Manfred Symphony

The Manfred Symphony (opus 58 ) is a program symphony in four scenes by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky after the dramatic poetry of Manfred George Gordon Byron from the year 1816. Due to the literary programmatic she is actually attributable to the justified by Berlioz and Liszt symphonic poem. The first performance of the symphony was on 11 March 1886 Max Erdmannsdörfer in Moscow. The fact that the Manfred Symphony was not included in the numbered series of Tchaikovsky's symphonies, probably because of his wavering attitude towards the work; First he described it as " incurred under unspeakable trouble and Anstregung » score and as his " best symphony ." But then after the little happy world premiere he scorned them as repulsive work.

The four pictures are the following sentences:

Instrumentation:

• Three flutes (3rd also plays piccolo ), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons
• Four horns, two trumpets, two cornets ( cornet à piston ), three trombones, bass tuba
• Timpani, percussion, bell
• Two Harps
• Harmonium ( often played on organ)
• Strings

Genesis

Tchaikovsky was the setting of the 1882 Manfred plotted by Mili Balakirev, Hector Berlioz after the subject had already been rejected because of health and age. Balakirev already had this very clear ideas about the content and even the keys. Even Tchaikovsky initially refused because he did not believe to be able to add to the composition of his beloved Manfred Robert Schumann something new.

End of October 1884 Tchaikovsky drove the short term to a dying friend to Davos in Switzerland. The circumstances of the visit, the experience the alpine mountain world in the context of intense involvement with the Manfred seal could rethink it. Still from Davos he said Balakirev to the setting of Manfred and began composing in April 1885 ( he interrupted to work on the opera The Enchantress ). From Desiring to complete the symphony as quickly as possible, he worked tirelessly until its completion in September of the same year. Tchaikovsky identified with the dramatic subject so much that he became more restless, so depressed about work.

From the original program proposal Balakirev took Tchaikovsky, who followed his own ideas, not everything, but got the idea of the program symphony and the symphonic poem.

Content

Manfred combines an incestuous relationship with his half-sister Astarte. When the relationship is rumored Manfred flees into the Alps, full of grief at the separation from his beloved sister. The music describes the state of mind of the hero directly and allegorically in magnificent natural images.

Each of the four movements of the symphony presented Tchaikovsky short prose summaries ahead. For the first set ( Lento lugubre - Moderato con moto - Andante, 4/4-time, B minor ), he wrote: " Manfred wanders in the Alps. His life is shattered, many burning questions remain unanswered, nothing is left to him except the memories. The shape of the ideal Astarte floats him through the senses, in vain he calls after her, but the echo of the rocks repeated her name. Thoughts and memories torment him, he seeks oblivion that no one can give him "The sentence does not follow -. , As usual - the pattern of a sonata movement, but is kept in fantasy form with tripartite recognizable.

The second movement ( Vivace con spirito, 2/4-cycle, B minor ) takes a suggestion of Balakirev on which he had originally proposed for the third sentence: " The Alpenfee appears before Manfred under the rainbow of a waterfall ," the Tchaikovsky as in the sunlight glistens and spray through music.

The third movement (Andante con moto, 6/8-measure, G major ) is a Pastorale, in the Tchaikovsky, the " simple, free and peaceful life of the mountain people " describes as a contrast to the emotional turmoil of Manfred. Manfred believes here to find peace, but he does not appear really in this to life: with his performance, the music is restless and torn.

In the fourth movement ( Allegro con fuoco, C clock, B minor ) followed Tchaikovsky again Balakirev draft program: " The underground palace of Ahriman. Manfred appears in the middle of bacchanal. Invocation of the shadow of Astarte. She prophesies the end of his earthly suffering. Manfred's death. "

In the words of the abbot ' death - His soul ' is this earth fled, - Where? - Me shudder to think of it, - It is made "includes Lord Byron's poem.