6th Symphony (Tchaikovsky)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The . Symphony No. 6 "Pathétique" in B minor (op. 74) is the last work of Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky ; it became on October 16th Jul. / October 28, 1893 greg. premiered under his own direction in St. Petersburg, nine days before his death.

The slow final movement, which is unusual for symphonies and whose end is reminiscent of a requiem, is characteristic. Tchaikovsky considered the symphony to be his most personal and important composition. The premiere was received cautiously. Tchaikovsky did not live to see the symphony's later triumphant advance.

Emergence

Two years after the premiere of his Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, Tchaikovsky planned, as he wrote to his friend the Grand Duke Constantine , "to write a grandiose symphony that will form the keystone of my entire creative output ." After several attempts, the planned symphony took shape in 1893.

Tchaikovsky took essential parts of the program from the draft of a symphony in E flat major from 1892, ranging from “swing, confidence, urge to act” in the first movement to “death”, the “result of destruction” (the symphony draft , which had been rejected, gave way with a confident one Finals from this program onwards); it further provided: “The second sentence is love; the third disappointment; the fourth ends with dying. ”The new symphony was originally also to be called a program symphony .

After a concert tour in 1893, he sketched the work in Klin within twelve days. As Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother Modest , this time the orchestration was more difficult than usual, but it was finally completed after four weeks. During his honorary doctorate at King's College at the University of Cambridge , Tchaikovsky was able to tell the conductor Walter Damrosch the completion of his new symphony and pointed out how it differs from his other symphonies: “The last movement is an adagio, and the entire work has one Program « .

Yuri Dawydow, the youngest nephew of the composer, reports on the moving effect of the symphony at the dress rehearsal on the participating musicians and Tchaikovsky's friends such as the conductor Eduard Naprawnik and the composer Alexander Glasunow . Grand Duke Konstantin even said to Tchaikovsky: “What have you done ?! That's a requiem, a real requiem! « . Tchaikovsky declined the Grand Duke's suggestion to set the Requiem poem by the Russian poet Alexei Apuchtin, who died on August 17, 1893, to music on the grounds that he would run too much risk of repeating himself and added that he “In this Symphony " his " set "whole soul was.

Tchaikovsky dedicated his 6th symphony to his nephew Vladimir Davydov and wrote to him that their "program should remain a mystery for everyone" , describing it as "thoroughly subjective" . Since the program was supposed to remain a secret, he no longer liked the epithet program symphony, and so the day after the premiere he reacted enthusiastically to Modest's suggestion to name the symphony "Pathetic".

Orchestral line-up

3 flutes (III. Also piccolo ), 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons - 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba - timpani , bass drum , cymbals , tam-tam - strings

To the music

  1. Movement: Adagio - Allegro non troppo - Andante - Moderato mosso - Andante - Moderato assai - Allegro vivo - Andante come prima - Andante mosso
  2. Movement: Allegro con grazia
  3. Movement: Allegro molto vivace
  4. Movement: Finale. Adagio lamentoso - Andante

In his letter to his nephew Vladimir Davydov, Tchaikovsky not only speaks about the program of his last symphony, but also announces: »In terms of form, this symphony will offer a lot of new things. be a very long adagio. "

A performance of the symphony lasts about 50 minutes, of which the first movement is about 20 minutes, the second and third movement each about 8 minutes and the last movement about 13 to 14 minutes.

First sentence

Score example 1
Score example 2
Score example 3

The movement begins with a gloomy Adagio introduction (bars 1–18), beginning on the subdominant in E minor. At the beginning, the solo bassoon exposes a motif in the lower register (see sheet music example 1) of the later main theme of the sonata Allegro (see sheet music example 2). The lower of the divided double basses play a chromaticism falling from E to B. The main theme is presented by the split violas, developed with the help of a saltando motif (saltando (Italian) = jumping) and finally led to a climax with fanfares from the brass. After a short transition, the secondary theme sounds in D major (see note example 3). The Saltando motif of the main theme is used in the side set. The exposition (bars 19–160) fades away in the fivefold piano of the bassoon (this point is more often taken over by the bass clarinet in practice). The development (bars 161–304) begins with a sudden blow to the tutti. First she brings an excited fugato on the main theme, then a quote from the Russian funeral mass. The return to the recapitulation (bars 305–334) is via an organ point (f sharp) from the timpani and double basses. The recapitulation dispenses with the main theme; the subordinate topic is brought forward immediately. The chorale-like coda with the sounds of a funeral march (bars 335–345) lets the movement end calmly in B major.

