#pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky

[staticsnowfall]

the nutcracker (1993)

*ੈ‧₊˚ ❆ .ೃ࿔*

corps de ballet of the new york city ballet performing “waltz of the snowflakes”

dir. by emile ardolino, choreo. by george balanchine

[redgrasshopper]

hi guyz

I kind of forgot to post anything, but I put together an image with some composers that I know of/like.

Guess who's my favorite :)

[tinyicis]

Catpawsers

[princesssarisa]

If there's any character from Sleeping Beauty from whose viewpoint I might like to write a poem or short fic, it would be one of the four princes from Act I of Tchaikovsky's ballet.

Other, later retellings of the tale have also given Sleeping Beauty a suitor before she succumbs to the curse, but those princes are usually portrayed negatively, as silly fops in contrast to the charming prince who ultimately wakes her. The four suitors in the ballet, on the other hand, are perfectly nice, handsome, gallant young men. Aurora dances the famous Rose Adagio with them, and while she doesn't choose one of them to marry, she seems to like them well enough. Yet after sharing that beautiful moment of dance with her, with every reason to hope that one of them will soon be her bridegroom, they have to witness her fall under the spell.

Aurora's finger-pricking doesn't happen in a secluded tower in Tchaikovsky's ballet. The evil fairy Carabosse comes to her 16th birthday feast disguised as an old beggar woman, and (depending on the production) either gives her a drop spindle as a gift, which she takes naïvely because she's never seen one before, or gives her a bouquet of roses with a spindle hidden inside. Then she pricks her finger and collapses in front of the whole court and all the party guests, including the four princes. In some productions, one of the princes catches Aurora in his arms as she falls, and when Carabosse jubilantly reveals her identity, many productions have the four of them rush at her with their swords just before she vanishes. Then, after the Lilac Fairy arrives to assure everyone that Aurora is only sleeping, not dead, and to put the King and Queen and all the rest of the court to sleep too, in some productions it's the four princes who carry Aurora into the castle to her bed.

Even though Aurora doesn't fall in love with any of those princes, they still share something meaningful. When Aurora enters, her music and dancing is all childlike exuberance and innocence. But in the grand Rose Adagio – one of the most demanding showcases for a ballerina – she comes into her own both as a dancer and as a young woman receiving courtship for the first time. Arguably, the dance she shares with the four princes serves as her coming-of-age moment, which prepares her for her ultimate marriage to Prince Désiré/Florimund a hundred years later.

Yet there's no happy ending for those four young men. They have to watch Aurora succumb to the curse, fail to take down Carabosse, and then learn from the Lilac Fairy that Aurora is lost to them, destined to sleep until another prince finds her long after they're all dead. All they can do is reverently lay her to rest, then go back to their own lands, presumably to tell the rest of the world what happened.

I'd like to imagine that Prince Désiré/Florimund is the grandson or great-grandson of one of Aurora's four original suitors. A few other adaptations have the Prince who wakes Sleeping Beauty be descended from an earlier suitor of hers, so I'll imagine that's the case in the ballet too.

[angeryed]

Most heartwarming things about every composer ❤️

┏━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━┓

Mendelssohn: the profound respect he had for others

The way he’s so cordial with strangers and even the people he dislikes

Man always remembers his manners and acts cordial as his family has taught him

And on occasions, his bursts of excitement to the point of switching languages highlights his joy to see who his loves

From the 1830's when he was in his 20s: “his excitement was increased so fearfully … that when the family was assembled … he began to talk incoherently in English.”

