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Tchaikovsky |
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Romeo and JulietРомео и ДжульеттаOverture-fantasia after Shakespeare's drama (1869).
HistoryThe subject was suggested to Tchaikovsky by Milii Balakirev. The date of the suggestion is not known, but evidently it was during the summer of 1869, when the two composers met in Moscow [1]. By October 1869 Tchaikovsky had still not began to compose the overture. On 2 October he wrote to Milii Balakirev: "I did not want to write to you before now until I had sketched at least something of the overture. But just imagine, I’m completely played out and not one even mildly tolerable musical idea will come into my head" [2]. A letter to Anatolii Tchaikovsky of 7 October 1869 refers to an "abusive letter" he had received from Balakirev, due to the fact that Tchaikovsky was not interested in working on the overture [3]. Only on 12 October, in a letter to Modest Tchaikovsky, did he announce: "I am writing the overture to Romeo and Juliet" [4]. In a letter to Milii Balakirev of 28 October 1869, the composer wrote: "My overture is coming along quite quickly; the greater part is already composed in outline and, if nothing happens to hinder me, I am hopeful that within a month and a half it will be ready. When it has emerged from my womb, you will see that, whatever else it may be, a great deal of it has been carried out in accordance with your instructions. In the first place, the overall scheme is yours: an introduction representing the friar; struggle - allegro, and love - second theme; and secondly, the modulations are yours: the introduction is in E major [5], the Allegro in B minor, and the second theme in D-flat major" [6]. On 30 October the composer told Anatolii Tchaikovsky: "I have almost written the draft of the overture to the tragedy Romeo and Juliet" [7]. By 18 November the overture had been scored [8]. Letters to his brothers of this date relate that the overture will soon be performed at one of the Russian Musical Society concerts. Soon after completing the overture-fantasia, Tchaikovsky sent its main themes to Milii Balakirev in a letter of 17 November 1869 [9]. In reply he received a number of critical comments. Balakirev wrote: "The first theme is not at all to my test. Perhaps when it’s worked out it attains some degree of beauty, but when noted down plainly as you’ve sent it to me, it conveys neither beauty nor strength, and it does not even depict the character of Father Lawrence in the way required. Here there should be a sort of Lisztian chorale in an old Catholic style, similar to the Orthodox [church music]... As for the B minor theme you've written out, this is not a theme, but a very beautiful introduction to a theme, and after the C major rushing about there ought to be a strong, energetic melodic idea... The first D-flat major theme is beautiful, although somewhat overripe, but the second D-flat tune is simply delightful" [10]. It seems that when they met face to face in early January or mid-May 1870, Balakirev said that Tchaikovsky should revise the overture, in line with his suggestions [11]. But the overture was still in its original form when it was performed for the first time, in Moscow on 4 March 1870, at the eighth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein. "My overture had no success whatever here, and passed completely unremarked upon", Tchaikovsky wrote to Ivan Klimenko on 1 May 1870 [12]. The success of the overture was hindered by a combination of circumstances, which distracted the audience's attention [13]. Tchaikovsky's new work received strong approval from the composers of the Moscow Kuchka [14]: "We have been looking over the score of your Romeo and constantly playing it through since the time of our gathering, and all of us are delighted. Stasov is particularly impressed, and said that now are numbers are increased. With regard to its deficiencies, namely its form, the overture still needs revising" [15]. In another, much earlier, letter, Milii Balakirev wrote to Tchaikovsky: "How delighted everyone is with your D-flat major [themes], including V. Stasov, who says: ‘You were five, and now there are six’" [16]. In the summer of 1870, Tchaikovsky left for abroad. While staying in Switzerland he fundamentally revised the overture, as he mentioned in a letter to Milii Balakirev, written on 6 September 1870, after he had returned to Moscow: "In my opinion the ending is now respectable; the introduction is new; the middle section almost entirely new, and the recapitulation of the second theme (in D major) has been completely reorchestrated" [17]. In another, undated letter, written between 20 and 23 October 1870, Tchaikovsky wrote: "You wanted an introduction along the lines of the religious passage from Liszt’s Faust. This hasn’t happened, as I wanted in the introduction to express solitude, and uplifting thoughts of the heavenly spirit. Too audacious? - I don’t know! Perhaps the ending is not entirely what you ordered, but in any case it is better than before" [18]. The revised passages had already been orchestrated by Tchaikovsky in Moscow in September 1870. Even while he was working on the revisions to the overture, it was already being printed by the publishers Bote & Bock in Berlin, where it had been sent by N. G. Rubinstein in May 1870 [19]. After receiving the first proofs in autumn 1870, Tchaikovsky acted to postponed its publication, sending the publishers all the changes made to his revised version [20]. And so the full score of the overture printed for the first time in 1871 by the publishers Bote & Bock was the second version. The first version was preserved only in manuscript score. This new version of the overture was then arranged by Nadezhda Purgold for piano duet (the overture's introduction and exposition were arranged in collaboration with Milii Balakirev) [21]. Also in 1871, Karl Klindworth arranged the overture for two pianos and four hands. Both arrangements were published by Vasilii Bessel and had appeared in print by 8 October 1872. An arrangement for piano (2 hands) was commissioned by the publishers Bote & Bock from Karl Bial, and was issued by the same publishers in late May 1871. The second version of the overture was performed for the first time on 5 February 1872 in Saint Petersburg, at the fourth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society, conducted by Eduard Nápravník; and in Moscow on 18 February 1872 at the ninth symphony concert, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein. Balakirev was still not wholly satisfied with the new version. He wrote to Tchaikovsky on 19 May 1871: "Although the new introduction is much better, I feel strongly that you need to make further revisions to the overture, and not just to wave your hand at it, and hope for the best in your future compositions" [22]. Tchaikovsky wrote in reply: "I could cheerfully make some further revisions, but firstly, all the arrangements and editions of the overture that have been made would be rendered redundant, and second, I have absolutely no more energy for this task. All my soul is now going into composing the opera The Oprichnik, and I could not distract myself from this work for another composition which I already consider to have been finished" [23]. Tchaikovsky returned once more to his fantasy-overture in August 1880. He introduced further changes to it, about which he wrote in letters to Petr Jurgenson and Nadezhda von Meck [24]. This new, third version included the following alterations: the end of the Moderato assai was written afresh (24 bars in the third version) and the coda was completely restructured, to exclude the E-flat major episode. In a letter to Jurgenson of 29 August 1880, Tchaikovsky asked him to send Bote & Bock the amended full score and piano duet arrangement: "I should like you to tell Bock that the overture really must be re-engraved because of the alterations and cuts at the end, which have now made it a genuine chef d’oeuvre...I fervently hope that this overture in its old form, and in its piano duet arrangement and Bessel's loathsome editions as well, can vanish, and be usurped by the newly improved overture" [25]. The full score and arrangement for piano duet of the third version of the overture-fantasia Romeo and Juliet were published by the firm of Bote & Bock in Berlin in 1881. The overture in its third version was performed for the first time on 19 April 1886 in Tiflis, conducted by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, at a concert given in honour of Tchaikovsky during his visit to Tiflis. The overture is dedicated to Milii Balakirev. In 1884 as one of a number of the best works in Russian classical music, the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet was awarded a prize amounting to 500 roubles [26]. From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского(1958), pp.
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