Tchaikovsky’s “The Voyevoda”

Synopsis

In old Slavonic languages, the word “voyevoda” meant a warlord, but over time it came to denote the governor of a province. “Voyevoda” also came to be the title of not one, but two musical works by Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky’s first opera, “The Voyevoda,” was completed when the composer was 28 years old and was based on a Russian play. When Tchaikovsky was 51, just a few years before his death, he completed a second work, also titled “The Voyevoda,” this time a purely orchestral score based on a Polish ballad. Tchaikovsky himself conducted the premiere in Moscow on today’s date in 1891.

Now, Tchaikovsky was notorious for doubting the worth of his own music, and so even before its premiere he was threatening to destroy the score. He carried out his threat the day after the first performance, writing to his disappointed publisher, "It got what it deserved... If this sort happens again, I shall tear it to shreds, or else completely give up composing.”

Fortunately for us, the organizer of the concert didn’t agree with Tchaikovsky and saved the orchestral parts, and so, after Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893, the symphonic ballad “The Voyevoda,” survived and was eventually published.

While not as popular as some of his other orchestral works, far from being discardable pottering, this “score that lived” has more than a few touches of the usual Tchaikovsky wizardry.

Music Played in Today's Program

On This Day

Births

• 1814 - Belgian inventor of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax, in Dinant; He invented the instrument around 1840, and was granted a 15-year patent in 1846;

• 1854 - American composer and bandmaster John Philip Sousa, in Washington, D.C.;

• 1860 - Polish composer, piano virtuoso, and statesman, Ignace Jan Paderewski, in Russian Poland (Gregorian date: Nov. 18);

Deaths

• 1672 - German composer Heinrich Schütz, age 87, in Dresden;

• 1795 - Czech-born German opera composer Jiri Antonin (Georg Anton)Benda, age 73, in Köstritz;

• 1893 - Russian composer Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, age 53, dies of cholera after drinking un-boiled water during an epidemic in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct. 25); Some speculate this was a deliberate and suicidal act;

• 1965 - Franco-American composer Edgard (or Edgar) Varèse, age 81, in New York City;

Premieres

• 1825 - Beethoven: String Quartet in a, Op.132, in Vienna, by the Schuppanzigh Quartet; The was the first public performance (The same players performed the work at a private performance two months earlier, on September 9, for an audience of fourteen at the Tavern “Zum Wilden Mann” in Vienna);

• 1891 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic balled “The Voyevode” in Moscow (Gregorian date: Nov. 18);

• 1902 - Cilea: opera, "Adriana Lecouvreur" in Milan at the Teatro Lirico;

• 1913 - Saint-Saëns: "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" for violin and orchestra, in Paris;

• 1924 - Janácek: opera "The Cunning Little Vixen," in Brno at the National Theater;

• 1935 - first complete performance of Walton: Symphony No. 1, by the BBC Symphony, Sir Hamilton Harty conducting; Harty had conducted the premiere performance of this work's first three movements (the fourth and final movement had not yet been written) on a London Philharmonic concert of Dec. 3, 1934;

• 1936 - Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1940 - Florence Price: Symphony No. 3, in Detroit, by the Michigan WPA Symphony, Valter Poole conducting; Also on the program was Price’s Piano Concerto (which had premiered earlier in Chicago) with the composer as soloist; First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt attended a rehearsal for this concert, and wrote favorably about Price’s Symphony in her national newspaper column “My Day” for November 14, 1940;

• 1943 - Orff: "Catulli carmina," in Leipzig at the Städische Bühnen;

• 1950 - Copland: Clarinet Concerto, on an NBC Symphony broadcast conducted by Fritz Reiner, with Benny Goodman as soloist;

• 1953 - Nikolaus Nakokov: Cello Concerto ("Les Hommages"), with Lorne Munroe, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1976 - Andrew Imbrie: opera "Angle of Repose," in San Francisco;

• 1999 - Elisabetta Brusa: “Adagio” for strings, by the Virtuosi of Toronto, Fabio Mastrangelo conducting;

• 2004 - Augusta Read Thomas: "Brass Rush" for brass band, by the Illinois Brass Band at the U.S. Open Brass Band Competition in Arlignton Heights, Il.

Others

• 1717 - J.S. Bach temporarily imprisoned by his employer, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, who was upset that Bach had taken another post (with Prince Leopold of Coethen) without first securing the Duke's permission to do so.