Ravel & Tchaikovsky
PROGRAMME NOTES
written by AURÉLIE WALSCHAERT
Maurice Ravel Piano Concerto in G major (1931)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1878)
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[all programme notes]
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01.09.2024 CONCERTGEBOUW AMSTERDAM
“If ever a symphonic work produced a furore after its performance, then it was your symphony. After the first movement, the applause was moderate – how should I say? – something like what is usually heard after the first movement of a symphony by Beethoven or Schumann; after the second movement, there was considerably more applause – such that Nápravník was even obliged to take a bow; after the Scherzo – a fff clamour, stamping and cries of ‘bis’. Nápravník bowed once more, and the noise only intensified, until the conductor raised his baton. Then everyone fell silent until only your pizzicato could be heard ... After this, more cries, calls, bows by Nápravník, and so on. The end of the Finale was greeted with unanimous applause, calls and stamping of feet ... The performance was very lively, but in the last movement... breathtaking.”
- Modest Tchaikovsky on the premiere of the Fourth Symphony by his brother Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Father of the Russian romantic symphony
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) composed his Fourth Symphony between 1877 and 1878, while he was also putting the finishing touches on his opera Yevgeny Onegin. These were tumultuous years for the composer: in 1877 he married the young Antonina Milyukova, shortly after he had received a heartfelt love letter. In it, she declared her love for him and threatened to commit suicide if he should reject her. Tchaikovsky hoped he could make her happy with a life ‘as brother and sister’, as he proposed. That way, he could pretend to the outside world to be living a normal family life, while at the same time following his own path. But Antonina only came to understand later what Tchaikovsky had meant by the condition he proposed. Their marriage was a difficult one, and just a few months after their wedding, Tchaikovsky fled abroad.
Critics have been all to ready to interpret this symphony as an autobiographical reflection of this troubled phase in Tchaikovsky’s life. But although his marital crisis may well have influenced the symphony indirectly, its main lines had already been laid down earlier. Although his letters to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck (1831-1894), are misleading in this regard. The rich widow and the composer engaged in a longstanding correspondence without ever having met each other. After finishing his symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote her a long letter, as a sort of guide to his symphony. In it, he referred among other things to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and compared his symphony to a battle against fate, that “is too powerful for an individual to overcome.” But the idea that he was trying in this way to sum up his own life and fate is doubtful.
The symphony did always have special significance for Tchaikovsky. In a letter to Nikolai Rubinstein in January 1878, he had written: "It seems to me that this is my best work. Of my two latest creations, i.e., the opera and the symphony, I favour the latter." A month later, Rubinstein conducted the successful première in Moscow. And even ten years later, Tchaikovsky was still convinced this was one of his best works. He wrote to von Meck: “It turns out that not only have I not cooled towards it, as I have cooled towards most of my compositions, but on the contrary I am filled with warm and sympathetic feelings towards it. I don’t know what the future may bring, but presently it seems to me that this is my best symphonic work.
A concerto rich in contrasts
Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G is a blueprint for the composer’s aesthetic. With Mozart and Saint-Saëns as his models, it is far from the often bombastic piano concertos of the twentieth century. “The music of a concerto should, in my opinion, be light-hearted and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or at dramatic effects. It has to be said of certain great classics [specifically Brahms] that their concertos were written not ‘for’ but ‘against’ the piano. I heartily agree. I had intended to entitle this concerto 'Divertissement'. Then it occurred to me that there was no need to do so, because the very title 'Concerto' should be sufficiently clear,” as Ravel set out his vision.
He wrote his Piano Concerto in G between 1929 and 1931, after a concert tour through the United States. There, he discovered jazz, which was also to be heard in Paris: "The most exciting element of jazz is the rich and varied rhythm. It is a very rich and unmistakable source of inspiration for modern composers, and I am amazed that so few Americans have been influenced by it”. So it is no surprise that Ravel incorporated syncopated rhythms, blues figures and jazz harmonies into his piano concerto. Spanish influences can also be detected. In terms of form, the concerto follows the traditional division into three movements which are very different from each other. For the orchestra, Ravel opted for a small-scale instrumentation, giving pride of place to the lower voices such as the English horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon and the lower strings – by way of contrast with the pianist, who plays chiefly in the upper register.