“His attachment to Mademoiselle Lind’s genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success.” About Mendelssohn’s attitude to his wife

The amount of passion letters he wrote may be destroyed, but how his wife described him spoke it all: “He was the only person who brought fulfilment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again.” ๐·°(৹˃̵﹏˂̵৹)°·๐ the feels bro

Recommended piece: Op. 34 No. 2

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

Chopin: his love for family

Despite his disrespect and uncalled for criticism towards other composers, he still cares about his homeland

Even in his deathbed, he asked a soprano to sing the Polish national anthem

And he sent his siblings letters everyday when he was out of town

And through his ‘love’ letters to his friend, Tytus, you can tell he was passionate (;

“You don’t like being kissed. Please allow me to do so today. You have to pay for the dirty dream I had about you last night.” 👀 Chopin to Tytus — his ‘best friend’

We might never know if he actually meant it or if it was social etiquette back then, but the speculation is still there

Recommended pieces: Op. 22

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

Liszt: everything about him

this man truly was an underrated jewel in the classical word

He was generous to the point where he went broke from teaching music free of charge and holding charity concerts all the time

People from his and our time both misunderstand him for being a womaniser, but he was more than that

He never disrespected any female composers and even when he criticised by his contemporaries, he always kept his cool and even complimented some of them

When Chopin criticised him for playing his nocturnes the wrong anr demanded an apology, Liszt still continued to admire him

Composer chivalry fr.

Recommended pieces: Totentanz

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

Tchaikovsky: his devotion and mellow kindness

He was sweet and shy. Unlike Chopin.

Having only a few close friends and a tightly-knit family, he was fiercely loyal and to whom he loved.

As a gay man in the conservative 19th century Russia, he could only seek solace with his closest friends — his sister being the closest.

When his sister passed, all he could was to dedicate the entire Nutcracker Ballet to her as a part of his self-expression died with her.

And she meant a lot to him. Not only a part of himself was buried, the fact he loved her so much despite his depression and dissatisfaction towards his life, showed how close he was to his family.

Recommended piece: Pas de Deux (it showed his lonely yearning for love in my interpretation; those whimsical melodies and how he missed both sisterly and romantic love)

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

Beethoven: man pulled 2015 pranks in the 19th century

Even though he scowled and raged throughout his life, he pulled pranks and laughed when his guests fell for it

He hid behind the door and scared his guests whenever they went through it

Laughing at their annoyed faces, he continued to turn annoyance to offence when he made his friends the butt of his jokes

To further gouge tears from his grumpy little face, he made more short songs solely as jokes about them

Besides being a hopeless romantic who made Fur Elise as a way to diss Elise, he wrote lyrics, “we all agree that you are the biggest ass” when joking about his violinist friend

Beethoven was either a great or absolutely horrible friend to have

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

Shostakovich: a genuinely good guy

Every lonely person’s wet dream

Showing up on time, being nice back to everyone who was nice to him alongside living life the normal way despite being a composer, he never raised any aggression tendencies like other composers (take notes Beethoven :/)

Love extended beyond family and friends. He threaded and worded his letters with kindness and manners, especially to those who asked him for advice

Even under his intense stress and anxiety during the Soviet Union’s surveillance, the man loved his family.

And that in itself was impressive.

┗━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━┛

Author’s note: I may not have written a recommended piece for all of them because I am not well-versed in most of their pieces yet

Do tell me what composers to do. I am happy to write about them <:

Much feedback is appreciated ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚

[macaulaytwins]

obviously tchaikovsky was gay,,,,,,do you think a straight man could compose pas de deux?? the entirety of swan lake????? no chance

[pedroam-bang]

Black Swan (2010)

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Tchaikovsky is the greatest composer of all time and I will neither hear nor entertain arguments to the counter. I will die on this hill.

[musicianrambles]

Honestly one of my biggest pet peeves is when people make up obviously wrong facts about historical figures in order to be funny, as if they weren't real people and therefore extremely silly in real life. It really degrades the entire experience of history as study of humanity first and foremost: these people (especially classical composers) are the same as us, and it's frustrating to see people imply otherwise.

Also most of the time it's really boring, especially in comparison to the truth. Name one joke about any composer that could be as funny as the fact that Chopin and Liszt literally HUNTED BERLIOZ while he was being depressed over his weird crush in the middle of a field. Name one joke about Tchaikovsky's sexuality that could be as funny as the fact that he found his boyfriend's finger really ugly and fixated more and more on it as the relationship got worse. I could go on.

