Tchaikovsky: Solitude - Stokowski/Philadelphia

Petr Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1840--1893)
No. 6. Again, As Before, Alone from "Six Romances"
Шесть романсов
With piano accompaniment, Op. 73

Composed April--May 1893
Text Daniil Maksimovich Ratgauz (1868--1937), from an untitled poem (1892)
Language Russian
Key A minor
Tempo/Section Listing Andante mosso (A minor, 33 bars)
Instrumentation High voice + Piano
Autograph Location Moscow: Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture (ф. 88, No. 147)
First Publication Moscow: P. Jurgenson, 1893
Dedication Nikolai Nikolaevich Figner (1857--1918)

Recorded November 16, 1936

This dark song has a fateful distinction: it is the final of a collection of six of Tchaikovsky's last completed opus. It also bears a cruel irony in that its text and music convey an abject sense of resignation and desolation, the kind of mental state the melancholic Tchaikovsky grappled with for most of his adult life and which drove him to ponder, even attempt, if half-heartedly, suicide. (Some say his death was the result of a suicide demanded by the composer's former jurisprudence classmates over an alleged homosexual encounter by Tchaikovsky.) The text, by the little-known Danil Maximovich Rathaus, who provided verses for all songs in the set, divulges no great poetic talent, but is effective in conveying its message of wretched loneliness.

The piano sets the dark mood at the outset with urgent, anguished chords, paced slowly, after which the vocalist presents the melancholy main theme with the title words. The melody is beautiful in its mixture of yearning and gloom, and immediately develops a heightened sense of anxiety and desolation, despite the deliberate tempo. The music reaches a powerful climax midway through as the soloist sings a variant of the main theme, which rises higher and higher until it reaches an hysterical plateau. The singer seems to cry out in desperation here; afterwards, the main theme returns and the song closes despondently, if not despairingly, the poet invoking prayers in the text. ~ Robert Cummings, Rovi

Leopold Stokowski (April 18, 1882 -- September 13, 1977) was a British-born American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• As Before
• Alone Six Romances

[BlackFlameSupremacy]

Do you know of any CD albums (preferably still in print) that have all six pieces from this opus 73 of his?

[2ndviolinist]

@BlackFlameSupremacy Sorry, no.

[KarlyleTheKrokodile]

FIRST!!!!