Symphony No. 2 (Tchaikovsky)

The Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Opus 17 ( " Little Russian " ) is a symphony by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The epithet is based on Tchaikovsky's use of Ukrainian folk melodies in this symphony. After the premiere, a second version, which is the more popular today originated.

Formation

The symphony was born in 1872 during a holiday stay Tchaikovsky with his sister in Kamianka in Little Russia, now the Ukraine.

About the Music

Orchestra

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, stringed instruments, and in the last sentence Gong.

Set names

Analysis

In the first sentence sounds as horn solo, accompanied by two rhythmic themes in the woodwinds, the folk song Down there in the mother Volga. In the three-part second set resound in the first and third part of the wedding procession from Tchaikovsky's opera " Undine " ( which the composer had destroyed after Kritikerverrissen ); in the second part uses the folksong Tchaikovsky spinning, my spinner. In the third set after a stormy part follows a trio in 2/8-Takt in which a Ukrainian joke song is processed. The fourth movement is based on Ludwig van Beethoven's third symphony, the "Eroica". In the middle part, the Allegro vivo, the folk song The crane is varied.

Effect

The premiere took place in Moscow on January 26, 1873; Conductor was a friend of Tchaikovsky Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein. Both audiences and critics evaluated the symphony as "national achievement". In the years 1879/1880 the Symphony underwent a thorough makeover by Tchaikovsky. In this form it was first performed in 1881 in St. Petersburg.

The musician Hans von Bülow praised on the symphony, as well as previously in Tchaikovsky's First Symphony, whose wealth of melody. Still, " big three ", the first three symphonies of the Russian composer in the shadow of the success of Tchaikovsky, namely the fourth, fifth and sixth symphony.

Documents

  • Christoph Hahn, Sigmar Hohl ( ed.), Bertelsmann concert guide, Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1993, ISBN 3-570-10519-9
  • Haren mountain concert guide, Haren mountain communication, Dortmund, 1998, ISBN 3-611-00535-5
  • Booklet of the double CD Tchaikovsky - Symphonies Nos. 1-3, Philips Classics, 1995
Kamianka, Cherkasy Oblast Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven) Nikolai Rubinstein Symphony No. 1 (Tchaikovsky) Symphony No. 4 (Tchaikovsky) Symphony No. 5 (Tchaikovsky) Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky) Symphony No. 3 (Tchaikovsky)
656
de