Tchaikovsky / Dvorak: Serenades For Strings

Vienna Co:Cap Istrop

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Cat No: 8554048

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943404829

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: TCHAIKOVSKY / DVORAK

Description
Pyotr Il'yichTchaikovsky (1840-1893) Serenade for Strings,Op. 48Antonin Dvořak(1841-1904) Serenade for Strings,Op. 22As a composer Tchaikovsky represented a happy synthesis of the WestEuropean or German school of composition, represented in Russia by his teacherAnton Rubinstein, and the Russian nationalists, led by the impossiblyaggressive Balakirev. From Rubinstein Tchaikovsky learned his technique, whileBalakirev attempted time and again to bully him into compliance with his ownideals. To the nationalists Tchaikovsky may have seemed relatively foreign. Hiswork, after all, lacked the primitive crudity that sometimes marked theircompositions. Nevertheless acceptance abroad was not universal. Hanslick, inVienna, could deplore the "trivial Cossack cheer" of the violinconcerto and other works, while welcoming the absence of any apparent Russianelement in the last of the six symphonies. In England and America there hadbeen a heartier welcome, and in the latter country he had been received with anenthusiasm that exceeded even that at home. In his diary of the Americanconcert tour of 1891 he remarked on this and on the curious habit of Americancritics, who tended to concentrate their attention on the appearance andposture of a conductor, rather than on the music itself. At the age of 51 hewas described in the American press as "a tall, gray, interesting man,well on to sixty".The Serenade for Strings was written in the winter of 1880 to1881 and dedicated to the cellist Konstantin Albrecht and general factotum ofthe Moscow Conservatory. The work started as either a symphony or a stringquartet, before it took final shape as a suite for strings, the movements ofwhich established a coherent relationship in key and suggested symphonic structurein their arrangement. It was first performed in Moscow in 1882 and wonimmediate approval from Jupiter, as the composer's former teacher, AntonRubinstein, was known. It proved pleasing to critics and public in equalmeasure and has continued to occupy an important place in string orchestrarepertoire.The first movement, described as in the form of a sonatina, opens with aslower introduction, followed by a first subject in which the composercontinues, by dividing the sections of the orchestra, to offer a rich texture,contrasted with the livelier second subject. In the second movement Tchaikovskyreminds us of his particular gifts as a composer of ballet. The waltz melodiesbring with them admirably calculated contrasts of key and movement in music thatnever ceases to be suavely lyrical. This is followed by an Elegie morepatently Russian in inspiration, in which the composer's genius for melody iscoupled with a remarkably deft handling of string texture and a subtlemanipulation of what is fundamentally a simple scale. The Finale in itsopening leads gently from the key and mood of the Elegie to a Russianmelody, based on a descending scale, a provenance that is emphasised, finallyilluminating the origin of the initial bars
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