The Piano Concerto No. 1 was composed by Tchaikovsky in the last two months of 1874 (until February 1875, the composer was busy with the instrumentation of the work). Apparently, while working on the Concerto, he showed it to his favorite student Sergey Taneyev. The adolescent (only eighteen years old!) student informed his friends: “I congratulate you all on the first Russian piano concerto. It was composed by Pyotr Ilyich.” It is known that Tchaikovsky initially dedicated the Concerto to Taneyev, but later replaced that dedication with another, to Hans von Bülow, who first performed the Concerto in Boston on October 25, 1875. The first night was a resounding success. Tchaikovsky wrote to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: “Believe it or not, the Americans have quite an appetite: with each performance of my Concerto, Bülow had to repeat the finale”. Soon (November 1, 1875) the St Petersburg premiere followed, which initially caused contradictory responses. Nikolai Rubinstein, who at first strongly criticized the piece and required alterations (which Tchaikovsky flatly refused), three years later became one of the best performers of the Concerto. Tchaikovsky also spoke very highly of Sergey Taneyev’s manner of playing. “I often meet Taneyev,” he wrote to his brother Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky. “If you only knew how magnificently he plays my Concerto!”
A century and a half later, Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto became as much of a “proper name” as Beethoven’s Fifth or Ninth Symphonies. It combines a bright heroic tone and dramatic pathos with a virtuoso decorative style and, at the same time, with the finest lyricism. The recitative rhythm, so characteristic of Tchaikovsky’s operas, easily and naturally passes into rounded “arioso” forms infused with the Russian and Ukrainian melodiousness. The First Piano Concerto is one of those pearls that have become a symbol of the world classical music. Who would not respond to its “call signs” today? Those broad horn introductions, majestic colonnades of piano chords, a powerful, dazzling main theme in the strings, supported by the brass, allow nobody to stay indifferent.
The Poem of Ecstasy (Le Poème de l’extase), like no other work by Alexander Scriabin, has reflected the composer’s philosophical concept with extraordinary clarity and force. Conciseness, laconism (the Poem lasts less than 20 minutes), crystalline clarity of musical form (despite the foggy, mystical literary program) have made The Poem of Ecstasy popular among the listening audience.
The variety of short musical formulas, which the composer called (maybe somewhat pompously at times) the motives of “yearning”, “will”, “pleasure”, “heights of creativity”, when put together, do not leave a kaleidoscopic impression. All the themes are linked together by the purposeful formation of the central idea, the steady movement towards its implementation. The musical evolution goes as if in circles; waves of ascent are replaced by moments of meditation and contemplation. All this diversity of inner states and moods is cemented by a steady ascent to the general culmination of the masterpiece. This ascent is dominated by the theme of “will” (it is assigned to the solo trumpet) and the theme of “self-affirmation”.
The dazzling epilogue of The Poem of Ecstasy amazes with its unprecedented scope and titanic power. The orchestra jingles, sparkles, shimmers, it seems, with all the colors of the sound spectrum; the brass rejoices, eight horns with their sockets up and the trumpet, supported by the organ pedal and the strike of the bell, proclaim the “self-affirmation” theme, sounding with truly superhuman strength.
The first performance of The Poem of Ecstasy took place on December 10, 1908 in New York City under the conduction of Modest Altschuler. The St Petersburg premiere soon followed (January 31, 1909) conducted by Felix Blumenfeld.
Iosif Raiskin
