October 19, 2024 | Svetlanov Hall of the MIPAC
Conductor – Arsenty Tkachenko
Wagner. Overtures and symphonic fragments from “Lohengrin”, “Tannhäuser” and “The Ring of the Nibelung”
Tchaikovsky. Siute from “Swan Lake”
Arsenty Tkachenko and the NPR are dedicating the coming concert to the art of two giants of the 19th century – Richard Wagner and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Both were pundits in orchestration and made history in the development of musical theater. The elder master had some influence on the younger one (there was a difference of 27 years between Wagner and Tchaikovsky), but the Russian composer did not follow the way of the Bayreuth genius, though he studied meticulously Wagner's scores, attended the performances of the “Ring of the Nibelung” tetralogy and gave due credits to its creator.
In his well-known notes “Wagner and his music”, Tchaikovsky called the German composer 'one of the most interesting personalities' of the time who was gifted with 'a great force of musical imagination'. He mentioned among his merits the discovery of new forms and ways in the art and noticed that Wagner's main achievement 'belonged to symphonic music'. Obviously, Tchaikovsky, who promoted melodic sources in music, could not accept the Wagnerian “structural” approach to melody. He wrote how greatly he was impressed by 'the Prelude to “Lohengrin” where the Holy Grail lands had inspired Wagner to compose several most beautiful pages in the contemporary music. “The Flight of Valkyries”, “Siegfried's Funeral March”, blue waves of the Rhine in “The Rhinegold” - are not they symphonic music as such? Yet... Wagner did not care much about singers. In these wonderful and majestic symphonies, they just play parts of the orchestral instruments. I am kneeling humbly before the prophet but I do not profess the religion he has built.'
Tchaikovsky wrote his first opera (“The Voyevoda”) and first ballet (“Swan Lake”) when Wagner had already composed the greater part of his musical dramas (after “Swan Lake” there appeared only Wagner's “Parsifal”). And Tchaikovsky's score became a new word in the history of the ballet art. Before it, dance music had been incidental and secondary to choreography. Tchaikovsky symphonised the genre infusing the ballet music with dramatic expression and tensed modulations (using leitmotifs) without rejecting the traditional ballet form and never forgetting that 'melody is the spirit of music'.
The NPR will play Overtures and symphonic fragments from Wagner's operas (also those mentioned by Tchaikovsky), and some ballet numbers from “Swan Lake” (such as Pas-de-trois and Dance with goblets from Act 1, Danse Napolitaine, Danse Espagnole and Danse Russe from Act 3 and some others) all compiled into a suite by Arsenty Tkachenko.