Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net
Overture
(Увертюра)
C minor (1865–66).
| Catalogue References | TH 38 ; ČW 36 |
|---|---|
| Date | Summer 1865–January 1866 |
| Key | C minor |
| Tempo/Section Listing | Andante—Allegro vivo (C minor, 662 bars) |
| Instrumentation | Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets (B♭), 2 Bassoons + 4 Horns (F, E), 2 Trumpets (C), 3 Trombones, Tuba + Timpani, Cymbals (ad lib.), Bass Drum (ad lib.) + Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos, Double Basses |
| Notable Performances | |
| Autograph Location | Klin (Russia): Tchaikovsky House-Museum Archive (a1, No. 50) |
| First Publication | Moscow: Muzgiz, 1952 |
| Average Duration | 15 minutes |
| External Links |
IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
(downloadable score) |
History
Composed during the summer of 1865 at Kamenka; orchestrated in early January 1866 in Moscow.
No information survives concerning the process of composing the Overture. In a letter to his brothers Anatoly and Modest of 10/22 January 1866, Tchaikovsky reports on his work on the instrumentation: "I've orchestrated the greater part of my summer overture, and to my horror it’s turning out to be terribly long, which I didn’t expect at all" [1].
As Nikolay Kashkin recalled, soon after Tchaikovsky’s move to Moscow, Nikolay Rubinstein asked if any of his compositions could be performed in the 1866 concert season, and Tchaikovsky suggested his Overture in C minor [2]. Rubinstein considered that it could not possibly be performed [3].
On 19/31 January 1866 Tchaikovsky sent the manuscript to Herman Laroche in Saint Petersburg so that the latter might submit it to Anton Rubinstein for performance [4]. But Anton Rubinstein’s judgement on the Overture was also unfavourable [5]. Subsequently the composer himself made the following note on the front of the full score: "Overture, written in Moscow in January 1866 and played nowhere (a frightful abomination)".
References to the Overture in C minor are also encountered in Sergey Taneyev’s letters to Modest Tchaikovsky from 1896 and 1897. For instance, on 23 July/4 August 1897, Taneyev reported that: "I have now found the manuscript of the overture that you wrote about, in C minor (with the episode from the overture to The Storm)... and I can show it to you on your arrival" [6].
The Overture was performed for the first time only in the 1931 concert season in Voronezh, conducted by Konstantin Saradzhev, professor of the Moscow State Conservatory [7]. The Overture’s second subject was used by Tchaikovsky in the finale of the first act of the opera The Voyevoda.
The Overture was not published during Tchaikovsky's lifetime. It was printed for the first time in 1952 in the Complete Edition of Tchaikovsky's works [8].
From:
Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 274–275
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston
Notes:
- Letter 78 to Anatoly and Modest Tchaikovsky, 10/22 January 1866 [back]
- Nikolay Kashkin, Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском (1896), pp. 17–18 [back]
- Modest Tchaikovsky, Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1900), p. 225 [back]
- See letter from Herman Laroche to Tchaikovsky, 27 January/8 February 1866 — Klin House-Museum Archive [back]
- Modest Tchaikovsky, Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1900), pp. 225–226 [back]
- Letter from Sergey Taneyev to Modest Tchaikovsky, 23 July/4 August 1897 — Klin House-Museum Archive [back]
- See letter from Konstantin Saradzhev to Nikolay Zhegin, 29 December 1938 — Klin House-Museum Archive [back]
- П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том 21 (1952) [back]