Tchaikovsky
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Adaptation of the Finale from the Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major (Op. 24) by Carl Maria von Weber (?1871).

History

The story of the arrangement of the Sonata is told in reminiscences by Mariia Dulova and Nikolai Kashkin. Mariia Dulova writes: "While my mother-in-law, Dedicated to Aleksandra Iur'evna Zograf-Dulova was a student at the Conservatory [in 1866], she studied under N. G. Rubinstein and Petr Il'ich. While playing with her right hand she began to cry in front of Petr Il’ich who laughed and told her: "Don't cry, Sashen'ka, I will write you an etude for the left hand. That is how it came to be done" [2].

Nikolai Kashkin's account of the arrangement is different "Students in Tchaikovsky's harmony class worked very hard and with apparent success... Yet. N. G. Rubinstein overestimated their abilities to the detriment of the former, and in his piano class he set the harmony students the task of harmonizing the rondo from Weber's First Sonata, with the principal part in the bass. In the end this could not be done satisfactorily, and so Tchaikovsky did it himself. It seems that P. I. Jurgenson printed it then, or perhaps a little later" [3].

Published by Petr Jurgenson in March 1871 [4].

Dedicated to the pianist Aleksandra Zograf.

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), p. 492
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

Notes:

1. The original part for the right hand is transferred to the left, while the new right hand part is Tchaikovsky's own [back]
2. Letter from Mariia Dulova — Klin House-Museum Archive [back]
3. Nikolai Kashkin, «П. И. Чайковский и его жизнеописание», Московские ведомости, 11 January 1902, No. 11 [back]

4. According to the date written by Petr Jurgenson on Tchaikovsky’s manuscript [back]