In 1876, whereas finishing the ballet rating for Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky composed The Seasons, a sequence of atmospheric tone work for solo piano. Commissioned by the writer, Nikolay Bernard, the transient items had been revealed on the primary day of every month within the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist.
Set in D minor, Tchaikovsky’s October submission, Autumn Music, is quiet and melancholy. It accompanies a poem by Tolstoy which describes yellow windswept leaves. The interpretive marking is Andante doloroso e molto cantabile (“reasonably sluggish, sorrowful, and really song-like”). Shifting into an elegiac main, the center part unfolds as a dialogue between increased and decrease voices. There’s a ballet-like sense of grace and movement all through. The ultimate bars fade away into despondent gloom, and drift off with a single lonely descending melodic line.
Autumn Music was performed on the funeral of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. This efficiency, recorded on April 29, 2016, options German pianist Olga Scheps:
Autumn Music (October):
The autumn, falling on our poor orchard,
The yellow leaves are flying within the wind.
–Alexey Tolstoy
Featured Picture: “Golden Autumn” (1895), Isaac Levitan
