Tchaikovsky's Melancholy Tale

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En provenance du cours de Curtis Institute of Music

The World of the String Quartet

294 notes

Curtis Institute of Music

The World of the String Quartet

294 notes

Arnold Steinhardt, first violin of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri String Quartet, invites music listeners to the world of the string quartet repertoire and ensemble. Journey with him and interpretive analysis instructor Mia Chung through the history and features of quartet music, colored by stories of legendary quartets and insights from the stage. This season's Curtis courses are sponsored by Linda Richardson in loving memory of her husband, Dr. Paul Richardson.

À partir de la leçon

The Internationalists, Part 1: Smetana, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, and Bartok

Beyond German-speaking countries, composers adapted the string quartet to their own cultures—some more so than others. National traits, as well as personal stories, emerge in the heartfelt works of Smetana ("From My Life"), Dvořák (Op. 105), Tchaikovsky (Op. 22), Borodin (No. 2), and Bartók (No. 5). How does this very individual music convey its national identity?

Conversation: National Identity and Music7:09

A Tone Picture of Smetana's Life10:51

Absolutely Dvorak12:03

Tchaikovsky's Melancholy Tale7:56

In The Gardens of St. Petersburg with Borodin7:20

Rencontrer les enseignants

Arnold Steinhardt
Performance Faculty
Dr. Mia Chung
Instructor of Interpretive Analysis
Musical Studies

In Russia, the quartet tradition

was every bit alive as it was in the Czech

musical scene. However, like

Antonin Dvorak, Tchaikovsky struggled to balance

the expectations of Viennese compositional orthodoxy

with his own sense of nationalism.

He was educated at the St. Petersburg Conservatory,

where he received formal training in Western

musical techniques, and this is what distinguishes him

from other homegrown Russian composers, like those

of the Mighty Five, which you will hear about shortly.

This quartet is an example of

the balance he tried to strike between his training

and his cultural identity. It begins

with an arresting statement that is chromatic,

dissonant, and dark. It is a highly individual kind of expression

that has been compared to the opening of Wagner's Tristan

and Isolde in its chromaticism and

tonal or harmonic instability. But, the mainstay

of the movement which is marked "Moderato assai," or

very moderate, gives way to a Mozartean sensibility

where proportion and balance reign

as well as the clarity of its major tonality.

The final movement also demonstrates his formal skills

in its use of an extended fugue, a technique that

Haydn and Beethoven used

often in their last movements. Even in the presence

of these Viennese references, the most captivating

material in this work resides in the

inner movements, where Tchaikovsky's Russian side

comes to the fore. In the second movement, one hears the free alternation

of two and three beats per measure

in the outer sections, which lends the music

a Russian folk feel. And in the slow

third movement, one hears the kind of Russian

melancholy and pathos that is

associated with Tchaikovsky's

most dramatic orchestral works. What could be

more compelling? Arnold

will now give his thoughts.

When I was a teenager, I fell completely in love with Tchaikovsky's music.

As a budding violinist, I first came to know and love his violin concerto,

followed by his piano concerto, his symphonies,

the Romeo and Juliet Overture and on and on.

At one point I felt I had to

confess my love of Tchaikovsky to an older musician of my acquaintance.

I'll never forget his response. "You'll get

over it." That was easily sixty years ago

and I'd like to inform the gentleman if he’s still around

that, I haven't gotten over it yet. If anything,

I revere Tchaikovsky's music more than ever.

Listening to work of his is like going to the theatre.

And not just any theatre! Tchaikovsky's works

are often full of the nail-biting drama and

of heart-stopping emotion. And this is certainly true

of Tchaikovsky's Second String Ouartet, Opus 22

that opens with a suspenseful and achingly

dissonant introduction to the first movement. The stage is set

and the characters in this drama have made

their entrance. A florid, cadenza-like violin solo then

ushers in a string quartet that is far darker

than its more popular predecessor. Of the first movement, Tchaikovsky

said, "If I've written anything in my life that flowed spontaneously from

the very depths of my soul, then it was the first movement

of this quartet." The second movement

is a gentle scherzo in an irregular but irresistible rhythm

characteristic of much Russian folk music. I can

easily imagine Tchaikovsky adapting these

lilting rhythms for the ballet. The third movement

begins with a lament

and a series of falling notes in pairs that are worthy

of anything Robert Schumann wrote for sheer poignancy. Tchaikovsky

maintains this highly emotional

and spellbinding atmosphere throughout-- clutching at those falling pairs

of notes to the very end to the movement. This seems to me

the very heart and center of the quartet

as Tchaikovsky's melancholy tale is slowly

revealed. The fourth movement chases away all serious thoughts

with a joyous upbeat mood throughout, and including a fugue

based on the opening theme of the quartet before ending

with a rousing coda. Tchaikovsky

wrote about this quartet to his brother, Modest,

"I regard it as my best work;

no other piece has poured forth from me so simply and easily.

I wrote it almost at one sitting." In listening to Tchaikovsky's

Opus 22 string quartet,

I've never been aware of how effortless

or difficult the work was to compose; only

that I’d just been to the theatre, and it it was an

unforgettable experience.

[MUSIC]

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