refers to _Swan Lake_ in a letter to

Rimsky-Korsakoff, dated September 10, 1875: “I accepted the work partly

because I need the money and because I have long cherished a desire to

try my hand at this type of music.” V. P. Begitche, stage manager of

the Bolshoi, offered 800 roubles (less than $500) and in turn granted

Tschaikowsky’s request for a story from the Age of Chivalry, making

the sketch himself. Tschaikowsky set to work in August, 1875, and had

the first two acts planned out in a fortnight, but the score was not

completed till the following March and for some reason held up for

performance until February, 1877.

 

The story, possibly of Rhenish origin, tells how Prince Siegfried woos

and wins Odette, the Swan Queen. At a celebration the prince is told

he must soon choose a bride. A flight of swans overhead distracts him

and a hunt is proposed. Siegfried and the hunters are at the lake-side.

It is evening. Odette appears surrounded by a bevy of swan-maidens.

She begs the hunters to spare the swans. They are maidens under the

spell of the enchanter Rotbart. Swans by day, they return briefly to

human form at midnight. The prince and Odette fall in love. Siegfried

swears she will be his wife. Odette cautions him about Rotbart’s evil

power. Breach of promise will mean her death. Rotbart brings his own

daughter to the court ball, disguised as Odette. Siegfried makes the

false choice of bride, and the pledge is broken. Discovering Rotbart’s

ruse, he hastens to Odette, who at first rebuffs him. Siegfried

blames Rotbart and Odette relents. At length Rotbart whips up a storm