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Home , Love and Other Demons, Manfred Symphony, Vladimir Jurowski

Tchaikovsky Complete

Symphony No. 1 in G minor, But his troubles weren’t over yet. Rubinstein was highly critical of the completed score, Op. 13, ‘Winter Daydreams’ and virtually ordered Tchaikovsky to revise it. Even that didn’t please, and only the Tchaikovsky’s First is such an Scherzo was performed – unsuccessfully. endearing, vital, seductively atmospheric More alterations were made then, at last, work that one would imagine it must have in February 1868, the First Symphony been a joy to write. In fact the opposite is had its first full performance in . true: few, if any of his other works caused This time it was a huge success; but Tchaikovsky such protracted pain. He was Tchaikovsky’s self-doubt was not 26 when he began it, having freshly graduated appeased, and it wasn’t until 1874 that from the St Petersburg Conservatoire he at last allowed the further-revised score and walked straight into a job at the newly to be published. created Conservatoire in Moscow. At first things were looking encouraging. His Surprisingly, despite memories of this first orchestral performance (an Overture agonising slow birth, Tchaikovsky always in F major) had been a success, and maintained a special affection for his First his teacher, the pianist and composer Symphony. ‘For all its glaring deficiencies’, Anton Rubinstein, had urged him to write he wrote in 1883, ‘I have a soft spot for it. a symphony. But then came a crushing Although it is immature in many respects review of another work, and Tchaikovsky’s it is essentially better and richer in content confidence plummeted: ‘I spent the entire than many other more mature works.’ day wandering aimlessly about the town’, As so often, he was being harsh: the First he told a friend, ‘repeating to myself “I am Symphony may have its faults, but they sterile, I am a nonentity, nothing will ever are hardly ‘glaring’, and most of the time the come of me, I have no talent”.’ He soldiered freshness of the material fully compensates. on with the new symphony, but his The opening theme ( and determination to keep working through above shimmering ) is a lovely the nights (inevitably resulting in insomnia) inspiration, with an unmistakable Slavic led to a frightening breakdown. accent. From the first there is a strong sense of forward-gliding momentum, In the end, work seems to have saved like the easy movement of a sleigh across Tchaikovsky, and the Symphony was finished smooth snow. Tchaikovsky’s sharp, clear in piano score by the beginning of June 1867. orchestration registers impressions of cold

01 very effectively, while from time to time of Tchaikovsky’s state of mind at the warm string harmonies manage to convey time he wrote it?). But after all his labours, a sense of cosiness and security – this Tchaikovsky is surely entitled to a bit traveller is clearly well wrapped up and of over-the-top celebration. enjoying his ‘winter daydreams’. Programme note © Stephen Johnson The slow movement is still more effective. An eloquent theme for muted strings leads to a long tune, with answering birdcalls Symphony No. 2 in C minor, on flute, unmistakably Russian in so many of its melodic twists and turns. The rest Op. 17, ‘Little Russian’ of the movement is essentially a meditation (daydreams again) on phrases from this Composers often blow hot and cold about tune, with occasional reminiscences of their own music, but few have been subject the flute’s birdsong, all done with much to such extreme mood- and valuation-swings more skill and imagination than Tchaikovsky’s as Tchaikovsky. The Second Symphony later judgement would have us believe. is a case in point. At first his pride in his The return of the opening string theme achievement was immense, clearly boosted at the end is also deftly timed. by the judgements of trusted friends like Nikolay Kondratyev. ‘This work of genius Next comes an agile, lightly dancing (as Kondratyev calls my symphony) is close to Scherzo, with wonderful use of woodwind completion … I think it’s my best composition colours (a very mature Tchaikovskian as regards perfection of form – a quality for touch). Hesitant and basses suggest which I have not always been conspicuous.’ for a moment that the central trio section The positive feedback kept coming. When might be darker-hued, but what actually Tchaikovsky played the finale of the new emerges is a warm, suave waltz theme symphony to his Russian nationalist on violins and cellos. Then, after a sombre colleagues – the so-called ‘Mighty Handful’ slow introduction, the Finale soon sets – at the house of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov off at a more determined pace in the major in November 1872, he was thrilled by their key, with , , and reaction: ‘The whole company nearly tore drum adding their weight to the me to pieces with rapture – and Madame orchestra for the first time. The exuberance Rimsky-Korsakov begged me in tears can sound a little forced (a rare indication to let her arrange it for piano duet.’

