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PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Fantasy-Overture, Romeo and Juliet (1869; revised 1870 and 1880)

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has probably served and inspired more composers than any other single literary work—with the possible exception of Goethe’s Faust. It was an ideal choice of subject for the young Tchaikovsky—who in his early years had struggled with the problem of reconciling classical forms with new types of Romantic expression that were by their very nature impulsive and anti-formalist. Thus while the large-scale structures of his First Symphony (composed in 1866) bedeviled him, the rhapsodic nature of Romeo and Juliet—the first version of which was composed in late 1869—permitted him just the sort of intensity of expression that was to become the most palpable aspect of his style.

Tchaikovsky had first studied law, not music. He had even begun a job as clerk in the Ministry of Justice in St. Petersburg before deciding to take up the study of composition, his first love. He completed his conservatory studies relatively late, and not until the late 1860s, after he began teaching harmony and musical analysis at what eventually became the Moscow Conservatory, did his musical thinking take on a more rigorously systematic bent. This rigor is heard in the First Symphony, a work of rich, beautiful melodies that longs to burst out of the straitjacket of conventional form. Having worked some of this structuralism out of his system, the composer was ripe for Mily Balakirev’s suggestion in 1868 that he compose a piece based on Romeo and Juliet. The meddlesome Balakirev dictated to Tchaikovsky the specific structure, keys, and thematic shape that he had in mind, and unfortunately the young composer accepted the suggestions of his elder colleague with patience bordering on docility. When the first version was performed in Moscow in March 1870, Balakirev criticized it anyway—so much that Tchaikovsky prepared a new version that summer. The revision was more successful, but 10 years later Tchaikovsky revised the score yet again. It is this last version, formally taut and texturally polished, that is performed today.

Tchaikovsky’s Overture begins with a hymn-like depiction of Shakespeare’s Friar Laurence, with clarinets and bassoons (andante). An ensuing allegro presents the clash of the lovers’ warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo and Juliet are represented by English horn and muted strings—but their amorous rhapsodizing is interrupted by more family feuding. Finally all three themes are heard in succession: the love theme (perhaps the most famous Tchaikovsky melody of all), the music of the warring families, and Friar Laurence’s music. The piece ends with an ominous flourish.

—Paul J. Horsley

 

Program note © 2023. All rights reserved. Program note may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Fantasy-Overture, Romeo and Juliet (1869; revised 1870 and 1880)

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has probably served and inspired more composers than any other single literary work—with the possible exception of Goethe’s Faust. It was an ideal choice of subject for the young Tchaikovsky—who in his early years had struggled with the problem of reconciling classical forms with new types of Romantic expression that were by their very nature impulsive and anti-formalist. Thus while the large-scale structures of his First Symphony (composed in 1866) bedeviled him, the rhapsodic nature of Romeo and Juliet—the first version of which was composed in late 1869—permitted him just the sort of intensity of expression that was to become the most palpable aspect of his style.

Tchaikovsky had first studied law, not music. He had even begun a job as clerk in the Ministry of Justice in St. Petersburg before deciding to take up the study of composition, his first love. He completed his conservatory studies relatively late, and not until the late 1860s, after he began teaching harmony and musical analysis at what eventually became the Moscow Conservatory, did his musical thinking take on a more rigorously systematic bent. This rigor is heard in the First Symphony, a work of rich, beautiful melodies that longs to burst out of the straitjacket of conventional form. Having worked some of this structuralism out of his system, the composer was ripe for Mily Balakirev’s suggestion in 1868 that he compose a piece based on Romeo and Juliet. The meddlesome Balakirev dictated to Tchaikovsky the specific structure, keys, and thematic shape that he had in mind, and unfortunately the young composer accepted the suggestions of his elder colleague with patience bordering on docility. When the first version was performed in Moscow in March 1870, Balakirev criticized it anyway—so much that Tchaikovsky prepared a new version that summer. The revision was more successful, but 10 years later Tchaikovsky revised the score yet again. It is this last version, formally taut and texturally polished, that is performed today.

Tchaikovsky’s Overture begins with a hymn-like depiction of Shakespeare’s Friar Laurence, with clarinets and bassoons (andante). An ensuing allegro presents the clash of the lovers’ warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo and Juliet are represented by English horn and muted strings—but their amorous rhapsodizing is interrupted by more family feuding. Finally all three themes are heard in succession: the love theme (perhaps the most famous Tchaikovsky melody of all), the music of the warring families, and Friar Laurence’s music. The piece ends with an ominous flourish.

—Paul J. Horsley

 

Program note © 2023. All rights reserved. Program note may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.