Incidental Music, Op. 67b
Lucien Guitry again asked Tchaikovsky to write incidental music for Hamlet. This time, it was for a benefit production on 21 February 1891 at the Mikhaylovsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, and it was to be Guitry's farewell performance. Tchaikovsky started work on the incidental music on 13 January, but found it difficult. He was exhausted from completing The Queen of Spades, which had premiered to a triumph in December 1890. Also that month, his patroness Nadezhda von Meck had severed her connection with him. He was also suffering an affliction of the right hand. For these reasons he had cancelled his conducting engagements in Mainz, Budapest and Frankfurt, and retired for rest and recuperation to Frolovskoye.
For the overture, he used the earlier stand-alone Hamlet overture-fantasia Op. 67a, but in a shortened form. In the 16 other numbers, as well as writing some new music, he also used material from the incidental music to The Snow Maiden, Op. 12 (1873), from the alla tedesca movement of the Third Symphony (1875), and from the Elegy for Ivan Samarin (1884). The writing was finished by 3 February. Tchaikovsky travelled from Moscow to attend the performance in Saint Petersburg. He enjoyed the performance for the acting, but he never thought much of the music he had produced, and refused permission for it to be used in a later production in Warsaw.
The complete incidental music has been released on compact disc and in MP3 form.
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