Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1993)

THE STORY

In 1865, Tchaikovsky numbered among the first graduating class of the new St. Petersburg Conservatory; in the following year, the young composer assumed a teaching position at the newly established  Moscow Conservatory. In Moscow, Tchaikovsky met Mily Balakirev, the leader of a group of composers known as the “Mighty Five.” It was Balakirev who in 1869 suggested to Tchaikovsky a composition based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and even went as far as to suggest specifics regarding the work—including its form, themes, and musical keys.

Although Tchaikovsky did not take all of Balakirev’s suggestions, he accepted many. In a letter, the grateful younger composer promised “it will be my most monumental work,” and eventually he dedicated the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture to Balakirev. After its premiere in 1870, it underwent two subsequent revisions. The music now familiar to audiences is the third version, whose famous love theme has saturated television and film scores.

LISTEN FOR

• The solemn chords in the slow introduction—the chorale-like quality is supposed to represent Friar Laurence, who marries the young lovers in an attempt to put an end to the long-standing feud between the Montagues and Capulets
• The same note that alternates between the woodwinds and strings, leading to the introduction of the belligerent first theme that alludes to the fighting between the two families—also evoked by cymbals, furiously rising and ebbing scales in the strings, and calls in the woodwinds
• The famous love theme, lyrically stated by the English horn before the woodwinds elaborated by the woodwinds before it is disturbed by the return of the first theme—only to return in its most passionate form as the strings soar to the piece’s climax

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings