| Serenade for Strings in C, Op.
48 |
||
| 1 | Pezzo in forma di Sonatina - Andante non troppo | 10.10 |
| 2 | Waltz - Moderato Tempo di Valse |
3.53 |
| 3 | Elégie – Larghetto elegiaco | 9.34 |
| 4 | Finale (Tema Russo) – Andante - Allegro con spirito | 7.48 |
Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70 (version for string orchestra) |
||
| 5 | Allegro con spirito | 11.20 |
| 6 | Adagio cantabile e con moto | 10.00 |
| 7 | Allegretto moderato | 6.31 |
| 8 | Allegro vivace | 7.28 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky PTC 5186 009 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
"An artist leads a double life..."
Only a few works from Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s huge oeuvre have gained
general acceptance; however, these are of such an enduring nature that the
Russian is ranked among the great composers in the history of music. The way
the world of music highlights especially his last three symphonies, his Piano
Concerto No. 1, his opera Eugen Onegin and his Rococo Variations is nothing
less than extraordinary. However, in comparison to his entire oeuvre, this
selection can hardly be called representative.
Tchaikovsky’s life alternated between tragedy and happiness. He was
born on May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, and received his first piano lessons
from his mother at the tender age of five. Even as a child, he was prone to
psychosomatic attacks and depressions, which he attempted to combat by composing
brilliant pieces on the piano. His parents established the family home in
St. Petersburg in 1852, after moving house a number of times. During the following
10 years, Tchaikovsky read law, found employment as a civil servant, travelled
throughout Europe as an interpreter and, on the whole, led a carefree and
joyous life. He was only sporadically interested in music: his sole artistic
activities consisted of evenings spent at the opera or at concerts, and irregular
piano lessons.
In 1862 came the radical turnabout: Tchaikovsky resigned from his position
as a civil servant and enrolled at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire to study
composition under Anton Rubinstein and Nikolai Zaremba. In 1866 he began teaching
composition at the Moscow Conservatoire, where he remained for 12 years. It
was during this intensive and especially productive period of composition
that he wrote his first great works. However, his productivity was overshadowed
by major problems: in order to counterbalance rumours concerning his homosexuality,
Tchaikovsky rushed into marriage with one of his students. This resulted in
chaos, inner despair and, finally, a suicide attempt.
Only after he came into contact with the well-to-do Nadezhda von Meck, did
Tchaikovsky begin to find some peace in his troubled life. The generous annual
income she fixed on him made it possible for him to give up his position at
the Conservatoire and to work independently as a composer from 1878 onwards.
Their relationship continued for 13 years, without the composer and his patroness
ever actually meeting. More than 1200 letters bear witness to what was probably
the most unusual relationship in the history of music. This ended abruptly
in 1890, when Frau von Meck discontinued the correspondence. Tchaikovsky was
deeply hurt by this and his inner loneliness gained the upper hand, never
more to relinquish its hold. Not even his triumphant successes as a conductor
were able to diminish his melancholy. Tchaikovsky died in 1893 – supposedly
from cholera. However, rumours concerning suicide or even murder by poison
still abound to this day. This opened the way to a romanticised approach to
his musical oeuvre, in which the works were considered only as psychological
mirrors, dramas full of weltschmerz and portrayals of the Russian soul. Tchaikovsky
was always vehemently opposed to this view: "An artist leads a double
life; both that of an ordinary man and that of an artist. [...] He who believes
that the creative artist is capable of expressing in his art what he feels
in the heat of the moment, is deeply wrong."
Tchaikovsky wrote his Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48 between September
21 and November 4, 1880, during an unusual phase of relaxation. He had spent
a great deal of time that year studying Mozart’s work. The following
lines to Nadezhda von Meck witness the joy with which he composed the Serenade:
"I wrote as if possessed. This work comes straight from the heart and
is not without artistic value, if I dare say so myself." The work is
not typical of Tchaikovsky: a lot could, in fact, have been written by a German
or French composer, but the specifically Russian part can be found in the
Finale. The first movement in sonatina form (fast - slow - fast - slow) demonstrates
the intensity with which Tchaikovsky had been studying Mozart. As far as its
springy elegance is concerned, the second movement would not be out of place
among Tchaikovsky’s ballet compositions. In its melancholy, the Elegy
offers a strong contrast to the other movements. In the two-part Finale, Tchaikovsky
assimilates two folk songs – one with a melancholy, the other with a
vigorous character. Before the final stretta, the venerable introduction to
the first movement reappears one last time and thus staples the composition
together.
About 10 years later – from June 24 to August 1890 –Tchaikovsky
wrote his String Sextet in D minor, Op. 70, entitled "Souvenir de Florence",
which he dedicated to Nadezhda von Meck. The four-movement work has been recorded
here in an arrangement for chamber orchestra. In its intensity of expression,
clearly defined melodies and brilliant, chamber-music-like development, this
"Souvenir of Florence" is in no way a veiled reference to programme
music, but much more an example of absolute music in its purest form. The
merry Allegro con spirito is based on two thematic ideas: the dance-like,
yet melancholy main theme, and the wistful second theme. In the second movement,
Adagio cantabile e con moto, the violin melody with pizzicato accompaniment
is evocative of a serenade, which is then interrupted by a short and secretive
Intermezzo, before recommencing. After the third movement, Allegretto moderato,
which is full of colourful Russian themes, Tchaikovsky once again pulls out
his bag of chamber-music ‘tricks’ in the Allegro vivace finale.
A lively dance theme determines the character of the movement, in which transparent
and orchestral passages balance one another, until the composition comes to
an end in a fiery Brio.
Franz Steiger / English translation: Fiona J. Gale
