PROGRAM NOTES by Phillip Huscher

Piotr Tchaikovsky Born May 7, 1840, Votkinsk, Russia. Died November 6, 1893, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The Storm, Op. 76

Tchaikovsky composed The Storm during the summer of 1864. It was not performed during the composer’s lifetime. The first performance was given on March 7, 1896, in Saint Petersburg, conducted by Alexander Glazunov. The score calls for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, side drum, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam, harp, and strings. Performance time is approximately eleven minutes.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has performed Tchaikovsky’s The Storm on subscription concerts only once previously, on October 20 and 21, 1899, at the Auditorium Theatre with Theodore Thomas conducting.

In the winter of 1866 and 1867, Tchaikovsky began to attend meetings of the so-called Artistic Circle that had been established a year earlier by Nikolai Rubinstein, pianist and founder of the Moscow Conservatory, and the celebrated playwright Alexander Ostrovsky, who had laid the foundations for realistic Russian drama. It was during these cold winter nights that Tchaikovsky developed a life-long passion for playing cards and became friends with Ostrovsky. Two years earlier, while he was studying at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory—and before he moved in such illustrious circles—Tchaikovsky had written an overture inspired by Ostrovsky’s most famous play, Groza (The storm). It is the only one of his student compositions that is still played today, although, even so, it is a rare visitor in concert halls (the Chicago Symphony has played The Storm just once before—in October 1899).

At first, Tchaikovsky had wanted to write an opera based on The Storm, but instead settled (no doubt wisely, given his inexperience writing for the stage) on writing an operatic overture instead—a summer assignment from his Saint Petersburg composition teacher, Anton Rubinstein (Nikolai’s brother). After sketching a narrative based on Ostrovsky’s play, he composed the music during the summer of 1864, while staying at the estate of Alexei Golitsïn. He asked his fellow student, Herman Laroche, who would eventually become the first critic to champion Tchaikovsky’s music, to turn the score over to Rubinstein. Rubinstein was brutal in his assessment—no doubt largely because this was the first piece in which Tchaikovsky triumphed over his conservatory training, began to put his influences behind him, and spoke with a voice all his own.

Ostrovsky's 1859 play, The Storm, set in a Russian provincial town, centers on the tragedy of the young woman Katerina, who confesses her infidelity to her husband during a terrifying storm and later drowns herself in the Volga. Tchaikovsky’s overture suggests key elements of the drama, including Katerina’s yearning for happiness and love, her spiritual struggle, and intimations of the storm itself—all providing a highly effective curtain-raiser for the opera Tchaikovsky didn’t write. Although Tchaikovsky eventually did prove himself a born opera composer, he never did tackle The Storm, leaving that project to Leos Janácek, whose Kat’a Kabanová (Lyric Opera staged it this season), is based on the great Ostrovsky play.

Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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