02 But as so often with Tchaikovsky, the His musicianship, he realised, was altogether picture changed. When the publisher more cosmopolitan than theirs. Could it be Bessel prevaricated about printing the that the original version of the Symphony score, Tchaikovsky began to see this as was simply tainted by association? a blessing in disguise. Seven years later he set to work on a major revision. The Whatever the cause, we must be grateful original first movement now made him that Tchaikovsky deemed the Symphony shudder with horror: ‘My God, how difficult worth saving. The very first notes make it and noisy and disconnected and obscure clear we are in for something special. From it was!’ Indeed the whole Symphony was an emphatic full-orchestral chord a hushed ‘unlucky’ – Tchaikovsky seems to have horn solo emerges, intoning a soulful theme forgotten that the first public performance – the first of three ideas in this work based in 1873 was so successful that the on Ukrainian folksongs. (In Tchaikovsky’s Symphony had to be repeated two months time the Ukraine was known as ‘Little later! Soon he was threatening to burn ’, hence the Symphony’s nickname.) the first version, and doing his best to This builds to a powerful and dramatic suppress the printed parts. Allegro vivo. But just when it seems that memories of that atmospheric slow Listening to the familiar revised version, introduction are forgotten, the horn cuts in the first-time listener may find Tchaikovsky’s again with its folk-inspired melody, its final radical change of heart baffling. Could the phrase echoed by a lugubrious ‘dying’ low original really be that bad? Granted the bassoon – a typically Tchaikovskian touch. work isn’t quite as ‘perfect’ formally as he originally thought. Certainly the finales Instead of the usual slow movement, of his later symphonies are more subtly Tchaikovsky brings contrast with a sweetly constructed. But the work is so generously innocent march movement, its outer tuneful, so imaginatively scored, and so full sections taken from his rejected of what is obviously mature Tchaikovsky Undine (one of those scores which, alas, that it’s hard to identify any cause for shame Tchaikovsky did manage to destroy). At on his part – however exaggerated. Perhaps its heart a solo introduces another the real problem is that by the time he came Ukrainian folk-based tune, with a deliciously to revise the Second Symphony, light accompaniment on two . The Tchaikovsky had turned his back decisively following Scherzo raises the Symphony on the nationalism of the Mighty Handful. to new imaginative heights: the colours

03 scintillate, the rhythms dance with the darker minor mode for his big symphonic remarkable freedom and flexibility – from utterances; and even in this, the brightest of this movement alone you could probably his symphonies, he feels the need to temper guess that Tchaikovsky was also a great that brightness by setting the middle three ballet composer. The Finale is dominated movements, plus the first movement’s by the Symphony’s third Ukrainian slow introduction, in minor keys. And the folk-based tune (presented by the full five-movement structure is equally unique: orchestra in the brief slow introduction). the ‘extra’ movement is the Alla tedesca – As craftsmanship it may be a lot less refined a lilting symphonic waltz, whose declared than the Scherzo, but it can be tremendous ‘German’ (tedesca) style makes nonsense bracing fun in performance – conjuring up of the Symphony’s still-frequently used the smell of vodka, the twang of balalaikas nickname, ‘Polish’. That name has nothing and the creaking of leather boots. There is to do with Tchaikovsky: it seems to have one darker moment: rasping low woodwind, been invented by the conductor August bass brass and an ominous fortissimo Manns for one of his popular Crystal Palace stroke on a . But the exhilarating concerts. True, the Finale is largely based Presto coda soon dismisses such thoughts, on the rhythm of the ‘polonaise’ or ‘polacca’ and the Symphony ends in wild elation. – a dance strongly associated with Poland at the time, and much favoured by Tchaikovsky. Programme note © Stephen Johnson Otherwise it is hard to identify anything specific to that nation in the Third Symphony. Symphony No. 3 in D major, A possibly more relevant fact is that Tchaikovsky conceived the Symphony Op. 29, ‘Polish’ around the time he was working on his ballet . The balletic character of the In August 1875 Tchaikovsky wrote to the Alla tedesca is clear from the start, and while composer Sergey Taneyev that he had the central Andante elegiaco is more funereal ‘written a symphony. It is in D major and in character, the mysterious string tremolos consists of five movements’. This seemingly near the end of the movement strongly recall bald statement actually identifies two Tchaikovsky’s dramatic use of the same important features that set Tchaikovsky’s device in Swan Lake. And the airborne Third Symphony apart from its fellows. Scherzo that follows is far less remarkable Generally speaking, Tchaikovsky preferred for its ‘symphonic’ development of motifs

04 than for its brilliant use of orchestral colour. Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Particularly striking are the washes of string sound at the heart of the movement Op. 36 Tchaikovsky creates by having the players move their bows rapidly forwards and Tchaikovsky wrote most of his Fourth backwards across their strings. This Symphony in 1877, the year of his greatest too is reminiscent of some of the magical emotional crisis, unresolved and intensified orchestral effects in the ballet score. by his impossible marriage, and culminating in a suicide attempt. In a letter to his Surrounding these three gentle but patroness , which flavoursome movements are two bracing, he was at pains to point out was written extrovert Allegros. The first movement’s after the Symphony, he described the work confident, distinctly Russian-inflected main as dominated by the idea of Fate, which theme is all the more outstanding on its first ‘hangs above your head like the sword of appearance for the way it seems to cast off Damocles, and unwaveringly, constantly the gloom of the slower introduction – as poisons the soul’. though Tchaikovsky, having led us to expect something sombre, suddenly breaks This notion is embodied in the stern fanfares out into a cheery ‘fooled you!’ The first of the introduction to the first movement – movement’s exhilarating momentum is after which the main theme of the ensuing sustained magnificently, with the final Moderato con anima (‘with soul’) depicts build-up particularly well engineered. the resulting ‘cheerless and hopeless feeling’ which ‘grows yet stronger and more On the whole critics have been less kind to the burning’, and the waltz-time second-subject Finale; and it is true that there is something group represents a retreat from reality into slightly academic about the fugue at the centre a world of daydreams. The ‘Fate’ theme of the movement (led off by and recurs three times amidst the mounting second violins). But the themes are catchy excitement of the development section, enough, and the conclusion is suitably roof- and then again after the very free, truncated raising without outstaying its welcome. The recapitulation and in the much faster coda. mature mastery of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth ‘Thus’, in Tchaikovsky’s words, ‘all life is symphonies is only just around the corner. an unbroken alternation of hard reality with swiftly passing dreams and visions Programme note © Stephen Johnson of happiness.’

05 The two middle movements are more and the second for the brass and . straightforward in form and expression. And in a tailpiece to the trio, and again in The description in modo di canzona in the a coda to the whole movement, the three heading of the B flat minor slow movement elements, and their different tempi and indicates a song-like style, exemplified thematic ideas, are ingeniously combined. in the oboe’s first long melody, and also the ‘song form’ of A–B–A – though this is The Finale could be analysed in terms of complicated by the fact that there are two variation and sonata forms, but it is most alternating principal themes in the outer likely to be perceived as a kind of rondo, sections, the second beginning with the in which statements of the brilliant opening opening phrase of the first turned upside- flourish in F major – joined later by a down. Tchaikovsky said that this movement march-like idea in the same key – alternate suggested ‘that melancholy feeling which with a subsidiary theme in various minor comes in the evening when, weary from keys. This subsidiary theme, a Russian your labour, you are sitting alone’, folksong called ‘In the fields there stood reflecting on a host of distant memories: a birch tree’, also forms the basis of two ‘happy moments, when the young blood developmental episodes. The second of boiled, and life was satisfying ... painful these culminates in the return of the ‘Fate’ moments, irreparable losses’. theme from the first movement – after which the two major-key themes return in The Scherzo, the composer went on, reverse order to launch a triumphant coda. ‘expresses no definite feeling’, but ‘is made Tchaikovsky’s programme here speaks up of capricious arabesques, ... fleeting of finding joy amidst the merry-making images’, including ‘a picture of drunken of the people, who ‘have not noticed that peasants and a street song’, and later, you are solitary and sad’. ‘Rejoice in others’ ‘somewhere in the distance, a military rejoicing’, he wrote to Madame von Meck, procession’. But this unusual duple-time but really to himself. ‘To live is still possible!’ movement is chiefly concerned with what Tchaikovsky called in an earlier letter Programme note © Anthony Burton ‘a new instrumental effect of which I have great hopes’. The strings play pizzicato throughout the movement: the scherzo sections are for them alone. The trio is in two sections, the first for woodwind

06 Symphony No. 5 in E minor, theme represents Fate, then this is almost certainly a ‘Love’ theme. Eventually Op. 64 the music grows agitated, and the first movement’s ‘Fate’ theme storms in on Like Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, , bringing the music to a dead stop. the Fifth begins with what is clearly a ‘Fate’ Tentatively at first, the ‘Love’ melody returns motif and which returns to haunt all three (now on violins with oboe countermelody) later movements. After Tchaikovsky’s and the mood grows more ardent – until disastrous attempt to conquer – or at least again Fate intrudes, still more aggressively, conceal – his homosexuality by marrying on trombones. This time there is no return one of his students in 1877, he became of the ‘Love’ theme, but a tender, possibly increasingly convinced that his life was resigned coda. directed by some kind of dark, implacable force. The Fifth’s fateful motto theme The following waltz movement is in striking however enters on low clarinets (a colour contrast. Its elegant, lilting dance tune could Tchaikovsky often used to great effect) have come straight from a ballroom scene in singing a mournful, funereal theme, while one of Tchaikovsky’s or ballets. But low string chords underscore the sense just before the end, Fate returns again, this of heavy, funereal tread. Then the string time quietly on low clarinets and chords set out at a livelier pace, and a new – a dim but ghostly presence amid colourful theme – melancholic but with a new dancing merriment. Then Tchaikovsky begins momentum – emerges on clarinet and his finale by transforming the ‘Fate’ theme bassoon. This Allegro con anima has its into a resolutely major-key march tune. exhilarating highs and stark lows, but the Before long the resolve seems to falter end echoes the beginning: a bassoon subtly and a turbulent Allegro vivace explodes recalls the outline of the original ‘Fate’ onto the scene. theme before descending to a cavernous low B, as timpani and double basses close At length this comes to a big expectant the movement unambiguously in the minor. pause, then the major-key version of the Fate theme marches back in on strings Sombre low string chords begin the slow to launch Tchaikovsky’s most positive movement, but now they climb towards the symphonic conclusion. Eventually the coda light, which dawns fully in a wonderful long races to the finish post with memories of horn melody. If the first movement’s motto the first movement’s dancingAllegro theme

07 shining out on trumpets and horns. Not so that as I was mentally composing it ... every listener finds this final affirmation I frequently shed tears.’ Death was certainly entirely convincing – but that may have been a subject that occupied Tchaikovsky’s mind Tchaikovsky’s point. After all, how often in at this time: although he presumably did life do we experience unequivocal triumph? not foresee his own demise the following autumn – almost certainly by his own hand Programme note © Stephen Johnson – he did lose a number of close friends that year, and an early version of the programme scribbled down in 1892 had borne Symphony No. 6 in B minor, prominently the words ‘life’ and ‘death’. But a more fundamental impetus for the Op. 74, ‘Pathétique’ Sixth Symphony was surely the spectre that had haunted the composer for many In August 1893, as his Sixth Symphony was years: Fate. For Tchaikovsky, this was the nearing completion, Tchaikovsky wrote to implacable power that frustrated all his his nephew, ‘Bob’ Davidov: ‘I can tell you hopes of happiness, and his previous two in all sincerity that I consider this symphony symphonies had both attempted to respond the best thing I have ever done. In any case, to it in some way: the Fourth had confronted it is the most deeply felt. And I love it as I and then tried to brush it aside, while have never loved any of my compositions.’ the Fifth had scored a somewhat hollow- Few would disagree with Tchaikovsky’s sounding victory. The Sixth – subtitled assessment of his last work, a masterpiece by the composer ‘Pathétique’ – finally of frank and disturbing emotion whose gives in to total defeat. effect on the listener is made all the more powerful by the realisation that it reflects the The Sixth Symphony differs from its two composer’s depressive state of mind during predecessors in having no recurring motto his final year. theme; instead, it makes use of a number of themes suggestive of upwards struggle At the time he began work on it in February followed by downward collapse, an outline 1893, he had told Bob that it was ‘a that mirrors the overall course of the programme symphony, but to a programme Symphony. Its presence can be detected that should remain an enigma for everyone in the murky opening of the first movement, but myself: let them try and guess it! ... The and the material of this introduction also theme is full of subjective feeling, so much forms the basis of the main Allegro non

08 troppo section’s restless first theme. in Four A broad and passionate melody follows this, but any hope of consolation is violently Scenes after Byron’s Dramatic shattered by the intervention of the central development section. This climaxes in Poem, Op. 58 (1885) a momentous and grinding downward sequence, and when the second theme Tchaikovsky was a composer who poured re-emerges it is with a bitter irony that borders a great deal of his own emotional life into his on pain. The passion subsides, however, and best works – not least in the last three of the movement closes in a mood of resignation. his numbered symphonies, all of which are animated by unpublished programmes or The second movement promises brighter storylines with an element of autobiography. things, but its waltz-like geniality is And between the Fourth and Fifth came undermined by a five-in-a-bar metre and another, unnumbered Symphony – Manfred a poignant trio and coda. It is followed – based this time on an acknowledged by a brilliant movement in which scurrying literary programme, not even chosen by preparations and fragments of melody lead himself but suggested to him by a colleague, to a seemingly joyful and triumphant march, but nevertheless a work of great expressive but the descending accompaniment reminds power because of the way he could identify us (as do similar figures throughout the so closely with its tortured central figure. work) that the gaiety is forced; happiness is still an illusion. The work’s literary source was ’s poetic drama Manfred, written in the wake In the Finale it disappears forever in a bleak of his flight from England to the Swiss Alps Adagio in which there is only hopelessness following the breakdown of his marriage and dejection. It is a testament of despair and the revelation of his incestuous affair in which optimism can find no place, and with his half-sister Augusta. It had been as the music sinks back into the depths published in 1817, and had created an from which it has struggled to rise, the international sensation lasting many years. final bars of Tchaikovsky’s most personal In 1868, impressed by Berlioz’s Byronic and sincere symphonic statement are symphony Harold in Italy when the soft but devastating. composer himself conducted it in Moscow, the influential Russian critic Programme note © Lindsay Kemp drew up a plan for a similar four-movement

09 programme symphony based on Manfred. But, as David Brown says in his biography He offered it first to the composer Mily of the composer, ‘thankfully, nothing more Balakirev, then to Berlioz himself: both was heard of Tchaikovsky’s destructive declined it. It was not until 1882 that Balakirev intentions towards the last three movements’. resuscitated the plan, adding his own detailed suggestions for key-schemes and musical The first movement of the Symphony treatment, and sent it to Tchaikovsky. introduces the central figure of the poem, A similar collaboration, bizarre though it Manfred, who lives in an alpine castle and may seem, had a dozen years previously recklessly roams the peaks, shunning the resulted in the celebrated Romeo and Juliet company of men and communing with the Overture. But this time Tchaikovsky refused, spirit world, in an attempt to expiate his guilt citing among other reasons his admiration over his illicit love for his sister Astarte. Two for Schumann’s earlier Manfred Overture themes at the very outset suggest his state and incidental music. of mind, the first dark and despondent and dominated by a falling phrase, the second However, two years later he changed his suggesting the weight of his guilt in its mind, prompted by a meeting with Balakirev repeated downward plunges and painful and a visit to Switzerland – and also by ascents: these form the basis of an extended a reading of the drama, in which he must slow section, which culminates in a blazing have recognised affinities between the guilt climax. A more lyrical group of themes in triple felt by Byron’s hero about his incestuous time represents his memories of Astarte; and past and his own feelings of shame about in the final section, markedAndante con duolo his secret homosexuality. Tchaikovsky (‘grief-stricken’), Manfred’s first theme returns, composed the work in just over four months also in triple time, at a peak of intensity. in the spring and summer of 1885, ignoring many of Balakirev’s detailed suggestions The second movement was suggested but nevertheless dedicating the resulting by an episode in the poem in which ‘The work to him. After its first performance, Alpine Fairy appears to Manfred beneath in Moscow in March 1886, he briefly the rainbow of the waterfall’. It is a balletic considered it ‘my best symphonic work’, scherzo of dazzling brilliance, with a more before characteristically turning against it. melodic Trio presumably representing the At one stage, he considered retaining only Fairy’s own song. Manfred’s first theme the first movement, which he thought could reappears in the course of this Trio, and also stand as a separate . towards the end of the reprise of the scherzo.

