Tchaikovsky
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TH 178

O, del mio dolce ardor

Aria by Christoph Willibald von Gluck, arranged for orchestra (1870).

• Arranged October 1870.
• Scored for Voice; Flute; Oboe; Clarinet (B♭); Bassoons; 2 Horns (F); Violins I; Violins II; Violas; Violoncellos; Double Basses.
• First performed in Moscow, 6/18 November 1870, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein.
• The original aria was formerly attributed to Alessandro Stradella.
• Average duration: 2m 45s

History

The orchestration of the aria was made by Tchaikovsky, evidently, at the request of Nikolai Rubinstein, for a symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society, in which it was to be played. The manuscript is dated 29 October/10 November 1870. The aria was performed at the concert on 6/18 November, performed by the singer Kalashov.

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), p. 493
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

* * *

"O del mio dolce" (also known as "O salutaris") comes from Paride's Aria in Act I (No. 1) of Gluck's opera Paride ed Elena ("Paris and Helen"). Libretto by Calzabigi, first produced in Vienna in 1770.

For many years the authorship of the original aria was wrongly attributed to Alessandro Stradella, but recent scholarship has established that Gluck was the true composer [1]. The aria was published under Stradella's name in London in 1852, which was presumably the source for Tchaikovsky's orchestration.

From: The Tchaikovsky Handbook, vol. 1 (2002), pp. 354–355
Copyright © 2002 Alexander Poznansky and Brett Langston

References:

1. See Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682): A thematic catalogue of his compositions (1991), p.267 [back]