Orchestral Suite No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed his Orchestral Suite No. 1 in D minor, Op. 43 between 1878 and 1879. It was premiered on December 20, 1879 at a Russian Musical Society concert in Moscow, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein. The piece is dedicated to Tchaikovsky's patroness, Nadezhda von Meck.
Structure
The suite is written in six movements.
- Introduzione e fuga: Andante sostenuto—Moderato e con anima
- Diertimento: Allegro moderato
- Intermezzo: Andantino semplice
- Marche miniature: Moderato con moto
- Scherzo: Allegro con moto
- Gavotte: Allegro
Instrumentation
Woodwinds
- Piccolo
- 3 Flutes
- 2 Oboes
- 2 Clarinets (B-flat and A)
- 2 Bassoons
Brass
- 4 Horns in F
- 2 Trumpets (D and F)
Percussion
- Timpani
- Triangle
- Glockenspiel
Strings
- Violins
- Violas
- Cellos
- Double basses.
Overview
By the summer of 1878, Tchaikovsky was incapable of summoning the intense emotional resources he had unleashed musically the previous year in the Fourth Symphony. Because of this, he decided he needed a sabbatical from symphonic music. However, in foregoing the composition of emotionally heavy music, he did not wish to negate his personality as much as he had in writing the Variations on a Rococo Theme. Instead, he decided to achieve the same classical polish and poise he had displayed in the Rococo Variations within his own compositional idiom.[1]
Few of Tchaikovsky's compositions are as far removed from the idea of the composer as musical confessor as the orchestral suites would become, yet they would remain entirely true to the pre-Romantic ideal he wished to summon. They were an outgrowth of a trend beginning in Germany following the rediscovering of Bach's orchestral suites, and he valued the genre for formal freedom as well as its unrestricted musical fantasy.[2] They would give the composer free rein to his penchant for short genre pieces and orchestration. Brahms would happily find a similar outlket in his serenades, providing him with a medium in which to compose pure orchestral music more relaxed than had previously been possible in the post-Beethoven symphony.[3]
Tchaikoovsky's First Suite would be rooted in the world of the ballet divertissement. To insure that the piee did not come across as too light in tone or frivolous, the composer affordd himself some highmindedness with the opening introduction and fugue. While Tchaikovsky had previousl written extended fugato sections, he had written only one full-blown fugue in his compositions since leaving the St. Petersburg Conservatory, in his Op. 21 piano pieces.[4]
According to an August 1878 letter to von Meck, Tchaikovsky originally planned the suite to be in five moements:
- Introduzione e fuga
- Scherzo
- Andante melanconico
- Intermezzo: March of the Liliputians
- Rondo: Dance of the Giants
The scherzo was the germ for the whole composition; it was after plunging headlong into writing it that "there arose in my head an array of orchestral pieces which would generate a Suite in the manner of Lachner."[5]. Complications arose when, once in Florence, Italy and anxious to continue the suite, Tchaikovsky realized the manuscripts for the three movements he had already finished were in his luggage, which had not arrived. He composed the final two movements he had planned while awaiting the luggage. The manuscripts were not among the lugage and were never found. Tchaikovsky completed the suite in April 1879[6]
Complicating matters was tht in August 1879, after Jurenson had already started engraving the printing plates for the suite. Tchaikovsky realized all the movements were in duple meter—in other words, two beats per measure. He quickly penned a Divertimento in triple meter, which he called a minuet but is actually a waltz, to break up this potential metric monotony. Tchaikovsky suggested replacing the March with the Divertimento. Jurgenson liked the March and suggested letting the suite expand to six movemnet. Six movements, to Tchaikovsky, were too many. He suggested that Sergei Taneyev be asked his opinion of the March. If Taneyev thought it worthwhile, then Tchaikovsky wanted to drop the Andante and reorder the movements as Introduction and Fugue, Divertimento, Scherzo, March, Gavotte. The Andante's case was then pleaded to the composer. By the time Rubinstein conducted the premiere, the order of the six movements was the one finally established.[7]
Selected Recordings
- Antal Dorati conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra
- Neeme Jarvi conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
- Dmitri Mitropoulos conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (one movement cut)
- Stefan Sanderling conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland
Bibliography
- Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Years of Wandering (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986)
- Maes, Francis, tr. Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of Ca.ilfornia Press, 2002). ISBN 0-520-21815-9.
- Warrack, John, Tchaikovsky (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973)
- Yoffe, Elkhonon, Notes for Chandos 9587, Tchaikovsky: Suite No. 1; The Storm; Fatum; the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi.