3rd piano concerto (Tchaikovsky)

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The Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major op.posth. Is a posthumous piano concerto by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed in 1893 , which, due to the peculiarity of its story, was published in two separate works, namely the Allegro Brillante op.75 and the Andante & Finale op. 79 .

History of origin

As early as October 1889, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was thinking of writing a new symphony . According to his work diary, he was planning a concertante work in E flat major with a secret program from the spring of 1891 at the latest : Under the motto “Why and what for?” Three movements should deal with youth, love and the final answer to the question. This first became a symphony in E flat major (1892) with the title "Life". A number of the sketches that have survived date from April to June 1891. On May 27th July. / June 8, 1892 greg. Tchaikovsky began the short score of the first movement, andante and finale, which was released on October 23rd . / November 4, 1892 greg. ended. This was followed by the instrumentation of the first movement; the score, however, breaks off after 33 pages approximately in the middle after 248 bars. The planned scherzo survived in the form of the “Scherzo fantasie” op. 72/10, ie the tenth of the 18 piano pieces op. 72 sketched in December 1891 and January 1892 (completed in summer 1893). But in December 1892 Tchaikovsky decided to give up the symphony that was in the making and to rework it into a piano concerto. At the same time he began to collect ideas for a new symphony, which would later become the 6th Symphony in B minor, Op. 74 “ Pathétique ”, apparently using the ideas of 1891 as a basis.

The Piano Concerto in E flat major was written practically parallel to the “ Pathetique ”: The new symphony was played between February 4th, July. / February 16, 1893 greg. and March 24th jul. / April 5, 1893 greg. outlined (order of the movements in the composition: I, III, IV, II), from July 20 jul. / August 1, 1893 greg. until August 19th jul. / August 31, 1893 greg. instrumented. In between, Tchaikovsky composed the concerto, which he also tackled in February, and its complete, three-movement excerpt for two pianos (including numerous instrumentation notes) until July 10th . / July 22, 1893 greg. ended. The composer's correspondence shows that as early as February 1893 he was apparently thinking of dedicating the “ Pathetique ” to his “last great love”, i.e. his nephew Vladimir Dawidow, who was then 21 years old (letter to “Bob” Dawidow dated 11. February July / 23 February 1893 greg. ). The title “ Simphonie Pathetique ” (original spelling of the MS not French) appeared on the title page of the manuscript as early as July 1893; According to the source research of the Tchaikovsky Complete Edition (this is the original spelling of this institution), the title actually comes from the composer and not from his brother Modest, as he claimed in his memoirs. The aforementioned letter explicitly describes the symphony as a “program symphony” with which the composer, who for a while even considered this as a title, wanted to create “a riddle for everyone”.

Apparently Tchaikovsky transferred his dramaturgical ideas from February 1891, originally intended for the discarded E-flat major symphony, to the “ Pathétique ”, but the structure of this work with its tragic finale is not explained solely by the fact that the 1891 in particular explicitly mentioned victorious answer to the question of "why" is missing. In 1998, the musicologist Eckhardt van den Hoogen put forward the thesis in his booklet for the first complete recording of the third piano concerto by Andrej Hoteev that symphony and concerto are similar to the Symphonie Fantastique op.14 and Lélio ou Le retour à la vie op. 14b by Hector Berlioz , was planned as a two-part double program, with the piano concerto following the symphony and delivering the still outstanding, affirmative “answer” and “return to life”. Immediately after the symphony was finished, Tchaikovsky worked out the score for the first movement of the piano concerto, which was to be released on October 4th . / October 16, 1893 greg. ended. However, he did not get to the instrumentation of the second and third movements. At the world premiere of “ Pathetique ” on October 16, Jul. / October 28, 1893 greg. played in the second part, among other things, the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor . On October 25th, Jul. / November 6, 1893 greg. Tchaikovsky died. He could no longer make any decisions regarding the piano concerto in E flat major.

