Awesome Music / Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Though Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was considered out of place at a time when his fellow Russian composers were writing staunchly nationalist music, his work has proven more enduringly popular.

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• The "1812 Overture" literally leads the charge for Tchaikovsky: a work that is played with a triumphant Russian chorus, numerous thundering chimes, fireworks, and freaking cannons. To quote Calvin, "And they perform this in crowded concert halls? Gee, I thought classical music was boring!"
  • Perhaps the only piece of music that REQUIRES cannons, carillon, and an organ (or military band) to perform properly. Since there are perhaps only a dozen places where these three instruments can be used, live performances will use at best two out the three, with the third instrument being pre-recorded, or ignoring the organ orchestration altogether. (It's possible to fake the cannons by giving members in the audience...paper bags. Which does greatly diminish the effect, but it's better than nothing. Also, the carillon are very frequently replaced with a set of tubular bells and local church bells.)
  • Being able to play this beast of a musical piece properly is a Moment of Awesome in and of itself, regardless of what type of band you're in. Anyone who has participated in a performance can tell you just how hard it really is.
  • The final minute or so is a Moment of Awesome (to the point that most listeners only know that part of the piece; in the United States in particular, it often accompanies Fourth of July fireworks displays), but one has to hear the whole piece (over fifteen minutes in most performances and recordings) to truly appreciate it for what it is. The rest is just haunting and pure awesome. There's a particularly nice section where the Marseillaise is given a grand stirring reprise, rising towards an apparent climax of epic proportions - only to get drowned out by a volley of cannons right at the very moment when it reaches the peak, representing the Battle of Borodino before the descending melodies as Napoleon's invading armies retreat from Russian ground.^note  Although the use of "La Marseillaise" is somewhat anachronistic, as Napoleon had banned performances of it in 1805, and it did not regain its status as the French national anthem until 1879 - just in time for Tchaikovsky to compose his overture. The more famous volley of cannons in the final minute is accompanied by a triumphant statement of the then-national anthem of Russia, "God Save the Tsar!", in the lower strings and brass.^note  Although during the Soviet era, the use of "God Save the Tsar!" in the "1812" overture, as well as the Marche Slave and the Festival Overture on the Danish National Anthem, was edited out and replaced by other melodies - in this case, "Glory, Glory to you, holy Rus'!" from the finale of Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar.
  • It's even more awesome with a choir singing!
• Tchaikovsky is also perhaps the most celebrated composer of ballet music:
  • Nutcracker, anyone? A Christmas staple all over Europe and North America for decades, packed with awesome from the buoyant Overture and the rousing March that open Act I to the suite of dances in the middle of Act II, several of which - including the ethereal Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the flighty Dance of the Reed Flutes, the boisterous Trepak, and the graceful Waltz of the Flowers - have become Standard Snippets.^note  Tchaikovsky himself grew to detest the ballet in later life, however.
  • Swan Lake is another classic. The overture from Swan Lake was used to terrifying effect in the trailers for Black Swan, using that upswing in the middle to punctuate the ad.
• Tchaikovsky's concerti include some outstanding classics:
  • His Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor is one of the most enduringly popular concerti ever composed - and not just for the famous first three minutes (the lush, songlike theme from which then disappears for the rest of the concerto). The first movement is all kinds of large scale awesome, with many moments of drama and high emotion, while the second movement is an oasis of calm (interrupted in the middle by a virtuosic whirlwind) before the tempestuous yet ultimately triumphant finale. A real tour de force for any pianist.^note  Not that it was always viewed that way; Tchaikovsky intended for it to be premiered by the pianist and pedagogue Nikolai Rubinstein, but when presented with the score, Rubinstein infamously described it as "unplayable", and an enraged Tchaikovsky refused to change a single note and instead gave it to the German pianist, composer, and conductor Hans von Bülow, to whom the concerto was subsequently dedicated. Rubinstein eventually came around and made the concerto a staple of his repertoire; he agreed to premiere Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.2 by way of apology, but died before rehearsals could begin.
  • The violin concerto. Why only one violin concerto, Piotr Illitch? Why?^note  Possibly because the presentation to the man whom Tchaikovsky hoped would premiere the concerto, Leopold Auer, had unfortunate echoes of Rubinstein's denunciation of his Piano Concerto No.1 - he even used the same word, "unplayable" (though he later regretted his choice of words, explaining that he meant only that, as written, the music would not do justice to the violin's capabilities; as with Rubinstein and the piano concerto, Auer eventually made the concerto a fixture of his repertoire, but not before editing the solo part with the composer's blessing). Vienna-based critic Eduard Hanslick also wrote a famously scathing review of the concerto - describing it as the first example he had heard of music that "stinks to the ear" - that so scarred Tchaikovsky that he could quote it from memory right up to his death. At least we can be grateful for the one he did compose, with its first movement founded on a sprightly main theme (following an introduction that seems to introduce an important theme that is then never heard again) and full of spellbinding passages for the soloist and the lush Romantic melodies for which Tchaikovsky was famous, a heartbroken second movement Canzonetta, and a boisterous finale that finds time for tender interludes along the way.
  • Tchaikovsky technically didn't write a cello concerto. However, Variations on a Rococo Theme for small orchestra and solo cello can certainly seem like one, with plenty of opportunity for the cellist to demonstrate virtuosity.
• The "Marche Slave", a tone poem depicting the Serbian-Ottoman war and Russia's involvement in it, is a true emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. It is divided into four distinct sections: the first depicts the Serbs being oppressed by the Turks, the hardships of the slaves portrayed by a plaintive theme made up of two Serbian folk songs, "Sunce jarko, ne sijas jednako" ("Bright sun, you do not shine equally") and "Rado ide Srbin u vojnike" ("Gladly does the Serb become a soldier"), played by the violas and bassoons. The theme is subjected to a number of restatements and embellishments from different members of the orchestra, and after a brief moment of brightness and hope, the drama and power begin to build substantially, until finally the theme has transformed from a melancholy, wistful sigh to an anguished SCREAM as the Serbs cry out for help. The second section presents much jauntier and more assertive music as the Russians band together to go out and assist the Serbs, with a bold statement of "God Save the Tsar" being heard in the strings and tuba as the excitement builds. After a return to the pure, unrestrained grief and pain of the main theme in the third section, the fourth and final part of the piece is where the catharsis factor kicks in. The music slowly dies down until we are left with only an ominous low F in the cellos and basses, and then, as a marching rhythm is established, the clarinets introduce a happy, confident theme over the top of it, depicting the Russians marching in to free the Serbs. The theme grows substantially until it climaxes when it is combined with another statement of "God Save the Tsar" in the bass instruments (in a manner not too different from the one heard in the 1812 Overture), and after a slower, more solemn moment proclaiming the victory over the Turks, the piece ends with a truly wild, ecstatic and highly virtuosic coda, the depressing atmosphere of the opening transformed into pure, unambiguous triumph. The piece may not be Tchaikovsky's most recognisable, but it truly is a must-hear if you're interested in the composer's work, and it is bound to leave you on the edge of your seat with every emotion it expresses.
• It is sometimes joked that Tchaikovsky composed three symphonies, but made the strange decision to number them 4, 5, and 6, as Nos.4-6 are performed and recorded far more often than Nos.1-3.^note  There are more recordings of No.5 and No.6 individually than there are of Nos.1-3 combined, and No.4 isn't far behind. Although the first three symphonies have their moments, and No.6 in B minor (Pathétique) has a few awesome passages in an otherwise tragedy-laden musical swan song for the composer, the crown for awesome among Tchaikovsky's symphonies jointly goes to the only two without nicknames.
  • No.4 in F minor opens with a stark call to order from the horns and bassoons that gives way to a first movement traversing a wide emotional landscape, from pathos to fury to triumph and back to pathos. The solemn slow movement unfolds from a rhythmically uniform oboe solo, although the centre section provides a speck of light amid the darkness. The playful scherzo sees the strings play pizzicato throughout; the timbral shifts for the transitions to the trio (which is carried by first the woodwind, then the brass) and back to the scherzo are masterstrokes, as is the union of the movement's musical ideas in the coda. And Tchaikovsky turns the energy to full to go out in a fireworks display of F major glory in the finale, though not without moments of anguish, chiefly a reminiscence of the opening brass call just before the coda.
  • No.5 in E minor stands out for its canny use of a motto theme that appears in all four movements at key structural moments, first stated by the two clarinets in unison in the slow introduction. As in No.4, the first movement crosses a vast spectrum of moods, by turns dignified, jaunty, raucous, and tense, before returning to the sober atmosphere in which it began. The second movement grows from one of the loveliest French horn solos ever composed; the motto theme from the first movement blares forth from the entire orchestra at the climaxes of both the centre section and the return of the opening section. The third movement is a graceful waltz with a restless trio, and the motto theme appears just before the final measures (in which Tchaikovsky shows off his sense of humour by going straight from pianissimo to a full orchestral fortissimo for the final six chords). The finale opens with a major key version of the motto theme before charging, guns ablaze, into a furious E minor centre section that ultimately leads back to E major and the motto theme, then to a triumphant coda recalling the main theme of the first movement proper to bring the symphony full circle.
• Though Tchaikovsky's Fantasy-Overture on Romeo and Juliet is most famous for its "love theme" (a staple of romantic scenes in film and television, especially comically over-sentimental ones), the music has its fiery, dramatic moments as well - Tchaikovsky was well aware that the story was a tragedy as well as a romance.

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