Part 2 - Tchaikovsky Symphony No 2 "The Little Russian" Movement 1, Andante Sostenuto performed by The Sydney Youth Philharmonic. Conducted by Brian Buggy OAM. This full symphony orchestra is for musicians aged 14 - 20 years old.
Best viewed larger by clicking the "480p" button.
Click here for Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es4j8M_0J8E
Recorded live on 20 March 2010 at the Sydney Youth Orchestras SYO Autumn Concert at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia.
The Orchestra's website is http://www.syo.com.au
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильич Чайковский, tr. Pëtr Il'ich Chaikovskiy ) often Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in English; May 7, 1840[O.S. April 25] -- November 6, 1893 [O.S. October 25]) is a Russian composer of the Romantic era. His wide ranging output includes symphonies, operas, ballets, instrumental and chamber music and songs. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, his last three numbered symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.
Symphony No. 2
Tchaikovsky composed his Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 in 1872. One of Tchaikovsky's very joyous compositions, it was successful upon its premiere; it also won the favor of the group of nationalistic Russian composers known as "The Five", (Mily Balakirev - the leader, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin). Because Tchaikovsky used three Ukrainian folk songs to great effect in this work, it was nicknamed the "Little Russian" (Russian: Малороссийская, Malorossiyskaya) by Nikolay Kashkin, a friend of the composer as well as a well-known musical critic of Moscow. Ukraine was at that time frequently called "Little Russia".
Despite its initial success, Tchaikovsky was not satisfied with the symphony. He revised the work extensively in 1879-80, substantially rewriting the opening movement and shortening the finale. This revision is the version of the symphony usually performed today, though there have also been advocates for the original version. Among those advocates was the composer's friend and former student, Sergei Taneyev, who was himself a noted composer and pedagogue.
Movement 1
Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivo (C minor).
A solo horn playing a Ukrainian variant of "Down by Mother Volga" sets the atmosphere for this movement. Tchaikovsky reintroduces this song in the development section, and the horn sings it once more at the movement's conclusion. The rather vigorous second subject utilises a melody which would also be used subsequently by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in his Russian Easter Festival Overture. The end of the exposition, in the relative major of E flat, leads straight into the development, in which material from both themes is heard. A long pedal note leads back to the second subject. Unusually, Tchaikovsky does not repeat the first subject theme in its entirety in this section, as is conventional, but instead uses it solely for the coda.
Initial Success
Tchaikovsky played the finale at a gathering at Rimsky-Korsakov's house in St. Petersburg on January 7, 1873. To Modest, he wrote, "The whole company almost tore me to pieces with rapture—and Madame Rimskaya-Korsakova begged me in tears to let her arrange it for piano duet". Neither Balakirev nor Mussorgsky was present. Borodin was there and may have approved of the work himself. Also present was music critic Vladimir Stasov. Impressed by what he heard, Stasov asked Tchaikovsky what he would consider writing next. Stasov would soon influence the composer in writing the symphonic poem The Tempest and later, with Balakirev, the Manfred Symphony.
The premiere of the complete symphony took place in Moscow under Nikolai Rubinstein on February 7, 1873. Tchaikovsky wrote Stasov the next day that it "enjoyed a great success, so great that Rubinstein wants to perform it again ... as by public demand." That publicly demanded performance, on April 9, was even more successful. A third Moscow performance, again by public demand, took place on May 27. Critical reaction was just as enthusiastic. Stasov wrote of the finale "in terms of color, facture and humor ... one of the most important creations of the entire Russian school. " Hermann Laroche, who had travelled from St. Petersburg especially for the concert, wrote in the Moscow Register on February 1, "Not in a long time have I come across a work with such a powerful thematic development of ideas and with contrasts that are so well motivated and artistically thought out."
Adapted from Wikipedia
.
.
.
.