Program Notes © Beeri Moalem

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Violin Concerto

There’s a well known, widely varied, probably false, but somehow accurate (not to mention humorous) anecdote about Brahms and Tchaikovsky.  The two met in 1888 in Leipzig.  The often gruff Brahms leafed through Tchaikovsky’s music and after pondering a bit, he remarked, “Your music sounds better than it is.”  Tchaikovsky scoffed, and shot back, “Well, your music is better than it sounds.”

Despite their immature quibbles with one another, today, both composers are of course, undisputed masters.  They are, however, masters in different ways.  While both produce beautiful and deep music, Brahms relies more heavily on logical development and absolute treatment of music.  Tchaikovsky relies more on his unmatched gift of gorgeous melody.  This is why Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular “classical” composers.  His ballets Swan Lake, Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty are readily recognized all over the world.  His symphonies, concertos and operas, are also very successful. 

Tchaikovsky composed the violin concerto in 1878 while he was abroad, desperately hiding from his newly wedded wife.  He married in 1877 after the woman threatened to commit suicide if he wouldn’t. Other reasons could have included financial stability, and the desire to disclaim doubts about his sexuality.  But Tchaikovsky soon found out that as a homosexual, he could not perform his marital duties.  The two separated but never divorced.

Tchaikovsky was recuperating from his marriage at a resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, when he was visited by a former harmony student and violinist whom he was very fond of.  Tchaikovsky was struck with sudden inspiration, abandoned a dreadful piano sonata, and finished the violin concerto within a month’s time.  Finding a soloist to give the premiere took much longer.  Three years later, the piece was performed by the Vienna Philharmonic.  Response was mixed, varying from passionate cheers to vile boos.  A review by the viciously dogmatic Eduard Hanslick (who declared that he would burn all of Handel’s and most of Bach’s music in exchange for a little bit more Brahms or Schumann) reminds us of the fickleness ultimate inconsequence of critics:

“The violin is no longer played; it is yanked about, it is torn asunder, it is beaten black and blue…. We see wild and vulgar faces, we hear curses, we smell bad brandy…Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto brings to us for the first time the horrid idea that there may be music that stinks in the ear.”

  Today, this review can only be looked down upon with absurd hilarity, given the concerto’s passing of the test of time.  It is one of the most popular violin concertos ever composed, and is a staple of the repertoire.  The concerto is based on Russian melodies and Slavonic gestures, (explaining the Germans’ initial distaste for it) brilliantly orchestrated and virtuosically elaborated by the solo violin. 

Program Notes © Beeri Moalem