Tchaikovsky: Festival Overture on the Danish National Anthem, Op. 15 (with Score)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Festival Overture on the Danish National Anthem, Op. 15, TH 41, ČW 37 (with Score) Composed: 1866, revised 1892 Conductor: Mikhail Pletnev Orchestra: Russian National Orchestra This work was commissioned to celebrate a visit to Moscow by the Tsarevitch and his new Danish bride. By way of royal thanks, the twenty-six-year-old Tchaikovsky received a pair of cuff links that he promptly sold, being strapped for cash. An Andante introduction takes up a good third of the piece, and incorporates phrases from both the Danish “Kingsong“ and the Tsarist national anthem. (Tchaikovsky’s second statement of the Danish theme in the brass makes even this music sound extremely Russian.) Some time after a call to action from the brass and drums, the overture’s Allegro vivo proper begins, using much the same material, roughly stitched together. It culminates in a grand maestoso statement of the Danish hymn and ends in a blaze of percussion. Late in his life, Tchaikovsky judged his Danish overture to be superior to his vastly more popular 1812 Overture, but this very early piece never gained a foothold in the repertory during the composer’s lifetime or since. Yet Tchaikovsky biographer David Brown has written that “the Overture is forthright, effective music, scored in bold colors and making its points with a directness appropriate in such a public offering.“