Concert Fantasy (Tchaikovsky)
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The Concert Fantasy in G, Op.56, for piano and orchestra, was written by Pyotr Tchaikovsky between June and October 1884. This virtuoso work started out as a new piano concerto; however, Tchaikovsky soon abandoned this idea. At the same time, Tchaikovsky was working on the composition of his Third Suite for orchestra, also in G major, and he used material from the abandoned first movement ('Contrasts') of that suite for the Concert Fantasy's second movement.
Premiered in Moscow on 22 February (os)/6 March (ns), 1885, with Sergey Taneyev as soloist and Max Erdmannsdörfer conducting, the Concert Fantasia received many performances in the first 20 years of its existance. It then disappeared from the repertoire and lay virtually unperformed for many years, but it has undergone a recent revival, with recordings by such pianists as Mikhail Pletnev, Dimitris Sgouros, Peter Donohoe and Konstantin Scherbakov.
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[edit] Background
[edit] Two Works, One Source
Tchaikovsky returned from abroad at the beginning of March 1884, determined to spend the spring months with his sister at Kamenka. This trip was delayed by urgent modifications to his opera Mazeppa. Tchaikovsky wrote to Nadezhda von Meck from St. Petersburg on March 13 1884, "I am feeling a surge of energy, and an impatience to set about something new " But Tchaikovsky did not manage to start any new work in St. Petersburg. Only after arriving at Kamenka on April 12 did Tchaikovsky set to work.
Tchaikovsky was uncertain initially what type of composition he would write. "For the present I have still not started work, and have only been collecting some materials for a future symphonic composition, the form of which has still not been settled" Captivated by the playing of pianist and famed Liszt pupil Eugen d’Albert, who had given concerts in Moscow during the 1883/84 season, his thoughts turned to a new piano concerto. Tchaikovsky was taken enough by d'Albert's playing to write to Madame von Meck, "[There] is a certain young man, called d'Albert, who was in Moscow last winter, and whom I heard several times in public and at private houses. To my mind he is a pianist of genius, the legitimate successor of [Anton] Rubinstein[1]."
Tchaikovsky wrote in his diary for April 13, 1884, "I stopped playing around and came up with something new. Hit upon an idea for a concerto for piano, but it still sounded too poor and unoriginal". Tchaikovsky added the next day, "Long period of idleness, without the slightest inspiration". Two days after that: "Both in the Trostianka [woods] and at home after dinner, tried to decide on the foundations for the new symphony, but it was all unsatisfactory ... Walked in the garden and came up with the seed not of a future symphony, but of a suite."
Progress, at least in the composer's view, did not improve over time. On April 17 and 18, Tchaikovsky wandered in the Trostianka woods and noted down, in his own words: "wretched ideas." The next day: "Very disappointed with myself that everything that comes into my head is banal." Nevertheless, on the same day, Tchaikovsky wrote to Madame von Meck: "Over recent days the form of my future symphonic work has been determined -- it shall be a suite."
After completing the sketches and piano arrangement of the Third Suite in June, while staying at Grankino, Tchaikovsky returned to composing the Concert Fantasia. "Besides orchestrating the Suite, I have taken up a new composition, namely a concerto for piano", Tchaikovsky wrote to von Meck on 16 June 1884, but on 14 July he told her: "The piano concerto, about which I wrote to you, I want to write in the autumn, or even winter."
In the second movement of the Concert Fantasia, Tchaikovsky included material from "Contrasts," the rejected first movement of the suite. Sketches for Contrastes, written in an orchestral variant, date from 10-12 May 1884. It seems that at this time the form of the composition was still not quite clear to the author. In the majority of his letters he called it a "concerto", and in a June 30 letter to his student and fellow composer Sergei Taneyev, Tchaikovsky wrote, "I have an idea for a concert piece for piano in two movements." The term "piece" was used in other letters from this same period.
[edit] More Work
In late July, Tchaikovsky left Grankino for Skabeevo, near Podolsk, where he spent the summer with his brother Anatole and his family. He arrived with the firm intention of starting work on the proposed piano concerto; until then, the work had existed only as sketches. A new difficulty presented itself when he opened his baggage, since he could not "find the full score of my suite and sketches for the piano concerto.. .." He was worried by the prospect of working at Skabeevo without an instrument: "Occupying myself here will be difficult, if not quite impossible ... there is no piano, and I came here to work on a piano piece", Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother Modest. However, at Tchaikovsky's request, his publisher P. I. Jurgenson arranged for the delivery of a piano to Skabeevo.
