Music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Concertos and Concertante Pieces

Concertos and Concertante Pieces

Two of Tchaikovsky's concertos were rebuffed by their respective dedicates but became among the composer's best-known works. The First Piano Concerto suffered an initial rejection by its intended dedicate, Nikolai Rubinstein, as notably recounted three years after the fact by the composer. The work went instead to pianist Hans von Bülow, whose playing had impressed Tchaikovsky when he appeared in Moscow in March 1874. Bulow premiered the work in Boston in October 1875. Rubinstein eventually championed the work himself. Likewise, the Violin Concerto was rejected initially by noted virtuoso and pedagogue Leopold Auer, was premiered by another soloist (Adolph Brodsky), then belatedly accepted and played to great public success by Auer. In addition to playing the concerto himself, Auer would also teach the work to his students, including Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein.

Altogether, Tchaikovsky wrote four concertos (three for piano, one for violin), two concertante works for soloist and orchestra (one each for piano and cello) and a couple of short works. The First Piano Concerto, while faulted traditionally for having its opening melody in the wrong key and never restating that tune in the rest of the piece, shows an expert use of tonal instability to enhance tension and increase the tone of restlessness and high drama. The Violin Concerto, one of Tchaikovsky's freshest-sounding and least pretentious works, is filled with melodies that could have easily come from one of his ballets. The Second Piano Concerto, more formal in tone and less extroverted than the First, contains prominent solos for violin and cello in its slow movement, giving the impression of a concerto grosso for piano trio and orchestra. The Third Piano Concerto, initially the opening movement of a symphony in E flat, was left on Tchaikovsky's death as a single-movement composition. Tchaikovsky also promised a concerto for cello to Anatoliy Brandukov and one for flute to Paul Taffanel but died before he could work on either project in earnest.

Of the concertante works, the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra was inspired by Mozart and shows Tchaikovsky's affinity for Classical style in its tastefulness and refined poise. The Concert Fantasia for piano and orchestra is related in its light tone and unorthodox formal structure to the orchestral suites. (The opening movement, in fact, had originally been intended for the Third Suite.) Written as a display piece for the soloist, it hearkens back to a time when audiences concentrated more on the virtuosity of the performer than on the musical content of the piece being played. The Andante and Finale for piano and orchestra was completed and orchestrated posthumously by Sergei Taneyev. It was originally the second and fourth movements of the E-flat symphony, the same source as the Third Piano Concerto.

Miscellaneous works include the following:

• Sérénade mélancolique, Op. 26, for violin and orchestra.

As with the Violin Concerto, this was dedicated to Leopold Auer but premiered by Adolph Brodsky, and the dedication to Auer was withdrawn

• Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34, for violin and orchestra

Dedicated to violinist Iosif Kotek, who assisted Tchaikovsky in composing the Violin Concerto, in part to make amends for not dedicating that work to Kotek.

• Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 42

Written in three short movements, the opening movement was the original slow movement of the Violin Concerto which Tchaikovsky replaced with the Canzonetta currently in that work.

• Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62, (1888), for cello and Orchestra

Written for Anatoliy Brandukov in the somber key of B minor (the same key as the Pathétique Symphony), the composition's capriccioso aspect comes from Tchaikovsky's fanciful treatment of the work's simple theme.

• Cello concerto

A conjectural work based in part on a 60-bar fragment found on the back of the rough draft for the last movement of the composer's Sixth Symphony.

• Concertstück for Flute and Strings, TH 247 Op. posth. (1893)

This piece, lost for 106 years, was found in Saint Petersburg in 1999 and reconstructed by James Strauss.