Classical Weblist

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Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliet, fantasy-overture for orchestra
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel, cond.
from the album Tchaikovsky and Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s work was demonstrably important to the literary-minded Tchaikovsky; in addition to this work, certainly one of the best-loved programmatic pieces in the literature, he also composed music based on Hamlet and The Tempest. Romeo and Juliet was a “breakout” piece for the young composer: in addition to earning him the (temporary) admiration of The Five, after an initially cool public reception it quickly rose to become a living staple of the concert repertoire. Tchaikovsky was so frequently asked to perform it at private gatherings that he soon learned to play the entire overture from memory at the keyboard.

Both Balakirev and Tchaikovsky considered the latter’s first symphonic poem, Fatum, a failure; afterward Balakirev proposed that Tchaikovsky write a work based on Shakespeare’s famous play, and offered numerous rather forceful suggestions as to how such a thing might best be done. The first version, premiered in March 1870, differs quite substantially from the final revision from 1880 which is the one almost exclusively performed today. 

The work is in a sonata-allegro mould framed by an introduction evoking Friar Laurence and an epilogue following the death of the lovers. The result, and the principal magic of the work, is that it does not attempt any linear narration. Rather, it musically depicts the opposing forces at work in Shakespeare’s plot and gives an abstract sense of their collisions and unhappy resolution through means of musical development.  

(photo of Verona by mario bellavite)