Peter Ilitch Tchaikowsky (1840-1893):
Pas de Deux, from the Nutcracker

The enchanting music of Tchaikowsky’s Nutcracker was first performed in December 1892, less than a year before his death. The score shows Tchaikowsky in a rare, light-hearted mood of innocence, with none of the self-doubt that plagued most of his life. Yet, pessimist to the end, Tchaikowsky’s own assessment of the Nutcracker was that it was “… infinitely worse than The Sleeping Beauty”! An indifferent audience reaction to the Nutcracker’s first performance may have reinforced Tchaikowsky’s opinion, but it probably reflected an inferior production, as well as the unfamiliar and socially unacceptable spectacle of children scurrying around on stage! The work has of course since gone on to become one of the world’s favourites.

The Pas de Deux occurs towards the end of Act II, when a symphonic mood returns after the so-called “Character” dances. The main theme of the Pas de Deux comes from its dramatic descending scales in the strings and brass. Who but Tchaikowsky has ever created so much from just a simple major scale?

Antonin Dvorak(1841-1904):
Concerto for Violin in A minor, Op. 53.

I: Allegro ma non troppo        II : Adagio ma non troppo     
III : Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo

Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances were published in 1878, and they helped to launch his international reputation. The Violin Concerto followed soon after, in 1879. Dvorak sent the score to the violinist Joachin, who had worked closely with Brahms and Bruch on their own violin concertos. To Dvorak’s irritation, Joachin kept the music for two years, and Dvorak was then forced to substantially rewrite the score in order to comply with Joachin’s wishes. The first performance was therefore delayed until October 1883, four years after its original composition.

Joachin’s involvement seems to have led to numerous compromises by Dvorak. All the movements are denoted as “ma non troppo”, so we end up with “not too much” of anything in particular. There is also a rather improvisational approach offered to the soloist, and complex structures of at least three melodic themes appear in each of the three movements.

The first and second movements are played without a break. The first movement has a sonata form, followed by a cadenza-like transition for both soloist and the orchestra. This leads to the second movement, which is arguably the most melodic of the three, being a romanza in Dvorak’s typical Bohemian style. The final movement is reminiscent of the Slavonic Dances, with a 10-bar furiant dance rhythm repeated many times in various instruments and by the soloist.

Peter IlitchTchaikowsky (1840-1893):
Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique)

I: Adagio; allegro non troppo             II: Allegro con grazia 
III: Allegro molto vivace                     IV: Adagio lamentoso

This, Tchaikowsky’s last work, was first performed on October 28, 1893, just days before the composer’s death on November 6.  Tchaikowsky had written several drafts of a 6th Symphony on his return from a trip to America in 1891, but they were torn up because of his depressed state and self-assessed inability to compose creatively. In the end, the actual score of the Symphony was written very quickly during 1893, when the composer was still suffering from an intense depression. Consequently the mood it creates is the complete opposite of that from the Nutcracker extract heard earlier in this program. The Symphony’s subtitle of Pathétique is intended to convey “pathos”, rather than a meaning of “pathetic”.

The sense of pathos is evident from the very outset with a brooding bassoon solo, leading to a period of struggle between loud and soft passages. The second movement is in the rare 5/4 time signature, which has been described as a waltz for someone with three legs; it replaces the slow movement conventionally heard at this stage of a symphony. The third movement is a scherzo in the form of a march – and a relatively light-hearted one in the overall context of this work. 

The final movement is, most unconventionally, an adagio. It is a cry of grief, displaying Tchaikowsky’s mood of profound pessimism and despair at the time. Indeed, some have interpreted it as Tchaikowsky’s musical last will and testament. Tchaikowsky had conducted the Symphony’s first performance himself in St. Petersburg, but he died a few days later after having drunk unboiled water – an act considered by many as suicidal, given the cholera epidemic occurring at the time.

Notes © by Stephen Walter