Overture Magazine 2013-2014 September-October 2013 | Page 19

Festival Overture: The Year 1812

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Born in Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840; died in
St. Petersburg, Russia, November 6, 1893

The year 1812 was the beginning of the
end for Napoleon Bonaparte and his
dreams of conquering Europe, and the
country that thwarted him was Russia.
On September 7, 1812, Napoleon’s army
met the massive Russian forces under
General Kutuszov in the Battle of Borodino, which ended indecisively with more
than 80,000 casualties. Kutusvov cleverly
withdrew his forces behind Moscow, and
when Napoleon arrived there, he found
the city in flames, nothing to win, and no
food or supplies for his troops. The brutal
Russian winter did the rest of the work,
and Napoleon limped out of Russia with
his troops decimated.
Nearly 70 years later in 1880, Tchaikovsky was asked by his friend Nikolai
Rubinstein, director of the Moscow

Conservatory, to write a patriotic piece
for the opening of the Russian Exhibition of Industry and the Arts, and more
specifically for the consecration of the
Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which had
been commissioned in 1812. But, though
Tchaikovsky accepted the assignment, he
wasn’t happy about it. “There is nothing
less to my liking than composing for the
sake of some festivities,” he wrote. “What,
for instance, can you write on the occasion of
the opening of an exhibition except banalities
and generally noisy passages?” Begrudging
the necessary labor, Tchaikovsky ripped the
composition out in just a week and finished
the orchestral scoring one month later.
Though an outdoor setting complete with
cannon fire was originally contemplated,
it was ultimately premiered in a new hall
built for the exhibition on August 20, 1882
without the artillery contribution.
Tchaikovsky’s speed in turning out what
is probably today his most famous composition was aided by his stitching the work
together from a number of pre-existing

melodies. In a slow, brooding introduction, it opens with a beautiful, traditional
Russian Orthodox chant “Save, Lord, Thy
People,” deep in the strings. This opening
section also introduces a dashing militarysignal-style tune representing the Russian
army, which will play an important role in
the work’s conclusion. The main Allegro
section introduces the French national
hymn “La Marseillaise,” which battles with
the Russian themes. A quieter lyrical section uses a swaying melody from Tchaikovsky’s early opera The Voyevoda, as well
as a traditional Russian folk-dance song “At
the Gates.” Finally, a grandiose coda salutes
the Russian victory with an imposing statement of the Russian imperial hymn “God
Save the Tsar.”

Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes,
English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four
horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba,
timpani, percussion and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, Copyright ©2013

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September– October 2013 |

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