On September 26th, 2016 the International Programs department of the European University at St. Petersburg welcomed a special presentation by Dr. Jeffrey Prater, a composer and lifetime Tchaikovsky enthusiast who was able to share the little-known link between the United States and Russia via one of the world’s greatest musical talents: Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
The presence of Tchaikovsky in so much of American culture, he explained, was not at all one-sided; few people are aware that Tchaikovsky in fact made a trip to the United States in the spring of 1891, having been invited to open the brand-new Carnegie Hall.
But that was not, of course, his first brush with their music scene. The U.S. was fortunate enough to host two of Tchaikovsky’s world premieres well before Carnegie Hall was even thought of: first, Piano Concierto No. 1 debuted to the world in Boston in 1875 and was played by Hans von Bulow, having been rejected by acclaimed pianist Arthur Rubinstein. (Ten years later, the conductor of that premiere, Benjamin Johnson Lang, would also perform the piece.) Piano Concierto No. 2 premiered in New York City in 1881.
Although there were no further world premieres, even the American premieres garnered amazing talent. At the premiere of his D Major Violin Concierto, the violinist was Maud Powell, who would later record for Victor Recordings with an esteemed “Red Label.” And the conductor of the premiere of Symphony No. 4 in 1890 was Walter Damrosch – the same man who would invite Tchaikovsky to open Carnegie Hall the following year after a heavily diluted suggestion was made to Louise Whitfield Carnegie, who in turn successfully implored her husband Andrew to fund and initiate the creation of the Hall.
For the first several concerts at Carnegie, Tchaikovsky conducted his own music and in doing so became the first Russian composer to conduct in the United States. On the 5th of May he “debuted” Marche Solomelle, which was in fact his Coronation March and had simple been renamed; he had been commissioned to write a new piece but had run out of time. He conducted three more concerts, ending on May 9th with “Piano Concierto No. 1,” the same that had first been presented in Boston sixteen years earlier.
Tchaikovsky’s time in the U.S. was not entirely pleasant. Although he expressed that he was wildly impressed with the friendliness, energy, honesty, and hospitality of the American citizens (and wrote home to note that he was even more famous in the states than he was in Europe), he hated the food and despised the long, tedious train travel. He was very homesick, and there is significant evidence that he in fact began writing Symphony No. 6 while aboard the ship Furst Bismarck on his way home.
A more little-known fact is that, prior to his journey to the United States, Tchaikovsky was in fact the discoverer of the celesta in 1886; he found it in a small instrument shop in Paris, created by August Mustel. He was so afraid of it being discovered by other composers (such as Rimsky-Korsakov) that he kept it in hiding until, within one year, he was able to successfully write the first solo ever created for the celesta (and still the most-played today) in his ballad “The Voyevoda”.
And as Dr. Prater revealed, Tchaikovsky is prevalent even in today’s American culture. A recent Reese’s commercial, for example, used Tchaikovsky in its background, and the most famous song from Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty,” “Once Upon a Dream,” in fact is based off of Tchaikovsky’s “Garland Waltz” almost note-for-note. The influence of Tchaikovsky on United States music has not lessened with time; it would be fair to suggest that although many Americans may not know him by name, they undoubtedly have grown up surrounded by his music, a more peaceful remnant of the quiet relationship between the United States and Russia.
Rebecca McGory (IMARES)