Page 193 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

ROMANTIC 1810–1920 191

See also: Le bourgeois gentilhomme 70–71 ■ The Magic Flute 134–137 ■
Le Sacre du printemps 246–251 ■ Romeo and Juliet 272 ■ Appalachian
Spring 286–287

he collaborated with Tchaikovsky defeat a vicious Mouse King, the
on Sleeping Beauty (1890). The work Nutcracker turns into a prince, who
was well received by the critics, takes her to the Land of Sweets,
and the two men joined forces again ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy.
for The Nutcracker two years later, The charm of Tchaikovsky’s
although illness compelled Petipa score is in large part due to his
to delegate much of the work to his creative use of the orchestra,
assistant Lev Ivanov. from the sinuous woodwind of the
Arabian Dance and the trilling
Fairytale ending flutes’ and piccolos’ contrast with
Composition of The Nutcracker the low bassoons in the Chinese Pyotr Ilyich
had a difficult start. Tchaikovsky felt Dance, to the novelty of the celesta, Tchaikovsky
constrained by the unimaginative a newly invented keyboard
libretto Petipa had created from instrument with bars like a Born in Votkinsk, Russia, in
Alexandre Dumas’s adaptation of glockenspiel, to introduce the Sugar 1840, Tchaikovsky received
German author E.T.A. Hoffman’s Plum Fairy. While the music gave piano lessons from an early
darker tale. The composer finally Petipa and his dancers the lead age. He enrolled at the newly
found inspiration in the death of his they required, Tchaikovsky’s unique opened St. Petersburg
sister, his childhood playmate. He sonority raises the music far above Conservatory in 1861 and
poured his memories of her into the the old music of the “specialists.” ■ wrote his First Symphony in
music, particularly into the central 1866. His Romeo and Juliet
character, the young girl Clara, overture (1869) was his first
who creeps down on Christmas Columbine and Harlequin evoke international success.
The Nutcracker’s fantasy world in
Eve to play with her favorite gift, a costumes designed by Denmark’s Despite recognizing
nutcracker figure, which magically Queen Margrethe II for a production his own homosexuality,
comes to life. After she helps it to in Copenhagen in 2016. Tchaikovsky entered a
doomed marriage in 1877.
A year earlier, the wealthy
widow and arts lover
Nadezhda von Meck had
become his patroness,
enabling him to devote his
time to composing. Von Meck
declared herself bankrupt
in 1890, causing a rift with
Tchaikovsky. The fatalism
that often tinged his music is
clearly present in last works,
such as his Sixth Symphony
(“Pathétique,” 1893). He died
nine days after its premiere.

Other key works

1876 Swan Lake
1878 Eugene Onegin
1889 Sleeping Beauty
1893 Symphony No. 6
(“Pathétique”)

US_190-191_Tchaikovsky.indd 191 26/03/18 1:01 PM