[psy-kylo-gy]

Finally, Act V Day 3 of A Day in the Life of TchaikovsKYLO Ren! Our favorite messy boy has at last renounced the dark side and reclaimed his true self: Ben Tchaikovsolo! Surprises await for both him and his headstrong waifu who is challenging Emperor Ovaltine all alone. Reylo chaos ensues but can love save the day?

Catch up with the entire series here

Well first off I'm so sorry for the wait on this, I had it 99% finished since 2020 but just lost the heart to post it during Covid and my subsequent depression. I really wanted the people who love this series to know that I haven't abandoned it, and the finale is mostly done as well and I'm so excited to bestow Reylo with a GOOD ENDING they deserve.

As always, I want to dedicate this to some special folks who've motivated me and given me such kindness and patience over the years. I'm SO grateful for the love and support and I really hope you enjoy this one, Ben is (of course) a lot of fun: @pandoraspocksao3 @blackeyedlily @violet1979 @missrenaeann-blog @maryloki3000 @fangiosfriend

[doyouknowthisopera]

[gasparodasalo]

~ Week of the Nightly Romantics ~

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) - Serenade for Strings in C-Major, Op. 48, I. Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo - Allegro. Performed by Alexander Rudin/Musica Viva on period instruments.

[princesssarisa]

Opera on Youtube 4

L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love)

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 1967 (Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Scotto; conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni; no subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 1981 (Luciano Pavarotti, Judith Blegen; conducted by Nicola Rescigno; Spanish subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Metropolitan Opera, 1991 (Luciano Pavarotti, Kathleen Battle; conducted by James Levine; English subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Vienna State Opera, 2005 (Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko; conducted by Alfred Eschwé; English subtitles)

Theatro da Paz, Brazil, 2013 (Atalla Ayan, Carmen Monarcha; conducted by Emiliano Patarra; Brazilian Portuguese subtitles)

Teatro Manoel, Malta, 2015 (Cliff Zammit Stevens, Shoushik Barsoumian; conducted by Philip Walsh; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 2017 (Dmitry Korchak, Olga Peretyatko; conducted by Marco Armiliato; no subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Ópera de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 2017 (Ramón Vargas, Olivia Gorra; conducted by Guido Maria Guida; Spanish subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 2018 (Benjamin Bernheim, Andrea Carroll; conducted by Frédéric Chaslin; no subtitles)

San Francisco Opera, 2023 (Pene Pati, Slávka Zámečníková; conducted by Ramón Tebar; English subtitles)

Hänsel & Gretel

Vittorio Cottafavi studio film, 1957 (Fiorenza Cossotto, Jan Poleri; conducted by Nino Sanzogno; sung in Italian with Italian subtitles)

August Everding studio film, 1981 (Brigitte Fassbaender, Edita Gruberova; conducted by Georg Solti; English subtitles)

Leipzig Opera, 1981 (Annelott Damm, Steffi Ullmann; conducted by Horst Gurgel; no subtitles)

Julliard Opera Center, 1997 (Jennifer Marquette, Sari Gruber; conducted by Randall Behr; English subtitles)

Opera Australia, 1992 (Suzanne Johnston, Christine Douglas; conducted by Johannes Fritzsch; sung in English)

Vienna State Opera, 2015 (Daniel Sindram, Ileana Tonca; conducted by Christian Thielmann; English subtitles)

Pacific Northwest Opera, 2015 (Sylvia Szadovszki, Ksenia Popova; conducted by Clinton Smith; sung in English with English subtitles)

Scottish Opera, 2020 (Kitty Whately, Rhian Lois; conducted by David Parry; sung in English with English subtitles)

Eklund Opera Program, 2020 (Christine Lee, Anna Whiteway; conducted by Nicholas Carthy; sung in English with English subtitles)

Amarillo Opera, 2021 (Sarah Beckham-Turner, Patricia Westley; conducted by Carolyn Watson; English subtitles)

