|
|
Article: Tchaikovsky at the millennium.(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- September 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The overture to Swan Lake begins with a high F-sharp held out over a void. The tone is plaintive, isolated--a long sigh. It is on this same high, held note that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky begins his famous "swan theme," though by the time we first hear it, at the end of act I, that tone no longer seems a sigh, but a state. This is the theme everyone hums when they hear the words Swan Lake, the mysterious theme that keeps trying to vault above that opening F-sharp, which it hits three more times in four measures as if the note were a spell that must be broken. Meanwhile, the melodic line, thin as incense, curls in a turmoil of metamorphosis. In a mere four measures, ...
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:
|
|
Article: Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake. (Charles Dutoit, ...
Consumers' Research Magazine;
March 1, 1993 ;
454 words
...Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake. Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal under Charles Dutoit. London CD 436 212 2. Two CDs. A gem--among Tchaikovsky's finest works. The playing provides plenty of emotional climaxes ...
|
|