Tradition and reception

The circumstances surrounding the transmission of the third piano concerto have prevented the work in the form intended by the composer from becoming known and accepted. After Tchaikovsky's unexpected death as a result of a cholera infection with subsequent uremia , the descendants asked themselves how to deal with the unfinished piano concerto. Sergei Taneyev had already got to know the work in September 1893 from the piano manuscript. He also played on September 18th Jul. / September 30, 1893 greg. with Lew Konjus his own four-hand arrangement of the " Pathetique ", which was also published by Tchaikovsky's publisher Jurgenson in November 1893 . Taneyev had already made numerous changes here, especially with regard to tempos and dynamics. After Tchaikovsky's death, he acted as an advisor to his heir, his brother Modest Tchaikovsky , on matters relating to the musical estate. Taneyev was of the opinion that the concert as a whole was far too long, the second and third movements completely unsuccessful. Arbitrarily, he decided to publish the first movement of the concert, the “ Allegro Brillante ” , which Tchaikovsky himself had orchestrated , as an independent concert movement with Jurgenson, again making numerous changes and adding idiosyncratic metronome markings. In December 1894, the movement appeared misleadingly as “Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major” op. 75 by Jurgenson. There was no reference to the completely composed second and third movements that existed in the original piano reduction. Modest then confronted him. Eventually Taneyev felt compelled to initiate the publication of the Andante and Finale . However, he instigated an intrigue that is still effective today in order to preserve his view of the work (namely the sole validity of the first movement). On April 27th July / May 9, 1896 greg. he asked the publisher Belayev in a letter: "What do we do with the second and third movements of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, when the first movement has already been published by Jurgenson?" So it came about that he finally did Andante and Finale on behalf of Belayev orchestrated, but published separately under the misleading opus number 79, where the score finally appeared in 1897.

The fraudulent labeling lasted 100 years - until the rediscovery and first recording of the entire third piano concerto in E flat major op. Posth. By Andrej Hoteev in 1997. But to this day, this connection is not shown in most current lexicons and is in the Experts generally misunderstood. The available score editions of op. 75 and op. 79 still do not refer to these relationships in detail. In a short note of the score for op. 79 it is correct, but misleading: “Tchaikovsky's Andante and Finale consists of two movements from a planned symphony (1892), which he himself reworked for piano and orchestra. The manuscript from Tchaikovsky's estate was orchestrated by Sergei Taneyev. ”(The spelling of the name is quoted after the foreword) The Russian musicologist and composer Semjon Bogatyrjew , who undertook between 1950 and 1955, made the abandoned Es- Major symphony based on the drafts he discovered in the Tchaikovsky Museum Klin as well as the published op. 72, 75 and 79 to complete and orchestrate. This work was called the symphony “No. 7 “E flat major op. Published posth. And best known for a 1962 record recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy . To this day, it is occasionally performed and recorded in this form. Bogatyrjew must have noticed the connection between op. 75 and 79, but the reconstruction of a Tchaikovsky symphony, even if the composer had rejected it, undoubtedly seemed more valuable and lucrative than a first complete edition of the three-movement concerto in E flat major. However, if one compares this score, which is still available today from the music publisher Sikorski, with the instrumentation of Andante and Finale by Taneyev, it can be noted that Taneyev must have devoted himself to the orchestration in an extremely listless manner: Both movements are far more effective in the orchestration of Bogatyrjew. Just compare the glaring majestoso ending of the finale in Taneyev, in which the melody is only played by two trumpets and accompanied by a lot of drums, with the more sonorous version by Bogatyrjew (melody in octaves in trumpet and trombone). A new publication of the entire piano concerto in the new Tchaikovsky Urtext edition would be desirable, as would a new instrumentation of Andante and Finale based on Tchaikovsky's original piano reduction.

Main sources

  • Manuscript of the three movements completed on July 10, 1893 in an excerpt for two pianos (1st = solo part, 2nd = orchestral part; 270 pages), today in the Čajkovskij-Archiv, Klin.
  • Manuscript of the score of the 1st movement completed on October 4, 1893, today in the Glinka Museum Moscow .

First publications

  • 1st movement: Score, published as “Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major” op. 75 by Jurgenson, December 1894
  • 2nd and 3rd movements: Piano reduction by Tchaikovsky, published by Belajew, 1896
  • 2nd and 3rd movements: Instrumentation by Sergej Taneyev, published as “Andante und Finale” op. 79 by Belajew, 1897

Study scores

  • “Allegro brilliant op. 75 from Piano Concerto No. 3 ", Belwin & Mills / Kalmus Miniature Scores No. 593 (reprint of the first edition)
  • Andante and Finale op. 79, MP Belajew, Frankfurt, Bel. No. 386
  • Symphony No. 7 in E flat major, completed by Semjon Bogatyrjew, music publishers Hans Sikorski, study score No. HS 2328

Discography

  • Piano concerto in E flat major op. Posth., Completed. Taneyev
  • Symphony "No. 7 “E flat major, based on the drafts by Semjon Bogatyrjew. The London Philharmonic, Neeme Järvi, CD Chandos CHAN 9130

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. discography