ERIC HARRISON, HOST:
Good afternoon and thanks for tuning in to Little Rock Public Radio and Classical
KLRE-FM, 90.5. I'm Eric Harrison, I write about arts and culture at the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette and I'll be your host for the next two hours.
You're listening to "Major and Minor Masterpieces," where we focus each week on a
broad range of classical music, from chamber music to choral works to full symphonies
and maybe even a touch or two of opera.
Today's focus is early orchestral masterworks by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Tchaikovsky wrote six symphonies that he labeled as such, plus an extended poem he
titled "Manfred Symphony," which you heard in an earlier episode of this show, and a
so-called Seventh Symphony that Tchaikovsky started after he completed his fifth.
Tchaikovsky composed his first two symphonies quite early in his musical career,
starting the first in March of 1866 while a young professor at the Moscow Conservatory.
He spent more than a year slaving over it and was still making further revisions in 1874.
Despite the pains of its creation, Tchaikovsky reportedly maintained a special fondness
for the work, regarding it as "a sin of my sweet youth." He gave it the title "Winter
Daydreams" (sometimes translated as just "Winter Dreams") and gave atmospheric
titles for the first two movements as well: the first he called "Daydreams of a Winter
Journey" and the second "Land of Gloom, Land of Mist." The third movement is a
playful scherzo; the fourth he wrapped around a variant of the Russian folk song "I will
plant, young one."
Eugene Ormandy conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.
1 in g minor, op.13, on a remastered 1976 RCA Red Seal recording.
(PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY'S SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN G MINOR, OP. 13, "WINTER
DAYDREAMS")
ERIC: Eugene Ormandy conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in a 1976 recording of
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, "Winter Daydreams," on today's edition of
Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio and classical KLRE-FM,
90.5.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
---PROGRAM BREAK---
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
Tchaikovsky composed his Violin Concerto in just a month during a stay in Switzerland
in 1878, in collaboration with a young violinist in his circle named Josef Kotek. Kotek
quickly cooled toward the work, however, and because Tchaikovsky felt the need to
have a famous name on the work's title page to guarantee performances in Western
Europe and America, he dedicated it to Hungarian violinist Leopold Auer.
Auer, however, declared the work too long and the solo part unplayable, and Russian-
born violinist Adolf Brodsky eventually premiered it in Vienna. It was not initially well
received. Noted critic Eduard Hanslick, for example, in his review of the first
performance acerbically stated it "stank to the ear."
The concerto has nonetheless found its place in the pantheon of great violin concertos
and is a staple of just about every violinist's repertoire.
Let's hear a recent Decca recording with violinist Mariko Senju and the Japan
Philharmonic Orchestra, with Chikara Iwamura on the podium, performing
Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, op.35.
(PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY'S VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR, OP. 35)
ERIC: That was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, performed by violinist Mariko
Senju and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, with Chikara Iwamura conducting.
Tchaikovsky's second symphony bears the now-unfortunate nickname "Little Russian"
("Malorossiskaya"), which was bestowed upon it, not by the composer, but by critic
Nikolai Kashkin, three years after Tchaikovsky's death. It derives from Tchaikovsky's
use of Ukrainian folk tunes throughout the piece and in particular, in the final movement,
variations on the Ukrainian folk song "The Crane."
Though it makes Ukrainians bridle to this day as a source of shame and
embarrassment, Russians in the late 19th century called Ukraine "Malayas Rosa," or
"Little Russia." At the time, the tsarist government, afraid of a Ukrainian nationalist
movement, enacted severe anti-Ukrainian language policies and actually banned the
use of "Ukraina" and "Ukrainian" between 1863 and 1905. Please feel free to label the
symphony "Ukrainian" if you prefer.
Unlike Tchaikovsky's first symphony, which had a rocky road from composition to
approval, the second was an unqualified success from its first, private performance on
the piano in December 1872 in the St. Petersburg home of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Tchaikovsky, however, remained unsatisfied and decided in 1879 to give it a major
revision.
That's the version you will hear today. Neeme Järvi conducts the Gothenburg
Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in c minor, op.17.
(PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY'S SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN C MINOR, OP. 17, "LITTLE
RUSSIAN")
ERIC: Neeme Järvi conducted the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in c minor, op.17, unfortunately known as "the Little
Russian," on today's edition of Major and Minor Masterpieces.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOJCIECH "BOITEG" CIESLIŃSKI'S "FIRST VIOLIN")
Thanks for tuning in this week. I've been your host, Eric Harrison, of the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette. Our producer is Sarah Buford. Our transition and credit music is by
our friend Wojciech Chiselinski.
Tune in again next week for Major and Minor Masterpieces on Little Rock Public Radio
and classical KLRE-FM, 90.5.
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The recordings:
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 in g minor, op.13, "Winter Dreams," Philadelphia
Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, 12 CD set. Eugene Ormandy conducts Tchaikovsky, RCA
Red Seal, 88883737162 1976 recording, remastered 2003
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, op.35, Mariko Senju violin, Japan
Philharmonic Orchestra, Chikara Iwamura conducting. Decca 4878008
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 & Overtures, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme
Järvi, BIS BISSACD1418