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TH 36

The Storm

Гроза

Overture to Ostrovskii’s drama, E minor, Op. 76 (1864).

• Composed June - August 1864.
• Scored for Piccolo; 2 Flutes; 2 Oboes; Cor Anglais; 2 Clarinets (A); 2 Bassoons; 4 Horns (E, C); 2 Trumpets (E); 3 Trombones; Tuba; Timpani; Side Drum; Cymbals; Bass Drum; Tam-tam; Harp; Violins I; Violins II; Violas; Violoncellos; Double Basses
• First performed in Saint Petersburg, 24 February/7 March 1896, conducted by Aleksandr Glazunov.
• Average duration: 13m

History

Composed and scored during the summer of 1864 at Trostinets. This was Tchaikovsky's first significant orchestral work, written while he was studying at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

In the spring of 1864, Anton Rubinstein, under whom Tchaikovsky was studying composition, set his students a summer assignment to compose a large-scale orchestral piece - an overture to an opera. Tchaikovsky, who was already at that time thinking of composing an opera to Aleksandr Ostrovskii’s drama The Storm, chose this as his subject [1].

A rough programme of the overture was noted down by Tchaikovsky on the manuscript score of his orchestration of the Adagio and Allegro brillante from R. Schumann’s Symphonic Studies. Its contents were as follows:

Introduction: Adagio (Katerina's childhood and her life prior to her marriage). (Allegro), intimations of the storm; her yearning for true happiness and love (Allegro appassionato); her spiritual struggle - abrupt change to evening on the bank of the Volga; again a struggle, but tinged with a sort of feverish happiness; portent of the storm (repetition of the motif of the after the adagio and its further development), the storm; climax of desperate struggle and death

In a letter to Aleksandra Davydova from Trostinets of 28 July 1864, Tchaikovsky wrote: "Tell Vera Vasil'evna that my Storm is rumbling along, and she may run the risk of hearing it at the Russian Musical Society" [2].

On finishing the overture, Tchaikovsky sent the score to Herman Laroche.

Laroche gave his own account of this event: "In the summer of 1864, Petr Il’ich had to write a large overture, for which he chose himself the programme of Ostrovskii’s The Storm. The orchestra he employed was ‘heretical’, with bass tuba, cor anglais. harp, tremolo and divided strings, bass drum and cymbals. He was probably optimistic in nurturing the hope that the requirements of the programme would exempt him from any punishment for failing to follow the usual guidelines. In any event, by the start of term, or perhaps somewhat earlier, he finished his work. I cannot recall the reason now, but he asked me to stand in for him, and sent me the score by post with a message to show it to Anton Grigor'evich. A few days later, Rubinstein told me to come and listen to his judgement. Never in my life did I receive such a dressing-down for my misdemeanours as on that day (as I recall, it was a beautiful Sunday morning), listening on behalf of someone else" [3].

The Storm overture was never performed during the composer's lifetime. It was heard for the first time only on 24 February 1896 at Beliaiev's third Russian Symphony Concert in Saint Petersburg, conducted by Aleksandr Glazunov.

The introductory themes from the overture The Storm (Andante misterioso) were employed by Tchaikovsky in other works: both themes (of the opening and the song Iskhodila mladen'ka [Исходила младенька] appear in the Overture in C minor , and moreover the opening was re-used by the composer in the entr'acte to Act II of the opera The Voevoda. The theme of the "Evening by the Volga" episode (con espressione, B major) was used by Tchaikovsky in the second movement of his Symphony No. 1.

The overture was published by Mitrofan Beliaiev in 1896 as Op. 76, at the same time as an arrangement for piano duet by Nikolai Sokolov [4].

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 272-273
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

Notes:

1. M. I. Tchaikovsky, Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1900), pp. 191-192. See also the history of the projected opera The Storm [back]
2. Letter 68 to Aleksandra Davydova, 28 July/9 August 1864 [back]
3. H. A. Laroche, Собрание музвкально-критических статей, том 2, ч.1 (1922), p. 47 [back]
4. See letter from Mitrofan Beliaev to Modest Tchaikovsky, 1/13 April 1896 - Klin House-Museum Archive [back]

See also:

• The Storm page on the Internet Music Score Library Project (external site)

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