Classical Music | Music for Flute

Recorded on 05/10/2005, uploaded on 01/09/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Like Johannes Brahms did with his serenades twenty years earlier, Tchaikovsky found an outlet for lighthearted orchestra music in the form of the suite. Yet, the two composer’s approaches were somewhat different: whereas Brahms’s serenades were early forays into orchestral writing and predate his first symphony by nearly two decades, Tchaikovsky’s first orchestral suite was a response to the emotional drain of composing his dramatic Symphony No. 4 in F minor in 1877. Tchaikovsky would go on to compose three more suites over the next decade.

Tchaikovsky drew on both Baroque and Classical interpretations of the suite in composing the Orchestral Suite No. 1 in D minor. Since the revival of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, which began in Germany with the help of Felix Mendelssohn, the Baroque composer’s orchestral suites captured the attention of composers. This Baroque influence was reflected in the First Orchestral Suite in its opening and closing movements: an Introduzione e fuga and a Gavotte. Incidentally, the opening fugal movement was only the second formal fugue Tchaikovsky wrote since his days as a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The remaining movements are lighthearted in nature, owing much to the ballet divertissement, and include four character pieces: a waltz (though titled a Divertimento), an Intermezzo, a March Miniature that looks forward to the music of The Nutcracker, and a Scherzo.

Despite the overall lightheartedness of the suite, it nevertheless caused the composer some trouble during its writing. First of all, three of the suite’s movements were lost with the composer’s luggage when he traveled to Florence, Italy and were never recovered, though his luggage was. Second, the suite was originally conceived as a five movement work, which Tchaikovsky maintained up until it was sent to his publisher. After sending the work to be engraved, he realized all the movements were in duple time and quickly penned the waltz that now stands as the suite’s second movement to break up the potential rhythmic monotony. Tchaikovsky intended the waltz to replace the March Miniature feeling that six movements was one too many for a suite. His publisher objected. At the suite’s premiere, which Tchaikovsky was unable to attend, all six movements were included. It was well-received by the audience and, in a rare occurrence, a publisher’s judgment proved better than the composer’s. The March Miniature was instantly the most popular number, receiving rapturous applause, and had to be repeated.      Joseph DuBose

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Marche Miniature from Orchestral Suite No.1, Op.43     Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

In May of 1877, Tchaikovsky busied himself with the composition of his Suite No.1 in Major, Op.43. The suite underwent various changes before it took its final shape. Tchaikovsky had second thoughts about the prevalence of duple rhythm throughout, and then about the number of movements. 

The third movement Intermezzo is followed by a miniature March, originally described by the composer as March of the Lilliputians, a movement he attempted to withdraw, until persuaded to retain it. Throughout the whole work he enjoyed a freedom that the stand-form symphony would not allow, finding himself able to write the kind of music that found further expression in his ballets. Ironically, the most popular of all the movements has been the March that Tchaikovsky had once hoped to discard.     Colleen Matheu

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.