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Tchaikovsky |
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TH 41 FatumФатумSymphonic fantasia, C minor, Op. 77 (1868)
HistoryInformation on the composition of the fantasia is given in three letters from the composer to Anatolii Tchaikovsky. On 10 September 1868: "I’ve been unable to write anything new, and work has ground to a halt" [1]. On 25 September 1868: "I’m currently writing something symphonic, entitled Fatum" [2]. On 21 October 1868: "I’ve written an orchestral fantasia" [3]. Therefore, work commenced on the symphonic fantasia Fatum in the period between 10th and 25th September, and was completed by 21 October 1868. In December, Tchaikovsky was engaged in scoring the Fantasia [4]. On 15 February 1869 the first performance of the fantasia took place at the eighth concert of the Russian Musical Society, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein. After the concert, Tchaikovsky told his brother Anatolii: "This is, I think, the best thing I have written to date - at least, so others say (a significant success)" [5]. In Saint Petersburg, Fatum was performed on 17 March 1869 at the ninth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society, conducted by Milii Balakirev. It was not a success. In the surviving correspondence between Balakirev and Tchaikovsky, some letters dating from February to May 1869 relate to Fatum and its performance. Among them are two letters from Balakirev containing critiques of the work, of which the one with the most unfavourable judgement was not sent to Tchaikovsky [6]. The epigraph to the fantasia - a poem by Konstantin Batiushkov - drew harsh criticism on the part of Herman Laroche [7] and Milii Balakirev. There are two versions of the origins of the epigraph. In one of them, the epigraph was added without the composer’s knowledge [8]. This account of the history of the epigraph was described by Sergei Rachinskii in a letter to Laroche: "As the concert programme was going to press, Nikolai Rubinstein was concerned, as always, with the descriptions given for the Musical Society; in his view the title Fatum was too vague, and he thought it advisable to attach a few simple verses, in order to explain the significance of the title. It so happened that I (not having heard a single note of Mr. Tchaikovsky's symphony) went up to Mr Rubinstein and suggested this poem by Batiushkov, which were hitherto unknown to either Mr Rubinstein or Mr Tchaikovsky. Won over by the beautiful melancholy of Batiushkov’s verse, Mr Rubinstein agreed with me at once, and added them to the concert programme" [9]. The second version, related in Ivan Klimenko’s reminiscences of Tchaikovsky [10], attributes the idea for the epigraph to Klimenko himself. After hearing the rehearsals of the fantasia, he stated his opinion that either an epigraph was required to explain the title, or the title should be expunged. He received the support of Sergei Rachinskii who recommended Batiushkov’s verses to Tchaikovsky in the capacity of an epigraph. With the composer's agreement, Rachinskii there and then added the verses to the manuscript score. Whether under the influence of Balakirev’s criticism, or that over time the composer’s attitude to Fatum changed, the composer destroyed the manuscript score in the 1870s [11]. It was reconstructed from the orchestral parts after Tchaikovsky's death and published by Mitrofan Beliaiev in 1896 as Op. 77 [12]. An arrangement of Fatum for piano duet, published at the same time, was made by Nikolai Sokolov. The lyrical theme (in A-flat major) from the fantasia Fatum appeared almost unchanged (but in the key of D-flat major) in the second part of the duet for Natalia and Andrei in the fourth act of the opera The Oprichnik. The fantasia Fatum is dedicated to Milii Balakirev. From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958),
pp. 277-279 Notes:
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