ZHANG CONDUCTS TCHAIKOVSKY the sketches May 26, 1889, in the evening at 8 o-clock,” he wrote at the end of the finale.“ Praise God! In all, worked ten days in October, 3 weeks in January, and a week now! And so in all about 40 days.” Vsevolozhsky had arranged for the Minister of the Imperial Court to pay Tchaikovsky an advance of 3,000 rubles. After the work was premiered, in January 1890, he recommended that the Minister supplement that with a further 2,000 rubles“ in view of the especially outstanding quality of the music.” So great was the excitement about the new ballet that the Czar himself attended the dress rehearsal; at the end, his only comment to the composer was“ Very nice.” The next day, the audience responded with similar tepidity; but before long, The Sleeping Beauty would become rightly regarded as not only the most substantial of Tchaikovsky’ s three ballets and as the work that most perfectly defines the essence of classic ballet.
Instrumentation: Two flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two cornets and two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, orchestra bells( clochettes), harp, and strings.
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, FANTASY AFTER DANTE, OP. 32 [ 1876 ]
The most famous words in Dante’ s Divine Comedy are those that the poet finds inscribed above the gates of Hell:“ Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’ entrate”(“ Abandon all hope, you who enter here”). The second most famous quotation is doubtless the poignant maxim uttered in the Second Circle of Hell, where the shade of Francesca da Rimini mournfully muses,“ Nessun maggior dolore / Che ricordarsi del tempo felice / Nella miseria”(“ There is no greater sorrow / Than to be mindful of the happy time / In misery”). Francesca has indeed abandoned all hope, but at least she’ s not stuck very deep down in the pit of Hell, where things get progressively worse the farther you get from God. Francesca was a sinner, but her downfall was love— adultery, to be sure, but love nonetheless. She got caught in passionate embrace with her husband’ s brother, and there the couple is, locked together eternally in the Second Circle, buffeted by torrential rains and blown about by stormy winds along with such other lustful luminaries as Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, and Tristan.
Tchaikovsky at first envisioned Francesca da Rimini as an opera, but when his librettist started demanding that their piece be in the style of Wagner, Tchaikovsky put his foot down and developed the work as a symphonic poem instead. The heart of this piece is the central section, which, through Francesca’ s narrative, delves into the human drama of the situation. Nevertheless, Tchaikovsky’ s depiction of the pelting rain and whirling wind of the Second Circle is also vivid when he depicts that scene in an Allegro vivo section near the work’ s opening and again at the piece’ s conclusion. It was reported that he derived inspiration not only from Dante’ s poem, but also from Gustave Doré’ s famous drawings illustrating that classic.
Instrumentation: Three flutes( third doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two cornets and two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, harp, and strings.
JAMES M. KELLER, in his 25th season as Program Annotator of the San Francisco Symphony and longtime Program Annotator of the New York Philharmonic, is the author of Chamber Music: A Listener’ s Guide( Oxford University Press).
MAY-JUN 2025 | OVERTURE | 27