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     Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

     After Sodom and Gomorrah, people were so encouraged, that they founded numerous gay societies and spent a lot of effort and money to promote Sodomite values.  It became a large industry with a demand for a new philosophy.  To promote gay doctrine, a growing list of prominent gays has been highlighted by gay historians.
     It has already been over a century since the gossip that Tchaikovsky was a gay began to circulate in our society.  For some reason it is forgotten, that in Russia, in the 19th century, people often were killed for calling someone gay.  It is a late development, flourishing mostly in Western countries, that enables people to feel proud of being homosexual.
     Absolutely self-sufficient as a composer, Tchaikovsky had no need to be guided by Balakirev, leader of the composers¹ group 'The Mighty Five', or compete with the director of the Moscow conservatory, Rubinstein.  Now the conservatory bears the name of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Such independence and unbeatable popularity caused the jealousy of fellow composers, who used his unsuccessful marriage to promote a scandal, making Tchaikovsky the target of many lies, including the tale that he was homosexual, which brought the composer of genius to suicide.  Tchaikovsky was extremely depressed, watching how seriously Russian society and the Tsar, whom he respected and loved, took the gossip.  The most terrible thing was that these accusations were pointed at a composer who devoted a lot of time to children and was author of the famous "Children's Album."  Tchaikovsky's death deprived us of many more great compositions.  He was 53.

      Swan Lake Suite, Op. 20a, represents nine selected numbers from the "Swan Lake" ballet.  Though Tchaikovsky considered making a suite from "Swan Lake" in 1882, this idea apparently came to nothing.  After his death, others compiled and published the suite.  It is interesting, that an earlier version of "Swan Lake" was composed in 1871, six years before the second edition, which we know today.  Initially the ballet was simple dance music, called
"The Lake of Swans" composed for children and staged at the house of Tchaikovsky's sister, Alexandra, in Kamenka, Ukraine.
      The success of the "Swan Lake" ballet , composed and premiered in 1877 at the Bolshoi theatre, was not easy.  The first to rebel were the orchestral players.  Bemused by the "unprecedented difficulty" of the score, they found little help from their "semi-amateur" conductor Stepan Ryabov.  The situation very much reminds us of a story concerning the ballets by Prokofiev - a similar lack of appreciation was expressed in the same way by orchestral musicians many years later.  "Swan Lake", as a successful ballet, dates from the 1895 revival with choreography by Moris Petipa and Lev Ivanov, at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
      Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, was completed by Tchaikovsky in 1892.  It was an orchestral version of Hoffmann¹s fantasy, Nutcracker, adapted by the composer to a ballet genre.  Although Tchaikovsky considered the story to be lacking any real dramatic and emotional tension, his Nutcracker is one of the most fascinating achievements in ballet.  An unusual feature of the score is the use of celesta, a very rare instrument at that time.  It was
ideal for music "with the sound of falling drops of water, as from a fountain."  Tchaikovsky used it to characterize the Sugar Plum Fairy.  A boy¹s choir was another innovation in ballet music.  Danses Caractéristiques contain six parts.  They were composed and publically performed before work on the ballet was finished.
      Tchaikovsky brought a capacity of symphonic organization to the ordinarily rather primitive art of ballet music.  There is a reconciliation of dance elements with the demands of symphonic form, usage of large-scale musical structures.  It brings greater strength and coherence to the organization of dance sequences.  Divertissements play the secondary role in the ballet and help to combine structural dances, which form the core of the entire composition, into groups.

      The USSR People's Artist, Lenin Prize winning conductor Evgeni Svetlanov was educated at the Gnessin Pedagogical Institute of Music, then at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of composition (under Professor Shaporin) and conducting (under Professor Gauk).  Svetlanov worked with the USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra, and later took over
the USSR Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.  Since 1965 he was a Principal Conductor of the USSR Symphony Orchestra.
     With Russian classics as the focus of his attention (his repertoire is made up entirely of Russian music), Svetlanov constantly tackled works of different styles.  His name is well known all over the world.

©2003 Evgeni Kostitsyn

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
(1840-1893)

Suite from "Swan Lake", ballet

1. Scene – 3:23
2. Waltz – 7:25
3. Dance of the Cygnets – 1:29
4. Scene – 7:36
5. Hungarian dance (czardas) – 3:13
6. Spanish dance – 2:29
7. Neapolitan dance – 1:58
8. Mazurka – 3:56
9. Scene – 4:13

Suite from "Nutcracker", ballet

17.   Pas de Deux – 5:57
18.     Valse des fleurs - 6:45

Total Time - 65:25

Evgeni Svetlanov, conductor
USSR Symphony Orchestra
Recorded in 1987

Cover painting "The Curtain Falls" by Edgar Degas
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