Turandot

Mario Lanfranchi studio film, 1958 (Lucilla Udovick, Franco Corelli; conducted by Fernando Previtali; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 1983 (Eva Marton, José Carreras; conducted by Lorin Maazel; no subtitles)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1986 (Gwyneth Jones, Franco Bonisolli; conducted by Jacques Delacote; English subtitles)

Forbidden City, Beijing, 1998 (Giovanna Casolla, Sergej Larin; conducted by Zubin Mehta; no subtitles)

Teatro alla Scala; 2001 (Alessandra Marc, Nicola Martinucci; conducted by Georges Prêtre; French subtitles)

Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2009 (Anna Shafajinskaia, Fabio Armiliato; conducted by Giuliano Carella; English subtitles)

Chorégies d'Orange 2012 (Lise Lindstrom, Roberto Alagna; conducted by Michel Plasson; French subtitles)

Wichita Grand Opera, 2015 (Zvetelina Vassileva, Ricardo Tamura; conducted by Martin Mazik; no subtitles)

Teatro de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 2017 (Gabriela Georgieva, Carlos Galván; conducted by Enrique Patrón de Rueda; Spanish subtitles)

Opera Hong Kong, 2018 (Oksana Dyka, Alfred Kim; conducted by Paolo Olmi; English subtitles)

Eugene Onegin

Prince Regent Theatre, Munich, 1965 (Hermann Prey, Ingeborg Bremert; conducted by Joseph Keilberth; sung in German; no subtitles)

Paris Opera, 1982 (Benjamin Luxon, Galina Vishnevskaya; conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich; French subtitles)

Kirov Opera, 1984 (Sergei Leiferkus, Tatiana Novikova; conducted by Yuri Temirkanov; English subtitles)

Chicago Lyric Opera, 1985 (Wolfgang Brendel, Mirella Freni; conducted by Bruno Bartoletti; Spanish subtitles)

Petr Weigl film, 1988 (Michal Docolomanský dubbed by Bernd Weikl, Magda Vásáryová dubbed by Teresa Kubiak; conducted by Georg Solti; English subtitles)

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, 1998 (Vladimir Glushchak, Orla Boylan; conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky; English subtitles) – Act I, Act II, Act III

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia, 2011 (Artur Rucinski, Kristine Opolais; conducted by Omer Meir Wellber; no subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 2014 (Artur Rucinski, Amanda Echalaz; conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov; English subtitles)

Mariinsky Theatre, 2015 (Andrei Bondarenko, Yekaterina Goncharova; conducted by Valery Gergiev; French subtitles)

Livermore Valley Opera, 2019 (Morgan Smith, Antonina Chehovska; conducted by Alex Katsman; English subtitles)

[angeryed]

Look I made a little something for y’all ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ

[violinconcertobracket]

Semifinal time!

Propaganda:

Tchaikovsky:

- the first movement orchestral tutti is SO BEAUTIFUL every time I listen to it I cannot help but smile. it waters my crops and cleans my pores. I don't know how one moment in a piece is able to hold such emotional power over a person but that's Tchaikovsky for you ig. - also the trill where it resolves at the end of the cadenza. and then the flute comes in with the main melody. it's so comforting - almost hopeful?? - the melodic lines and countermelodies are so nice there's really nice bassoon and cello lines in the first movement I'm thinking of and there's also a moment in the third movement where the melody gets passed between the clarinet and oboe - the entire concerto is like a warm hug :)

I've left the submission form tab open for three days and I still can't find words to describe how beautiful Tchaik VC is. THE TUTTI IN MVT 1 MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME

Shostakovich 1:

The third movement is the most awe inspiring horrifyingly gorgeous masterpiece of music that exists in the violin repertoire. Followed by a slow build cadenza where the rage creeps up on you until the violin is screaming. And then a brutally fun final movement. First and second mvts are sickeningly spectacular too, but the 3-cadenza-4 is just simply the crown jewel of violin rep. It doesn’t get better than this.

It’s got a passacaglia AND a burlesque what more could you want

It is everything.