Page 25 - Phil 25-26 opening night DIGITAL program book

Program Notes

Memories of Tchaikovsky.
NOTE: “Little Russian” is an outdated and now pejorative term for the
Ukrainian people and their language. Also, Tchaikovsky began composing
his Symphony No. 2 during the summer of 1872, specifically at his sister and
brother-in-law’s estate in the Ukraine village of Kamenka. For these reasons
we will refer to this symphony as the ‘Ukrainian.’ — sk
The music is an unpolitical exploration of the rich orchestration typical
of Russian fantasies and its four movements give us insight into the
composer’s love of folk song and his peripatetic family history. Filled with
a sense of discovery and wonder, it was extensively revised following
an initial public premiere (1873), then a rejection from his publisher
in 1879 (“a blessing in disguise”), resulting in a completely new first
movement (1880). Evocative horn solos, celebratory marches, and a
scampering scherzo leads us to one of Tchaikovsky’s most captivating
and colorful variations for orchestra. Performance time for this music is
approximately 32 minutes.
Tchaikovsky considered himself to be Russian, but his family name
came from the Ukrainian word “Chaika” (Чайка), meaning both “Seagull,”
like Chekhov’s play, and a fifty-man military sailboat used the by
Zaporozhian (Ukrainian) Cossacks. The composer’s great-grandfather
Fedor was a Cossack born in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, 180 miles SE of Kyïv.
Fedor served in the Zaporozhian army under Peter the Great. Many
Russian artists of the Romantic period had ties to the Ukraine: Nikolai
Gogol was born in a Ukrainian Cossack town (Sorochyntsi), Stravinsky’s
mother was born in Kyïv, and Prokofiev came from the village of
Sontsivka. But this heritage was suppressed between 1863-1905, when
the Russian government, afraid of the Ukrainian nationalist movement,
enacted severe anti-Ukrainian language policies and banned the use of
the terms “Ukraine” (“Ukraina”) and “Ukrainian.”
Tchaikovsky’s Ukrainian grandfather moved to Glazov, a future whistle-
stop on the Trans-Siberian railroad (750 miles east of Moscow) to
serve as mayor, so his engineer father managed a nearby ironworks.
But as a result, his precocious abilities (sight-reading at three, fluent in
French and German by six) Tchaikovsky’s mother relocated the family
to St. Petersburg to enroll him as one of the first students of the new
Conservatory. Beginning with a trip to London’s Crystal Palace and
several European capitals (Berlin, Paris, Brussels at the age of 21), he
became one of the best-traveled composers of the century, making
dozens of extended trips throughout Europe with his brothers (five times

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