program notes Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 As an ambitious young composer, Tchaikovsky received important encouragement from Balakirev, who planted the idea for his breakthrough orchestral work, The Fantasy Overture on Romeo and Juliet. But Tchaikovsky had an ambivalent relationship with the St. Petersburg-based nationalist composers led by Balakirev (The Five). Eventually, he forged a path of his own. Tchaikovsky’s solution was to adapt “professional” Western models while drawing on identifiably Slavic elements to create a uniquely imaginative and emotionally gripping style that has never lost its popularity. Tchaikovsky is perhaps the best-known icon of Romanticism in the Russian style. But he was a tremendously versatile composer, and another, often overlooked aspect of his creativity shows the influence of his idol Mozart, as we find in works like the Serenade for Strings. In these works, Tchaikovsky even anticipates the “neo-Classical” philosophy that became so decisive in the early 20th century, in particular through the work of his fellow Russian Igor Stravinsky. Composed in 1880, the Serenade recalls a type of music that had been perfected by Mozart during that composer’s early Salzburg years: the multi-movement, melody-rich genre that was often used to celebrate special occasions (weddings, graduation ceremonies, and the like). Tchaikovsky’s choice of instrumentation certainly suggests a Mozartian angle. The Classical serenade typically called for a mix of strings, woodwinds, and possibly brass, but Mozart’s best-known serenade, A Little Night Music, was unusually cast for P24
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strings alone. (The last of his serenades, written during Mozart’s Viennese years, Eine kleine Nachtmusik literally means “a little serenade” in German.) Tchaikovsky likewise limits his ensemble to strings. The resulting four movements evoke something “between a symphony and a string quartet,” he observed—though in a more relaxed vein, without the heavy-duty working out of motifs conventionally associated with those genres. Tchaikovsky adds a separate line for double bass—merely optional in Mozart’s score— thus giving the Serenade a more full-bodied sound. And, in keeping with contemporary Romantic trends, the Serenade is unified through motivic echoes and internal connections between movements. Opening with a chord sequence that brings to mind a stirring chorale, the introductory section, which is reprised at the very end of the Serenade, is the source for much of the thematic material. In the second movement, Tchaikovsky exchanges the classical poise of a minuet for a lilting waltz (later choreographed by George Balanchine). The emotional heart of the work is a slow movement titled 023, which similarly begins with a chorale-like passage. Another slow introduction (with muted strings) provides the transition into the finale, which borrows a pair of tunes from Russian folk music. Tchaikovsky’s writing for the strings here actually mimics native Russian instruments. The lively dance tune that figures among the finale’s ideas turns out to be a speeded-up version of the chorale that had opened the work, thus emphasizing the unity of conception that binds together the Serenade. Program notes (c)2021 Thomas May
