Slow Listening #3
Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Serenade for Strings (1880)
I’ve gone with the Serenade because it’s Tchaikovsky’s birthday today, and this is the perfect piece for spring. It’s full of light and shade, optimism and joy.
Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote the serenade in 1880, and it was one of his own favourite works. He said that he composed it ‘from an innate impulse; it is something I felt deep within myself, and therefore, I dare to think, is not devoid of true merit.’ The passion that was poured into this work really shines through — it communicates so clearly and intensely. ‘I just love this serenade terribly,’ he told his publisher.
The serenade is a marriage of Russian and European traditions, and Classical and Romantic styles. It’s in four movements, the first of which is Tchaikovsky’s homage to a much earlier composer, Mozart. ‘It is intended to be an imitation of his style,’ he wrote, ‘and I should be delighted if I thought I had in any way approached my model.’ The second movement is a waltz, a dance strongly associated with Mozart’s home country, Austria. But this is a very modern take on the form, closer to Tchaikovsky’s own ballets than anything Mozart would have recognised. The mood shifts for the third movement elegy. It’s much darker in tone, but still never melancholy or defeated. The lively fourth movement is based on a Russian folk tune, bringing the serenade to a playful, upbeat close.
Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo – Allegro moderato (Piece in the form of a sonatina: At walking pace — Moderately fast)
Valse: Moderato — tempo di valse (Waltz: Moderate, in waltz time)
Élégie: Larghetto elegiaco (Elegy: Slow, mournful)
Finale (Tema russo): Andante — Allegro con spirito (Finale on a Russian theme: Moderately slow — Fast and with spirit)
Listening Prompt
Short and sweet today:
Do you hear anything bittersweet in this work?
When are you happiest? How could you make room for more joy?
Recommended Recording
Paavo Berglund cond. New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra: Tchaikovsky & Dvorak String Serenades
We are truly spoiled for choice with this piece. It has been recorded a LOT. If you like your sound lush and romantic, then Herbert von Karajan’s recording with the Berlin Philharmonic is a good go-to. For a much lighter touch, and a more waltz-like second movement, Sir Neville Marriner with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields is great. But I’m going to go with a recording that’s between these two extremes: Paavo Berglund conducting the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra.
What a beautiful performance. I have a New York City Ballet recording on Nonesuch in a Balanchine tribute collection that I have hardly ever played so I only really know the HvK 60s recording. My first job in music was counter staff in a classical record shop and we used to sell a fair number of copies of a DG album that IIRC had Nutcracker Suite on one side and this on the other. Often bought, I then imagined, by well-meaning parents and grandparents as stocking-fillers for children who were secretly hoping for "Off The Wall" or the Duran Duran album (which dates me). I have what I think is the same version (would need to check) on cd with the 1812. That HvK version sounds positively austere, mournful, introspective and at times undanceable compared with the Berglund which has an incredible spring in its step. I am no expert but seems to me HvK situated his approach in the same kind of reflective sound world as his 70s Mahler and Bruckner recordings. Not hearing the bittersweet / elegiac so much in the Berglund but I am hearing a religiosity in the 1st movement that I would have missed without your listening prompt. I think I marginally prefer HvK in the The Elegie section and I love how that segues into the finale. Bergulnd takes the Waltz and has me needing to cue up Ravel's La Valse and the Rosenkavalier Suite next. Anyway .... the route to attaining more joy and happiness? An oceanic stillness of mind. And more music, of course!