10 The third movement is a pastorale, Francesca da Rimini, subtitled ‘The simple, free and peaceful life of the mountain folk’. It presents a whole Symphonic Fantasy sequence of picturesque ideas, with the falling phrase from Manfred’s first theme after Dante, Op. 32 and a tolling casting only a momentary shadow over the sunlit landscape. Throughout his life, Tchaikovsky was prone to feelings of guilt and foreboding. The finale, which departs substantially from Arguments have raged about whether Byron’s narrative, depicts a subterranean his homosexuality was wholly or partly bacchanal; the spirit of Astarte appears, the cause of this; but it is almost certain and pardons Manfred for his earthly sins that Tchaikovsky was also bipolar – before his death. The movement begins or, to use the older, more familiar label, with a resolute march, which is then swept manic-depressive. Feelings of guilt, up into a wild dance – in the course of which sometimes inexplicable, and of dread fragments of Manfred’s first theme reappear for some indefinable fate, are common once more. There is a slow interlude, of symptoms of the depressive phase. solemn chords leading to Manfred’s In Tchaikovsky’s case however he was dragging second theme, before the dance able to channel these feelings into some is resumed in fugal texture. Manfred’s first of his most remarkable music, and there theme alternates with fragments of the were times when this may well have dance; after a pause, Astarte’s music from saved his sanity. the first movement returns, even more radiant than before. There is a reprise of the No doubt the presence of such powerful impassioned Andante con duolo statement emotions, so memorably expressed in the of Manfred’s first theme from the first poetry of Dante’s Inferno, was one reason movement, followed by an episode of for Tchaikovsky’s attraction to the subject of gathering speed and excitement, and Francesca da Rimini. In the poem, Francesca’s a solemn conclusion coloured by the punishment for her adulterous affair is to sound of the organ and by repetitions in be blown ceaselessly through dark space the bass of the first phrase of the plainchant by whirlwinds. Almost certainly the theme from the Mass for the Dead. of forbidden love added another strand of fascination for Tchaikovsky, in which case Programme note © Anthony Burton he would have been strongly moved

11 by Dante’s description of his own reaction introduces the love theme – we can imagine to Francesca’s fate: hearing her story from Francesca recalling those lost ‘happy times’. her lips Dante is so struck with compassion But then, inevitably, returns, now that he faints, ‘falling like a corpse to the rising to a devastating conclusion. ground’. Francesca’s narrative begins with one of the most famous remarks in the Programme note © Stephen Johnson whole of Inferno: ‘There is no greater grief than to remember happy times in the midst of misery’ – words Tchaikovsky clearly Serenade for Strings took to heart. in C major, Op. 48 Initially Tchaikovsky thought of turning the story of Francesca into an opera. A libretto The popular image of Tchaikovsky as a was provided for him by the Russian critic and tormented soul, laying bare his neuroses composer Hermann Laroche early in 1876. in music of extreme emotional charge, But for a variety of reasons Tchaikovsky neglects an equally important aspect turned against the idea. When his brother of his creative personality. Tchaikovsky Modest suggested an orchestral work, adored Mozart’s music as the epitome of Tchaikovsky knew he had found the solution, 18th-century poise and elegance, qualities and the resulting ‘Fantasy after Dante’ was that he felt had been overshadowed by composed quickly. Tchaikovsky’s estimation the much more extravagant gestures of his own works often swung as widely as of late 19th-century Romanticism. His love his own moods, but this time his pride in his of Mozartian grace found expression in musical achievement lasted: ‘I wrote it with his own inimitable ballet music, but he love and that lover, it seems, has come out also composed direct tributes to Mozart rather well.’ In fact Francesca da Rimini is in his Fourth Orchestral Suite (Mozartiana) not only one of his most stirring works, but and the Variations on a Rococo Theme for as a whole it reconciles musical form and and orchestra. feeling triumphantly. The grim introduction is compact and tense, leading seamlessly The Serenade for Strings (1880) is another into the music of the whirlwind, which major work in which Tchaikovsky’s deeply gathers momentum, then falls back into the lyrical instinct is perfectly tempered by grim introductory music. Now the storm Classical elegance and restraint. An builds to full fury. As it abates, a solo clarinet expansive, noble introduction eventually

12 subsides, and the Allegro moderato follows anticipate the main theme of the following after a brief pause. The term ‘Sonatina’ Allegro con spirito. Both the theme of the indicates that this is not a fully-fledged introduction and the first theme of theAllegro sonata-form movement complete with con spirito are actual Russian folksongs. a central development section. The only development or elaboration is heard In this exhilarating finale – unlike the first immediately after each theme, the first of movement – Tchaikovsky includes a proper which is yearning in character, the second development section, based on both the delightfully buoyant. The movement ends lively folksong and the contrasting second with a return to the music of the introduction. subject. Towards the end Tchaikovsky recalls the very opening melody of the In the captivating waltz – a dance-form Serenade (now played by the cellos), in which Tchaikovsky has few equals – before neatly demonstrating that its first the scoring is a model of clarity and four notes (C–B–A–G) are closely related effectiveness. One regrets that he wrote to the main theme of the finale. The original nothing else for string orchestra, apart tempo returns for the brilliant conclusion. from a rarely heard Elegy of 1884, although an arrangement for strings of his string Programme note © Philip Borg-Wheeler sextet is another outstanding addition to the repertoire.

Much of the melodic material in the Serenade is uncomplicated. Some of the themes are derived from a mere scale-pattern, as we hear in the opening phrases of the heartfelt Élégie. An eloquent second theme introduced by the first violins is developed towards two impassioned climaxes. Here, however, the near-hysterical intensity of some climaxes in Tchaikovsky’s symphonies is avoided – this is, after all, a Serenade.

The last movement begins with an Andante introduction, the final notes of which

13 © Karen Robinson Vladimir Jurowski He is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in Europe and North America, conductor including the Berlin and New York philharmonic orchestras; the Royal One of today’s most sought-after Concertgebouw Orchestra; The conductors, acclaimed worldwide for ; The Cleveland his incisive musicianship and adventurous Orchestra; the Boston, San Francisco artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski and Chicago symphony orchestras; was born in Moscow and studied at the the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Leipzig Music Academies of Dresden and Berlin. Gewandhausorchester, Mahler Chamber In 1995 he made his international debut Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden at the Wexford Festival and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Rimsky-Korsakov’s , and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera His opera engagements have included House, , with Nabucco. Rigoletto, Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades, Hansel and Gretel and Die Frau ohne Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera, Conductor of the London Philharmonic New York; Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh Orchestra in 2003, becoming Principal National Opera; War and Peace at the Conductor in 2007. He also holds the titles Opéra national de Paris; of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan Age of Enlightenment, Artistic Director and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; of the Russian State Academic Symphony at Orchestra and in 2017 became Chief and and Die Teufel von Loudun Conductor and Artistic Director of the at Semperoper Dresden, and numerous Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. operas at Glyndebourne including Otello, He has previously held the positions of First Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin Don Giovanni, The Cunning Little Vixen, (1997–2001), Principal Guest Conductor of Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03), Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Meistersinger Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian von Nürnberg, which won the 2015 BBC National Orchestra (2005–09), and Music Music Magazine Opera Award. Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–13).

15 London Philharmonic performs at venues around the UK and has made numerous international tours, Orchestra performing to sell-out audiences in America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, The London Philharmonic Orchestra made balancing a long and distinguished history its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just with its present-day position as one of three days after its first public performance. the most dynamic and forward-looking It has recorded and broadcast regularly ever ensembles in the UK. This reputation since, and in 2005 established its own record has been secured by the Orchestra’s label. These recordings are taken mainly performances in the concert hall and from live concerts given by conductors opera house, its many award-winning including LPO Principal Conductors from recordings, trail-blazing international Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti tours and wide-ranging educational work. and Tennstedt, to Masur and Jurowski.

Founded by Sir in 1932, lpo.org.uk the Orchestra has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Sir , , Sir , and . Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor in March 2003, and became Principal Conductor in September 2007.

The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has been Resident Orchestra since 1992, giving around 30 concerts a season. Each summer it takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra

16 © Benjamin Ealovega Design: Ross Shaw