Scheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

 

Composed 1888.
Premiered on December 15, 1888 in St. Petersburg,
conducted by the composer.

During the last decade of his long life, Richard Strauss
kept in compositional practice by undertaking what he called
“wrist exercises,” an activity that produced such delightful
works as the Second Horn Concerto, the Duet-Concertino for
Clarinet and Bassoon and the Oboe Concerto. Following his
first retirement from opera, after Aida, Giuseppe Verdi insisted on writing a few measures every morning, counterpoint exercises mostly, to keep his musical thoughts flowing, and ended up in 1873 composing his only String Quartet. Tchaikovsky, too, during a lull in his creative schedule in 1879 following the completion of the Fourth Symphony and the Violin Concerto, found the need to compose without external cause. “These last few days I’ve begun to observe in myself things which at first I didn’t understand,” he wrote to his brother Modeste from his sister’s country home in Kamenka on
October 22, 1879. “I experienced a certain vague dissatisfaction with myself, an over-frequent and almost irresistible desire to sleep, a certain emptiness and ultimately boredom.... Finally yesterday it became fully apparent to me what was the matter. I had to get on with something: I find myself absolutely incapable of living long without work. Today I began to create something, and the boredom vanished as if by magic. I have begun to compose a piano concerto. I will work without hurrying, straining or tiring myself in any way.” Though he admitted to working on the new piece only in the mornings, devoting the rest of the day to reading and long walks, he fi nished the sketch of the large fi rst movement by November 1st.

On November 5th, Tchaikovsky went to Moscow to transact some business with his publisher, and there heard Nikolai Rubinstein give a splendid performance of his (Tchaikovsky’s) Piano Sonata, which Rubinstein had premiered only a week before. Despite Rubinstein’s searing criticism of the First Piano Concerto five years earlier (of which he had by 1879 recanted to the point of taking the work into his repertory), Tchaikovsky decided to dedicate the score of the new Concerto to him. Following a brief stop in St. Petersburg, he arrived in Paris on November 25th, and immediately resumed work on the piece. The finale was fi nished fi rst, then the Andante, and on December 15th he wrote to Mme von Meck, “My Concerto is ready in the rough, and I am very pleased with it.” He moved on to Rome soon thereafter, where he made a transcription of the work for two pianos before undertaking the orchestration in February. Back in St. Petersburg in March, with the Concerto nearing completion, he wrote to his publisher, Jurgenson, “I tremble at the thought of the criticisms I may hear from Nikolai Rubinstein, to whom this Concerto is dedicated. Still, even if once more he does criticize yet nevertheless goes on to perform it brilliantly as with the First Concerto, I won’t mind.”

As soon as the orchestration was completed, on May 10th, he sent a copy of the Concerto to Rubinstein, asking for his comments. Rubinstein responded that he thought the solo part was somewhat episodic and probably overwhelmed by the orchestra in certain dialogue passages, but Tchaikovsky decided to wait for a performance before making changes. Jurgenson issued Tchaikovsky’s two-piano transcription in October and the orchestral score and parts in February 1881 in anticipation of the premiere, but on March 23rd Tchaikovsky suffered a bitter loss when Rubinstein died in Paris. The performance was postponed, the solo part entrusted to Sergei Taneyev, Tchaikovsky’s favorite pupil, and the work was not heard in Moscow until heard the fi rst concert of the Industrial and Cultural Exhibition on May 18, 1882; Anton Rubinstein, Nikolai’s brother, conducted. The delay allowed the world premiere of the Second Concerto to take place in New York City, where the Philharmonic Society played it under the direction of Theodore Thomas on November 12, 1881 with Madeleine Schiller as soloist. (Remarkably, the First Piano Concerto was also premiered in this country, by Hans von Bülow in Boston on October 25, 1875.) Tchaikovsky had some misgivings about the work, especially concerning the length of the first two movements, and authorized three short cuts for a performance in 1888. Both Taneyev and Alexander Siloti, a distinguished pianist and conductor and another former student of Tchaikovsky, advocated more radical revisions, which the composer rejected, though this did not stop Jurgenson from reissuing the score in 1897, four years after Tchaikovsky’s death, in Siloti’s edition. The Concerto today, however, is usually performed in the composer’s original complete version, as it is at these concerts.

The opening movement is a vast sonata structure on three subjects: a martial first theme, a lyrical contrasting melody initiated by the clarinet and horn, and a melancholy strain comprising short orchestral fragments heavily decorated by the piano. The movement contains two solo cadenzas, both placed, most unusually, in the development section. The second one, as in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, also serves as the bridge to the recapitulation. The Andante is a large three-part form (A-B-A) which, with its prominent solos for violin and cello, is a virtual triple concerto. The finale is a rousing virtuoso display piece disposed in a loose sonata structure.

Notes by Dr. Richard E. Rodda