This coming Valentine’s weekend – February 14 and 15 – the Calgary Philharmonic invites concertgoers to get swept up in the romance of Tchaikovsky in Love at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Featuring two sweeping orchestral fantasies, a concerto with acclaimed Korean-American violinist Julian Rhee, and an excerpt from The Nutcracker, the concert is sure to stir heartstrings. But as one might expect of a stormy Russian composer of the Romantic era – one whose life was frequently marked by tragedy and multiple personal crises – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s version of amore was anything but the Hallmark variety. In fact, as we’ll see in this brief dive into three of the four pieces on the program, sometimes love is quite literally hell.
Francesca Da Rimini, Op. 35
The story goes that Tchaikovsky was on a train when, needing light reading material to pass the time, he turned to Dante’s Fourth Canto of Hell (aka The Inferno). He later wrote that he was then “seized with the burning desire” to compose a work inspired by the character of Francesca (based on a real person), who was sentenced to the underworld alongside her lover Paolo for the crime of adultery. As far as neighbours go, though, Francesa and Paolo’s eternal haunt could have been worse. Assigned to the second circle of hell, reserved exclusively for ‘carnal malefactors,’ they at least found themselves in the company of such luminaries as Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, and Achilles.
Fantasy from Romeo and Juliet
"The course of true love never runs smooth,” wrote Shakespeare in a Midsummer Night’s Dream. The same could be said of the development of Tchaikovsky’s take on the Bard’s most famous star-crossed lovers. The initial response to the composer’s Romeo and Juliet in 1870 has been described as ‘lukewarm,” though audiences in Vienna were a little more passionate than those in Moscow and Paris – apparently it was met with a “hiss” there. Tchaikovsky reworked the piece twice, with the version we know today finally premiering in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1886. It has gone on to boast one of the most recognizable love themes in classical music, popping up everywhere from The Simpsons to Sesame Street.
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
Listening to Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto does not necessarily provide clues about its torturous backstory. After all, musicologist Dr. Mitchell Fink describes it as “one of the most brilliant and cheerful of all his works.” Even more remarkable, then, that it was composed in the aftermath of a marriage that has been alternately described as “disastrous,” “a tragic sham,” and “desperately sad.” Though the composer’s union with Antonina Miliukova lasted a mere six weeks, the experience caused Tchaikovsky to suffer a nervous breakdown, and he was recuperating in Switzerland when he became inspired with the idea for the concerto. As for his ill-fated betrothal, many scholars suggest that he only proposed in the first place to squash talk about his sexuality (Tchaikovsky was gay).
Tchaikovsky in Love
February 14 + 15, 7:30PM
Jack Singer Concert Hall
Image credits:
The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil, Ary Scheffer, 1835
Mosè Bianchi: Paolo and Francesca, watercolor and gold on paper, c. 1877 (Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan)
Gustave Doré: The Souls of Paolo and Francesca, wood-engraving, 1857