Second sentence

Score example 4
  • D major, 5/4 time, three-part form

The waltz-like second movement, which is in the 5/4 time customary in Russian folk music, promises some relaxation from the lamentation of the first movement (see note example 4) .

Third sentence

Score example 5
  • G major, 12/8 or 4/4 time, Scherzo form

The third movement goes beyond a classic Scherzo : in the restless wandering of the woodwinds , one instrument after the other plays a marching motif until this is finally expanded into the theme by the clarinet (see sheet music example 5) . After a few vigorous repetitions, the march brings this movement to a powerful end. It should not be a coincidence that the movement, with its stormy character with restless strings, wind-like whistling woodwinds and thundering brass instruments, is reminiscent of the finale from Joachim Raff's Symphony No. 3 "Im Walde" ; The symphony was one of the most played of its time and Tchaikovsky had already been inspired by Raff in his 5th symphony.

Fourth sentence

Score example 6
Score example 7
  • B minor, 3/4 time, three-part form

At the time the symphony was written it was undoubtedly daring to add a slow movement to the end of a multi-movement concert work. As an even earlier comparable example, the slow coda of the fast finale of the so-called " Farewell Symphony " by Joseph Haydn should be mentioned . The strings intone a falling motif of sighs (see note example 6) , which is contrasted with an Andante theme in the middle section (see note example 7) . The recapitulation of the first section ends in the coda, which is opened by a piano tam-tam beat. This is followed by a brass chorale and a minor variation of the Andante theme from the middle section. The symphony ends in a B minor chord of the low strings.

The Tchaikovsky admirer Gustav Mahler adopted the idea of ​​a slow final movement in his 3rd and 9th symphonies , albeit not in a minor but in a major .

effect

On October 28, 1893, Tchaikovsky conducted the world premiere of the work in Saint Petersburg , where it was received rather moderately by the public. Tchaikovsky thought it was a shame that he “could not convince neither the orchestra nor the audience that this is my best work” and that he would never be able to write anything better. Just a few days before his death, the composer wrote to his publisher Jürgenson: “Something strange happened to this symphony! Not that she doesn't like her, but that people don't know what to do with her. As for me, I'm more proud of her than of any of my other compositions. « .

On the other hand, his nephew Yuri Davydov reports that the audience reacted to the symphony first with emotion and then with enthusiasm; reports to the contrary by the composer Nikolai Andrejewitsch Rimski-Korsakow, among others, do not correspond to the truth.

After Tchaikovsky's sudden death on October 25th, July / November 6, 1893 greg. Eduard Nápravník performed the work again (the theories about the cause of death range from inadvertent infection with cholera to the condemnation of Tchaikovsky by a "court of honor" for his homosexuality ) . According to Rimsky-Korsakov, "the audience received the work with enthusiasm this time" and "the work's unheard-of victory run through Russia and all of Europe" began .

literature

  • Thomas Kohlhase : PI Tchaikovsky. Symphony No. 6, Mainz 1983.
  • Heinz von Loesch : Tchaikovsky's Pathétique: Life Symphony or Gay Confession? In: Cordula Heymann-Wentzel, Johannes Laas (ed.): Music and biography. Festschrift Rainer Cadenbach for his 60th birthday. Würzburg 2004, pp. 344-351.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Damrosch : My musical life , New York 1923, pp. 144f.
  2. ↑ a b Juri Dawydow: The last days in Tchaikovsky's life after his arrival in Petersburg , in: Ernst Kuhn (Ed.): Tchaikovsky from near. Critical appraisals and memories of contemporaries , Berlin 1994, pp. 242-256
  3. ↑ a b Modest Tchaikovsky: Žizn 'Petra Il'iča Čajkovskago , 3 volumes, Moscow 1900–1902, volume 3, p. 636
  4. ↑ a b Thomas Kohlhase: PI Tschaikowsky. Symphony No. 6 , Mainz 1983, p. 283
  5. ↑ Modest Tschaikowski: Žizn 'Petra Il'iča Čajkovskago , 3 volumes, Moscow 1900–1902, volume 3, pp. 602f.
  6. ^ Thomas Kohlhase: PI Tschaikowsky. Symphony No. 6 , Mainz 1983, pp. 275f.
  7. ^ Herbert Weinstock : Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky , Adliswil 1993, p. 337