Classical Music | Ensemble Music

Recorded on 12/04/2007, uploaded on 01/10/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, Op. 48              Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pezzo in forma di Sonatina; Valse: Moderato; Elegie: Larghetto elegiaco; Finale: Tema russo

Though Tchaikovsky was a solidly romantic composer, one of his idols was Mozart, whom he once referred to as "the Christ of music."  In September of 1880, at the same time he was working on his thunderous 1812 Festival Overture, Tchaikovsky decided to write an orchestral serenade that would serve as an homage to Mozart's own serenades. Inspired, he completed the work relatively quickly and appeared much more satisfied with it than its sister composition, the overture. As he wrote, "The overture will be very showy and noisy, but will have no artistic merit because I wrote it without warmth and without love. But the Serenade, on the contrary, I wrote from inner compulsion. This is a piece from the heart."

This first movement, Pezzo in forma di Sonatina, moves from the measured Andante introduction to a simple, four-note theme in the Allegro that develops into vigorous scale passages demonstrating the various orchestral colors available within the strings alone.

The Valse is Tchaikovsky's 19th-century answer to the minuets of Mozart's serenades. Each string section takes a turn carrying the dancing melody. The movement ends in a gentle pianissimo, leading to the quietly stated Elegie. Like the previous two movements, the third is built on a scale passage. The lower strings carry a good portion of the melody which, though called an elegy, is more reflective than somber.

The Finale is subtitled Tema russo, and includes two Russian folk tunes. The first, a slow tune sung by Volga draymen, appears in the Andante introduction. The second is an animated Russian dance, which Tchaikovsky scores with some balalaika-like pizzicato in octaves. Contrasted with this second theme is a third, original motif that provides broadly sweeping movement against the vivacious dance. The theme from the first movement's Andante makes its reappearance, which Tchaikovsky transforms into the pulsing descending scale of the dance, ending the piece with vigor.     Drostan Hall

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.