Hello:
First, Let me congratulate you on a remarkable freely available website
about one of my favourite composers! As soon as I heard about Professor
Alexander Poznansky's first volume about Tchaikovksy's life I knew I had
to read it.
I was absolutely certain that Tchaikovsky's life was filled with more
than just writing music, anguished self condemnation about his sexuality
and corresponding with Madam von Meck..
Now to my question. Tchaikovsky at one point rebutted some criticism of
Schumann's writing by very bluntly saying something to the effect that
".... Kriesleriana was a great work, who's true nature would not be
understood for at least another hundred years" My quotation is not
correct, but the gist of it is. I would like to know the source and
context of his comment. I think it is a very astute critical account of
Kriesleriana and a prophetic one as well. One only has to look at the
number of recordings of Kerisleriana and compare it to the number of
performances of the work both public (none) and private ( maybe a dozen)
during Schumann's lifetime.
I have been looking closely at Tchaikovksy's 5th Symphony and doing a
comparison between two performances that are so alike they can be mistaken
for the same performance. (they aren't though the interpretation leads the
listener to believe it so). As well, I have listened many times over to
Andre Previn's complete performance of Sleeping Beauty and am convinced as
is Maestro Previn is that it works as a Symphonic whole. I just heard
something in the second act of the ballet that I think also appears in the
5th symphony. I will have to follow that up later to.
I look forward to joining your forum as well and talking more about
Tchaikovsky's works. I have always thought he deserved far more credit as
a great composer than he has ever been given. I dare say that Stravinsky's
ballets may not have been possible without Tchaikovsky's three works in
that genre. Not just because he championed the form with good music but
because there are stylistic things which i think were behind some of
Stravinsky's early ballet scores (after Firebird).
Thank-you in advance for your help
David Fedoruk