Orchestral Suite No. 3 (Tchaikovsky)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed his Orchestral Suite No. 3 in G, Op. 55 in 1884, writing it concurrently with his Concert Fantasia in G, Op. 56, for piano and orchestra. The originally intended opening movement of the suite, Contrastes, instead became the closing movement of the fantasia. Both works were also intended initially as more mainstream compositions than they became; the fantasia was intended as a piano concerto, while the suite was conceived as a symphony.

The suite's first performance was in Saint Petersburg, Russia on January 24, 1885, under the direction of Hans von Bülow. It was dedicated to the conductor Max Erdmannsdörfer, who gave the Moscow premiere a few days later, and who had conducted the premieres of the first two suites.

The Orchestral Suite No. 3 calls for: 3 flutes (one of them piccolo), 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 2 clarinets (in A), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (in F), 2 trumpets (in F and D), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, side drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, harp and strings (violins 1 & 2, violas, celli, double basses).

The suite is divided into four movements, the fourth a theme and variations longer than the other three movements combined:

I) Élégie (Andantino molto cantabile, G major)

II) Valse mélancolique (Allegro moderato, E minor)

III) Scherzo (Presto, E minor)

IV) Tema con variazioni (Andante con moto, G major)

"I meant to write a symphony, but the title is of no importance", Tchaikovsky wrote Sergei Taneyev. When he had gone to the Davidov family estate at Kamenka in the Ukraine, he had contemplated ideas for a piano concerto and a symphony. Neither plan really materialized the way the composer intended. He quickly recognized his ideas for the symphony were better suited for an orchestral suite like the two he had previously written. The problem lay with the opening movement. Titled Contrastes, it was to be a fantasia of contrasting musical sounds and patterns, not unlike the Jeu de sons movement that opened the Second Orchestral Suite. The more he worked with the music, the more recalcitrant the music became and the more he hated it. Contrastes finally found its way into the Concert Fantasia.

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Wikipedia