Orchestral Suite No. 3 (Tchaikovsky) - Reception

Reception

Tchaikovsky believed the public would appreciate the new suite; of the reception at its premiere, he wrote to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck six days after the event that "reality far exceeded my expectations. I have never before experienced such a triumph. I saw that then entire mass of the audience was moved, and grateful to me. These moments are the finest adornment of the artist's life. Thanks to these it is worth living and laboring." The composer's brother Modest later claimed it was the greatest public triumph up to that point for a Russian symphonic work. The press was uniformly favorable, with the composer's friend Herman Laroche declaring Tchaikovsky's music the true music of the future. Tchaikovsky's first two orchestral suites had also been received very warmly by the public and the critics, but the composer had not attended either of their premieres.

Laroche's comment can serve as a useful reminder that what may now sound conventional was taken at the time it was written as something very fresh and original. Tchaikovsky does not plumb any new emotional depths in this work, but his level of invention is at its most inspired. The Third Suite most notably explores further the melodic and orchestral possibilities exposed in its two predecessors as well as for Tchaikovsky's return to large-scale variation form. The final movement, Tema con Variazione, is a wonderful example of the composer's creative genius and it is a locus classicus of scoring. During Tchaikovsky's lifetime it was not uncommon for him to be asked to perform this finale without the rest of the suite, such was its universal popularity; and the finale alone has been performed numerous times since.