Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...

's Andante and Finale for piano and orchestra was initially intended as the slow movement and finale of the Symphony in E flat

Symphony in E flat (Tchaikovsky)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony in E flat, Op. posth., was commenced after the Symphony No. 5, and was intended initially to be the composer's next symphony. Tchaikovsky abandoned this work in 1892, only to reuse much of it in the Third Piano Concerto and Andante and Finale for piano and...

, a work he started in 1892 but eventually abandoned. Tchaikovsky began reworking the sketches for these two movements into the second and third movements of a piano concerto he promised to French pianist Louis Diémer

Louis Diémer

Louis-Joseph Diémer was a French pianist and composer.- Life :Diémer studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning premiers prix in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a second prix in organ...

. The composer finished the first movement of this concerto, then decided to leave the work as a single-movement Allegro de concert.

Despite his stated intentions, Tchaikovsky had written "End of movement 1" on the last page of the Allegro brilliante that would be published by Jurgenson as the Third Piano Concerto

Piano Concerto No. 3 (Tchaikovsky)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. post. 75, was begun as a symphony in E flat. The symphony was abandoned, only to become a single-movement Allegro brillante when published posthumously. Controversy remains, despite the composer's stated intentions, as to what...

. Was not crossing out this comment simply an oversight on Tchaikovsky's part? Had Tchaikovsky actually changed his mind and decided to continue work? Was he thinking about continuing work in case Diémer would prefer a full-length piece? Would he have used the two movements he had discarded previously or would he have written something new?

All this became pure conjecture upon Tchaikovsky's death. At that time, what could have appeared to some to be the second and third movements were left in sketch form. Music writer Eric Blom

Eric Blom

Eric Walter Blom CBE was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, musicologist, music critic, music biographer and translator. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians .-Biography:Blom was born in Berne, Switzerland...

 reminds us that Tchaikovsky left "no indication that they too were to be turned into concerto form. Since they originally formed part of the same work, it seemed reasonable, however, to assume that this was his intention."

Structure

1. Andante

   This simple song-like movement contains a central dialogue

   Dialogue

   Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....

   
    between cello solo and piano

   Piano

   The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

   
    which, according to writer Eric Blom, "enhance[s] the effect of a tune at the very moment when its repetition might possibly become tiresome—in this case at the return of the main theme ...."

2. Finale. Allegro maestoso

   This quasi-martial 'allegro maestoso' has energy in abundance—indeed, over-abundance, Blom writes—"but no real vitality of invention. The material is dry and dead, nor does the extremely busy and strenuously athletic piano part give any real life to it. There is plenty of bustle and very little enterprise."

Instrumentation

Consistent with Tchaikovsky's practice in his first two concertos, Taneyev reduces the orchestra to woodwinds, horns and strings

String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

 for the andante. He scored the finale for full orchestra, again as per Tchaikovsky's practice.

Symphony or concerto—again

After his brother's death, Modest Tchaikovsky

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator.-Early life:Modest Ilyich was born in Alapayevsk, the younger brother of the future composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He graduated from the School of Jurisprudence with a degree in law...

 asked the composer's friend and former student Sergei Taneyev

Sergei Taneyev

Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev , was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author.-Life:...

 to go through the sketches of compositions left unfinished. In November 1894, Taneyev began to study the unfinished sketches of these two movements. Both Taneyev and Modest questioned how the work should be published—as two orchestral movements for a symphony or to preserve its subsequent arrangement and complete reworking them as a piece for piano and orchestra. After a letter from pianist Alexander Siloti

Alexander Siloti

Alexander Ilyich Siloti was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer. Alexander Ilyich Siloti (also Ziloti, , Aleksandr Iljič Ziloti) (9 October 1863, near Kharkiv - 8 December 1945, New York) was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer. Alexander Ilyich Siloti (also Ziloti, , Aleksandr Iljič...

 to Modest in April 1895, he and Taneyev took the piano-and-orchestra route.

Another question was where and how these two movements would be published. This was complicated by the fact that Jurgenson had already published the opening movement of the concerto as a separate composition. Modest and Taneyev eventually offered the Andante and Finale to M. P. Belyayev

Mitrofan Belyayev

Mitrofan Petrovich Belyayev was a Russian music publisher, outstanding philanthropist, and the owner of a large wood dealership enterprise in Russia. He was also the founder of the Belyayev circle, a society of musicians in Russia whose members included Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Glazunov...

, together with the overtures Fatum

Fatum (Tchaikovsky)

Fatum, Op. 77, is a symphonic poem by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was written in 1868 and performed in 1869, but Tchaikovsky later destroyed the score, and it was published only three years after his death, with a posthumous opus number.-History:...

and The Storm

The Storm (Tchaikovsky)

The Storm, Op. posth. 76, is an overture in E minor composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between June and August 1864. The work is inspired by the play The Storm by the Russian playwright Alexander Ostrovsky...

, and the symphonic ballad The Voyevoda

The Voyevoda (symphonic ballad)

The Voyevoda, Op. 78, is a "symphonic ballad" for orchestra, written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1891. It is based on Alexander Pushkin's translation of Adam Mickiewicz's poem of that name....

.

Belyayev questioned how to publish the Andante and Finale—as a fourth concerto in two movements, as two concert pieces, or in purely orchestral form as two movements from an unfinished symphony. He eventually published the Andante and Finale in 1897 in Taneyev’s version for piano and orchestra, but as an independent but related composition to the concerto and with a separate opus number (Op. 79, as opposed to Op. 75 for the movement published by Jurgenson).

The first performance took place on February 8, 1897 in St. Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 with Taneyev as soloist.

A complete concerto?

As stated at the beginning of this entry, whether Tchaikovsky would have kept the Andante and Finale or written new music to make the Third Piano Concerto a three-movement work after all is purely conjecture. Accepting Opp. 75 and 79 as a complete concerto

Concerto

A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

 within Tchaikovsky's intentions, Tchaikovsky scholar and author John Warrack

John Warrack

John Warrack is an English music critic, writer on music, and oboist. He is the son of Scottish conductor and composer Guy Warrack. From 1954–1961 he was music critic for The Daily Telegraph, and from 1961–1972 he was music critic for The Sunday Telegraph. From 1978–1983 he served as the Artistic...

maintains, could be a misnomer. "[W]hat survives is a reconstruction in concerto form of some music Tchaikovsky was planning, not a genuine Tchaikovsky piano concerto."

Blom adds, "It is true that even Taneyev did not know for certain whether Tchaikovsky, if he actually meant to turn out a three-movement concerto, would not have preferred to scrap the Andante and Finale altogether and to replace them by two entirely new movements; so if we decide that the finale at any rate is a poor piece of work, we must blame Taneyev for preserving it rather than Tchaikovsky for having conceived it. For we cannot even be sure how far the conception may have been carried out ...."

Warrack concludes, "The kindest response is to remember that Tchaikovsky himself abandoned it. Taneyev was being over-pious: much the best solution of the problem of what to do with the music is to perform the Third Concerto as Tchaikovsky left it, in one movement; it could with advantage be heard sometimes in concerts at which soloists wish to add something less than another full-scale concerto to the main work in their program."

External links

• Andante & Finale, Op. 79 (1893) at Tchaikovsky-Research.org
• Symphony in E-flat major (1892) (unfinished) at Tchaikovsky-Research.org
• Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 75 (1893) at Tchaikovsky-Research.org