Tchaikovsky wrote to von Meck on August 1 of his intention to "remain the whole month in the country, to be reading and steadily working on my piano concerto." But on 8 August he reported "My work is going very well. The piano concerto is almost prepared in rough and before long I shall commence the instrumentation" On 15 August, Tchaikovsky wrote that the concerto had been finished in draft, and that he had set about the orchestration, which he was hurrying to finish so that it could be played before the end of the year.
He remained at Skabeevo until the end of August. It seems that while he was in Moscow on August 26, Tchaikovsky discussed the Concert Fantasia with Sergei Taneyev, and arranged to meet with him on September 2 in Moscow, when Tchaikovsky played his new work to Taneyev. On September 3, Tchaikovsky arrived at Pleshcheevo. There on September 5, he resumed working on the Concert Fantasia, orchestrating it and at the same time making the arrangement for two pianos. This work went well up to September 15. Then he again returned to Moscow in order to collect the proofs of the suite, and "to see Taneyev, who has already begun to learn the concerto."
On September 24, Tchaikovsky finished the full score (according to the date on the manuscript). Evidently he had already sent the first movement to Jurgenson, and on September 25 he sent the publisher the second movement, "Contrasts." Tchaikovsky added an appendix to the manuscript - a variant of the full score on six pages - for performers wanting only to play the first movement. Included with this appendix was a short explanatory note in Russian and French. In a letter to Jurgenson that same day (September 25), Tchaikovsky for the first time referred to his work as a "fantasia for piano." On October 1, Tchaikovsky wrote von Meck, "I have finished all my work."
[edit] First Performance
During October and November the Concert Fantasia was rapidly engraved, since it had to be ready for a concert of the Russian Musical Society in December, where Taneyev would premiere it.
In early October 1884, Tchaikovsky left Pleshcheevo for St. Petersburg, to attend rehearsals of the opera Eugene Onegin. There he received proofs of the Third Suite and the Fantasia. His plans were disrupted by an unplanned trip abroad on November 1 to see his dying friend Kotek. The second and third sets of proofs were therefore entrusted to Nikolas Krizander, so they in turn could be forwarded to Taneyev. Nevertheless, on his return from abroad to St. Petersburg on 7 December, and then travelling to Moscow on December 17, Tchaikovsky was still correcting the proofs of both works.
The performance of the Concert Fantasia, originally scheduled for December 15, 1884, was delayed owing to the indisposition of the conductor, Max Erdmannsdörfer. The concert took place on February 22, 1885 at the tenth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow. Taneyev was soloist, with Erdmannsdörfer conducting. Tchaikovsky, who attended the concert, wrote to Modest on February 25, "I heard a superb performance of the Fantasia by Taneyev and the orchestra, with which I was delighted. It had great success with the public." In St Petersburg, the Concert Fantasia was performed for the first time on 4 April 1886 in the tenth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society, conducted by Hans von Bülow and with Taneyev as soloist.
The Concert Fantasia was published by Jurgenson. Arrangements for four pianos and two hands were brought out in December 1884, the orchestral parts in January 1885, and the full score in March 1893. The arrangement of the Fantasia was printed with a dedication to Anna Esipova, and the full score to Sophie Menter.
[edit] Structure
The first movement is titled 'Quasi rondo: Andante mosso'. The second movement 'Contrasts' is a cadenza for piano solo, leading into the final section without a break. Its tempo indications are Andante Catabile - Molto Vivace - Vivacissimo - Allegro Moderato - Vivacissimo - Molto Piu Tranquillo - Vivace.
[edit] References
- ed. Abraham, Gerald, Music of Tchaikovsky (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1946)
- Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Years of Wandering (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986)
- Schonberg, Harold C., The Great Pianists (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987, 1963)
- Warrack, John, Tchaikovsky (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973)
- Warrack, John, Tchaikovsky Symphonies and Concertos (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969)
