SYMPHONY NO 2 IN C MINOR Op 17, 'The Little Russian'
Andante sostenuto -- Allegro vivo
Andantino marziale quasi moderato
Scherzo: Allegro molto vivace
Finale: Moderato assai -- Presto
'Little Russia' is the Ukraine, from which vast region of southern Russia Tchaikovsky
took the folk music he uses in his second symphony. It is one of the least well-known
of his six symphonies, yet the 'Little Russian' -- the nickname given to it after
his death -- is an irresistibly attractive and melodious work, ebullient in mood
and wholly characteristic of its composer. Tchaikovsky's use of folk tunes, in the
first, second and fourth movements, ensured the symphony's favourable reception among
his fellow-composers: when he played the last movement on the piano to Rimsky-Korsakov
and a group of friends they were all entranced by it.
Russian composers were ahead of their Edwardian counterparts in Britain in exploring
their country's folk themes, and the discovery and 'realisation' of this music was
a driving force in the nationalist movement represented by men such as Glinka and
Balakirev. Tchaikovsky, incomparably the greatest composer of 19th century Russia,
stood a little apart from this group but he was far from immune to their influence.
In 1872, he was still teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, to which he had been appointed
in 1865, soon after his graduation from the Conservatory at St Petersburg. He found
the work at this cash-strapped Moscow institution troublesome and vexatious, and
composing his first symphony, nicknamed 'Winter Daydreams', had proved long and difficult,
although its first audiences had given it a favourable reception. Soon afterwards,
he met not only Berlioz, who was in Moscow to conduct some concerts, but Balakirev,
the dogmatic and peremptory leader of the 'Mighty Handful' of nationalistic Russian
composers: his passion for the music of Russia undoubtedly helped to form Tchaikovsky's
ideas for the new symphony, which he began to write in the summer of 1872, at Kamenka,
in his elder sister Sasha's house. The symphony was complete by the end of the year
and given its first performance in Moscow in March 1873.
The Moscow musical establishment was well satisfied with the piece, but Tchaikovsky
was not. He began revising it -- but, once more, this was a slow process. By 1880
he had changed it substantially -- having virtually rewritten the first movement,
revised the scherzo and made a sizable cut in the finale. Even so, in spite of the
changes, the 'Little Russian' is, appropriately, the most Russian of his symphonies.
The slow prologue to the first movement introduces us to the first of Tchaikovsky's
Ukrainian folk melodies, heard again in a different form in the development that
follows. Another song is heard in the second movement, a march-like Andantino which
Tchaikovsky originally composed as a wedding march for his opera Undine, written
in 1869: more than one theatre had rejected the piece, and Tchaikovsky burnt it.
His third movement, a brisk, vivacious, dance-like Scherzo, suggesting a trepak,
has often been said to owe something to Borodin, just as the fourth has been compared
with Mousorgsky. Once again, a folk tune is the basis of the movement: this one is
about a bird indigenous to the Ukraine, and it is called The Crane. The critic Hans
Keller once wrote that it was a matter of regret that the original version of the
2nd symphony was never heard, but there is good reason for satisfaction with the
version which ultimately had Tchaikovsky's sanction. It was first heard in St Petersburg
in February 1881 -- by which time, paradoxically, his 3rd ('The Polish') and 4th
symphonies had both been completed and performed.
Programme Notes by Paul Vaughan ©
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