Čajkovskij Pëtr Ilʹič - Experiencing Tchaikovsky : a listeners companion

Titles in The Listeners Companion provide readers with a deeper understanding of key musical genres and the work of major artists and composers. Aimed at nonspecialists, each volume explains in clear and accessible language how to listen to works from particular artists, composers, and genres. Looking at both the context in which the music first appeared and has since been heard, authors explore with readers the environments in which key musical works were written and performed.

Experiencing Jazz: A Listeners Companion, by Michael Stephans

Experiencing Led Zeppelin: A Listeners Companion, by Gregg Akkerman

Experiencing Leonard Bernstein: A Listeners Companion, by Kenneth LaFave

Experiencing Mozart: A Listeners Companion, by David Schroeder

Experiencing Rush: A Listeners Companion, by Durrell Bowman

Experiencing Stravinsky: A Listeners Companion, by Robin Maconie

Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listeners Companion, by David Schroeder

Experiencing Verdi: A Listener's Companion, by Donald Sanders

A Listeners Companion

David Schroeder

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schroeder, David P., 1946

Experiencing Tchaikovsky : a listeners companion / David Schroeder.

pages cm. (Listeners companion)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-3299-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-3300-3 (ebook)

1. Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich, 18401893Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.

ML410.C4S37 2015

780.92dc23

2014039082

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

The goal of the Listeners Companion series is to give readers a deeper understanding of pivotal musical genres and the creative work of their iconic practitioners. Contributors meet this objective in a manner that does not require extensive music training or any sort of elitist shoulder-rubbing. Authors of the series are asked to situate readers in the listening environments in which the music under consideration has been or still can be heard. Within these environments, authors examine the historical context in which this music appeared, exploring compositional character and societal elements of the work. Positioned in real or imagined environments of the musics creation, performance, and reception, readers can experience a deeper enjoyment and appreciation of the work. Authors, often drawing on their own expertise as performers and scholars, are like tour guides, walking readers through major musical genres and the achievements of artists within those genres, replaying the music for them, if you will, as a lived listening experience.

In a moment of pompous irony, the title character of the television show Frasier mentions how he and his brother Niles, as uneducated youths, thought the 1812 Overture was great music, to which Niles dryly replies, Were we ever that young? Facetious as the quip is, it accurately reflects how often youthful enjoyment serves as a barometer for what society ultimately decides is good music. More than 130 years after Tchaikovsky composed the 1812, I gathered with a few thousand fellow Americans to watch and hear the piece performed at an outdoor concert featuring the San Diego Symphony, complete with cannon shots and fireworks. With me were two young children, eight and ten, respectively, witnessing their first live performance of classical music. Through them I experienced the wonder and power of Tchaikovskys composition in ways that had grown clouded by years of academic bluster and musicological pontificating. For me, the 1812 is now beyond criticism. It exists in the realm of the eternal and little can be said by any contemporary to deflate its lofty position there. For all practical purposes, the work, along with the most popular symphonic music of the nineteenth century from Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, and Wagner, among others, has transcended its time of composition. And yet none of that mattered to my two companions. They brought no prejudgments or expectations. They cared not at all if the conductor imposed his own concept of tempo in the introduction or if a few of the string players deviated from the bowing patterns of the concertmaster. They held no grudge about performances from previous years, made no comparisons to orchestras in larger cities. Instead they listened, completely open to the experience of the moment, judging it entirely on what was placed in front of them. How I envied them their liberation and baggage-free interpretation.

Not surprisingly, the attention of these young music enthusiasts wavered now and then (kicking feet, poking each other), but by the bombastic finale their eyesand imaginationshad filled with the glorious fury and spectacle. As the last note rang out, their faces became illuminated with smiles of satisfaction and delight. I already saw them in my minds eye telling school friends the following Monday all about the concert (With real cannons!) and in coming years recalling this performance with exuberance. They may not recall Tchaikovskys name, but I suspect the feeling they received from the music will linger well into their adulthood. And all because of a musical work that the composer himself labeled unsuitable for symphony concerts. Sometimes good music happens regardless of what the composer, or television characters, think.

Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (18401893) is the best-known Russian composer of the romantic era, and his life and creative output are more than acknowledged by music enthusiasts around the world. For this reason alone, he is an ideal topic for the Listeners Companion series. Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer to achieve a truly international impact on the world stage. He also formed a direct connection to American art music by guesting as the conductor for the debut performance at Carnegie Hall in 1891. Besides his beloved 1812, Tchaikovsky is responsible for some of the most varied and highly regarded works of his era, including Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker (from which the Nutcracker Suite is extracted).

In casting for an author to explore Tchaikovskys work in the series, I was thrilled to learn of David Schroeders interest. After writing Our Schubert for Scarecrow Press, Schroeder accepted the task of writing