THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2019-2020 3617
Program Notes
much of the fat, and giving us a concerto that ranks
alongside those by Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Bruch.
“Despite that Sibelius was himself a violinist,’’ said
TFO Associate Conductor Daniel Black, “it took a lot
of revisions to get to the piece we now admire as
one of the finest violin concertos ever written.’’
The concerto is in many ways a subtle work,
one more graceful than gregarious, but deeply
expressive. Cast in the key of D minor, it opens with
an impassioned allegro that overwhelms in length
the two movements that follow. The development
of the opening holds listeners in hushed rapture, the
music a mix of foreboding and delicate sweetness,
before the soloist performs a large cadenza – a
virtuosic improvisation. A short second movement
plays out in the form of an extended song, and the
finale counters with a festive dance. The voice of
the solo violin never leaves center stage; it remains
prominent through all three movements, even to
the point of dominating the orchestra
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
SYMPHONY NO. 1, WINTER DREAMS
Duration: ca. 44 minutes
Tchaikovsky has been called the quintessential
tragic artist. Hypersensitive, plagued with creative
doubt, sexually frustrated, fatalistic, self-loathing,
and a musical genius, he has become the poster
child for emotive romanticism. He ranks with
Beethoven and Rachmaninoff as the most played
composers in the repertoire of orchestras, and his
last three symphonies, concertos, ballet scores, and
tone poems continue to prove their worth at the
box office.
Tchaikovsky called his First Symphony, subtitled
Winter Dreams, “immature,’’ and “a sin of my sweet
youth.’’ Although not as popular as his last three
symphonies, Winter Dreams reveals much about
the compositional process, said Daniel Black, TFO’s
associate conductor.
“It doesn’t get nearly as much attention as his later
symphonies, but it was this work which helped
launch his career,’’ Black said. “In contrast to his
violently passionate later works, this is a symphony
that owes as much to Mendelssohn as Beethoven,
and shows Tchaikovsky when he was still young,
fresh out of the conservatory, and with his whole
life and career still in front of him. It’s a work of
inspiration and freshness.’’
However, the music did not come easy for him, and
his letters reveal his sleepless nights, depression
and fear of dying before he could complete the
work. Stung by earlier criticism, he lacked the
confidence that would come later: “I am sterile, I
am a nonentity,’’ he wrote. “Nothing will ever come
of me, I have no talent.’’
The 26-year-old composer cast the symphony in
four movements and gave program titles to the
first two – Dreams of a Winter Journey and Land of
desolation, land of mists, respectively. Oddly, it was
not presented as a complete work, but in pieces:
The scherzo was played by a Moscow orchestra
in 1866 and the adagio two months later. After
many revisions and corrected editions, the final
version – the one you will hear tonight – was ready
two decades after Tchaikovsky began his initial
sketches.
Winter Dreams opens with trembling strings as
flute and bassoon introduce the main subject,
followed by a new theme on the clarinet. However
immature Tchaikovsky believed it to be, the
structure is remarkably solid, with a delicate
tension reminiscent of Mendelssohn. A poignant
adagio serves as the heart of the work, followed
by a third movement built off themes from an early
piano sonata. The finale opens with a moody theme
based on a Russian folk song, which takes flight as
the entire orchestra dives through fugal passages
– in contrasting keys – and a flourish of timpani
strokes and blaring brass.
Program notes by Kurt Loft, a freelance writer
and former music critic for the Tampa Tribune.