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PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Selections from the Suite from Swan Lake, Op. 20a

In the autumn of 1875, when Tchaikovsky began composing Swan Lake, he was still licking his professional wounds from Nikolai Rubinstein’s searing attack on his First Piano Concerto (“Only one or two pages are worth anything,” Rubinstein had said). Nevertheless, the favorable public reception of his Third Symphony had given him fresh confidence in his abilities, and upon receiving a commission from the Imperial Theaters, he rushed to complete the first of his full-length ballets, which was ready by the spring of 1876. As a result of an unsympathetic audience and a dismal performance—which included cuts in the score and interpolations of works by other composers—the four-act Lebedinoye ozero (Swan Lake) was a failure at its first performance by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, in March 1877. Almost 150 years later, we now see the work for what it is: one of the composer’s most masterful scores, deservedly popular for the sheer beauty of its lush melodic material and for the richness of its characterization. 

The story involves a young prince, Siegfried, who has reached the age to choose a bride. Encountering the lovely Odette, he falls immediately in love. What he does not know is that the evil Rothbart has placed Odette under a spell, which dooms her to live as a swan during the day until she meets a man who loves her absolutely and faithfully. Clearly the Prince is that man, but during the celebrations at which the Prince is to choose his bride, Rothbart brings in as a candidate his own daughter, Odile, who is Odette’s double. Siegfried chooses the wrong girl and is doomed to stick by his decision; by the time he discovers the deception, Odette has already drowned herself in utter despair. 

Siegfried, preferring to die rather than live without Odette, follows his beloved into the lake and drowns as well. His love and self-sacrifice destroy Rothbart and his evil empire, and in a final apotheosis Siegfried and Odette are seen floating into the sunrise in a luminous magic boat. 

It was not until Marius Petipa’s revival of Swan Lake in 1895 that the work decisively entered the international repertoire. Since then it has taken on a life of its own, becoming perhaps the central classical piece of most traditional ballet companies. 

 

—Paul J. Horsley

Program notes © 2024. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Selections from the Suite from Swan Lake, Op. 20a

In the autumn of 1875, when Tchaikovsky began composing Swan Lake, he was still licking his professional wounds from Nikolai Rubinstein’s searing attack on his First Piano Concerto (“Only one or two pages are worth anything,” Rubinstein had said). Nevertheless, the favorable public reception of his Third Symphony had given him fresh confidence in his abilities, and upon receiving a commission from the Imperial Theaters, he rushed to complete the first of his full-length ballets, which was ready by the spring of 1876. As a result of an unsympathetic audience and a dismal performance—which included cuts in the score and interpolations of works by other composers—the four-act Lebedinoye ozero (Swan Lake) was a failure at its first performance by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, in March 1877. Almost 150 years later, we now see the work for what it is: one of the composer’s most masterful scores, deservedly popular for the sheer beauty of its lush melodic material and for the richness of its characterization. 

The story involves a young prince, Siegfried, who has reached the age to choose a bride. Encountering the lovely Odette, he falls immediately in love. What he does not know is that the evil Rothbart has placed Odette under a spell, which dooms her to live as a swan during the day until she meets a man who loves her absolutely and faithfully. Clearly the Prince is that man, but during the celebrations at which the Prince is to choose his bride, Rothbart brings in as a candidate his own daughter, Odile, who is Odette’s double. Siegfried chooses the wrong girl and is doomed to stick by his decision; by the time he discovers the deception, Odette has already drowned herself in utter despair. 

Siegfried, preferring to die rather than live without Odette, follows his beloved into the lake and drowns as well. His love and self-sacrifice destroy Rothbart and his evil empire, and in a final apotheosis Siegfried and Odette are seen floating into the sunrise in a luminous magic boat. 

It was not until Marius Petipa’s revival of Swan Lake in 1895 that the work decisively entered the international repertoire. Since then it has taken on a life of its own, becoming perhaps the central classical piece of most traditional ballet companies. 

 

—Paul J. Horsley

Program notes © 2024. All rights reserved. Program notes may not be reprinted without written permission from The Philadelphia Orchestra Association.