Orchestral Suite No. 4 Mozartiana (Tchaikovsky)
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The Orchestral Suite No. 4, Op. 61, more commonly known as ''Mozartiana'', is an orchestral suite by
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...
, written in 1887 as a tribute to
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
on the 100th anniversary of that composer's opera '' Don Giovanni''. Because this suite consists of four orchestrations of piano pieces by (or in one case, based on) Mozart, Tchaikovsky did not number this suite with his previous three suites for orchestra. Instead, he considered it a separate work entitled ''Mozartiana''. Nevertheless, it is usually counted as No. 4 of his orchestral suites. Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere himself, in Moscow in November 1887. It was the only one of his suites he conducted, and only the second at whose premiere he was present.


Orchestration

This suite is scored for pairs of flutes,
oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...
s, clarinets, bassoons and
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
s, four
horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
s,
timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...
, cymbals, glockenspiel, harp and strings.


Structure

''Mozartiana'' is in four movements and lasts approximately 20 minutes.


Overview

Tchaikovsky's treatment of Mozart's work here was both faithful and, as David Brown phrases it, "affectionate." He took the music as it stood and endeavoured to present it in the best possible light—this is, in late 19th-century guise. His intent was to win greater appreciation among his contemporaries for Mozart's lesser-known works. Tchaikovsky had always held ''Don Giovanni'' in the greatest awe and regarded Mozart as his musical god. The great soprano Pauline Viardot-Garcia, who was the teacher of Tchaikovsky's one-time unofficial fiancée
Désirée Artôt Désirée Artôt (; 21 July 1835 – 3 April 1907) was a Belgian soprano (initially a mezzo-soprano), who was famed in German and Italian opera and sang mainly in Germany. In 1868 she was engaged, briefly, to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who may h ...
(and whom she may have persuaded not to go through with her plan to marry the composer), had purchased the manuscript of the opera in 1855 in London and kept it in a shrine in her home, where it was visited by many people. Tchaikovsky visited her when he was in Paris in June 1886, and said that when looking at the manuscript, he was "in the presence of divinity". So it is not surprising that the centenary of the opera in 1887 would inspire him to write something honouring Mozart. (Curiously, the title role in the centenary production of ''Don Giovanni'' in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
was sung by the man who replaced Tchaikovsky in Désirée Artôt's affections, her husband, the Spanish baritone
Mariano Padilla y Ramos Francisco de Asís Mariano del Carmen Marco Padilla y Ramos; 18 July 1843 – 21 November 1906), known as Mariano Padilla y Ramos, was a Spanish operatic baritone who excelled in the title role of Mozart's ''Don Giovanni''. Biography Padilla ...
.) He wrote the work in the summer of 1887 at a spa town in the Caucasus, where he went to cure a supposed liver complaint. Tchaikovsky had hoped in ''Mozartiana'' to recreate "the past in a contemporary world", as he wrote his publisher
P. Jurgenson P. Jurgenson (in Russian: П. Юргенсон) was, in the early twentieth century, the largest publisher of classical sheet music in Russia. History Founded in 1861, the firm — in its original form, or as it was amalgamated in 1918 with ...
. However, he never did rework the music in his own style as did Stravinsky, or do anything to enhance Mozart's music. The one movement that posterity has viewed as falling short of Tchaikovsky's goal was the third, the ''Preghiera''. Tchaikovsky was not working directly from a Mozart text but from
Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
's idiosyncratic treatment of Mozart's music in ''"À la Chapelle Sixtine."'' The result is generally regarded today as too sentimental and lush a treatment of Mozart's ethereal and tender original. Also, while the
gigue The gigue (; ) or giga () is a lively baroque dance originating from the English jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th centuryBellingham, Jane"gigue."''The Oxford Companion to Music''. Ed. Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online. 6 July 20 ...
and
minuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form that accomp ...
are effectively scored, Tchaikovsky's choice of them for his opening movements suggests that like many of his contemporaries he failed to make enough distinction between Mozart's lighter and more profound sides. The final variations are more successful, as he can indulge in colorful scoring which characterized in Tchaikovsky's manner some aspects Mozart explored with this theme. Even then, Mozart appears to represent the prettiness of the baroque rather than something deeper. Tchaikovsky's apparent inability to see the real power and variety of Mozart's music may have been part of his psychological need to regard the past with wistfulness and associate it with lost purity and felicity. This inevitably committed him to a view that proved merely sentimental.Warrack, 202-203.


Legacy

A number of later composers have titled pieces ending in ''-ana'' or ''-iana'', as a way of paying tribute to other composers or performers. For a comprehensive list, see
-ana -ana (variant: -iana) is a Latin-origin suffix that is used in English to convert nouns—usually proper names—into mass nouns, most commonly in order to refer to a collection of things, facts, stories, memorabilia, and anything else, that relat ...
. George Balanchine's 1981 ballet '' Mozartiana'' is set to Tchaikovsky's work.


References


Bibliography

*Brown, David, ''Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music'' (New York: Pegasus Books, 2007). . *Warrack, John, ''Tchaikovsky'' (New York: Charles Schirmer's Sons, 1973). SBN 684-13558-2.


External links

*
Tchaikovsky Research
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Orchestral Suite No. 4 ''Mozartiana'' (Tchaikovsky) Suites by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Compositions for symphony orchestra 1887 compositions Mozartiana Arrangements of classical compositions Compositions in G major Works based on Don Giovanni