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PROGRAM NOTES

Copland’s score won the Pulitzer Prize for Music; it combines folk-inspired
melodies, energetic dances, and evocative landscapes into a sophisticated modern
package. From a rising major triad in second inversion, representing a muted dawn
(think sol, do, mi… re), Copland spins a series of unforgettable motives and dance
tunes. The plot loosely follows a rural community’s building and dedication of a
farmhouse, centering on two young newlyweds. Graham’s landmark technique,
emphasizing contraction and release, contrasts wildly spinning religious fervor
with hushed prayers and hopeful longing for hearth and home. Annegret Fauser’s
fantastic book on the work’s genesis (Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Oxford
Keynotes, 2017) is a must-read for fans of Graham and Copland alike. Oxford Press
has made dozens of original manuscripts related to the ballet available through the
Library of Congress: visit www.oup.com/us/acas/ to see photos, letters, and other
fascinating documents.
— Laura Stanfield Prichard

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 — 1893)
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s family name came from the Ukrainian word “Chaika”
(Чайка), meaning both “Seagull,” like Anton Chekhov’s play, and a 50-man military
sailboat used by the Zaporozhian (Ukrainian) Cossacks. Tchaikovsky was one of
the best-traveled composers of the century, having toured in Berlin, Paris, Brussels,
and many other European capitals by the age of 21. Throughout the 1860s and
1870s, he taught at the Moscow Conservatory and produced a series of incredible
masterworks (including more than a dozen concertos, concertante pieces, and
symphonies), while struggling with financial difficulties, self-doubt, and depression.
After a failed suicide attempt (wading into the Moscow River in winter),
Tchaikovsky rebounded with the help of his brothers; he completed his Symphony
No. 4 (January 1878) and his most significant opera, Eugene Onegin (February).
In March, he traveled to Villa Richelieu in Clarens, Switzerland (on Lake
Geneva), where he developed this violin concerto in eleven days with significant
contributions by his favorite student, Iosef Kotek.

The premiere of Tchaikovsky’s concerto was surprisingly a disaster. For three
years, Tchaikovsky was unable to find a great violinist who would play it in
concert. Violinist Leopold Auer, to whom the concerto was originally dedicated,
was a colleague of Tchaikovsky’s from the Moscow Conservatory; he stunned the
composer by dismissing the piece as unplayable. In 1881, Adolf Brodsky, a young
violinist, learned a revised version of the concerto and persuaded Hans Richter
and the Vienna Philharmonic to play it in concert (on only two rehearsals, with

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