Presents
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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The Seasons Op.37c for String Quartet-Complete
Tchaikovsky began work on The Seasons at the same time he was working on the ballet Swan Lake as the result of a commission he received. In 1875, Nikolai Bernard, the editor of the St. Petersburg musical periodical Nouvellist gave him a commission to compose 12 short piano pieces, one for each month of the year. Bernard suggested a subtitle for each month which Tchaikovsky accepted and hence the subtitles which appear after each month were not chosen by Tchaikovsky. The famous Moscow Imperial publisher Pavel Jurgenson acquired the rights to the music in 1886. Its tremendous popularity led to it being reprinted numerous times. Several of the pieces in various arrangements have achieved tremendous fame on their own and are often played as encores, among them are the Barcarolle of June, the Autumn Song of October and In the Troika of November, a favorite of Rachmaninov. The 12 pieces bear the following subtitles: January: At the Fireside sometimes translated as Hearth, February: Carnival, March: The Lark' Song, April: Snowdrop, May: White Nights sometimes translated as Starlit Nights, June: Barcarolle, July: Reaper’s Song, August: Harvest, September: The Hunt, October: Autumn Song, November: In the Troika, and December: Christmas.
The emotive excellence and tremendous popularity of the music has led to it being orchestrated by a number of people and the work is best known and most often heard in one of its many orchestrated versions. But with such a large ensemble as a modern orchestra, the wonderful intimacy of the music is lost. Not so with a string quartet, which when well done is far more effective than the original for piano alone.
Over the years there have been a number of arrangements for solo piano, piano four hands, piano trio and string quartet. We, too, offer an arrangement for string quartet by Professor Vincenzo Oddo, well-known for his excellent arrangements. We were able to obtain a copy of his manuscript before he passed away in 2007 and have edited it to make this complete edition. Unfortunately, there is no recording of Professor Oddo's arrangement or in fact of any arrangement for a regular string quartet. So we have used a recording of another, somewhat similar version made by a cello quartet which will give you a pretty good idea of what the work sounds like for a regular string quartet. No previous arrangements for string quartet have ever presented the entire work as our does. Each month was either sold individually or occasionally in groups. We are pleased to make the work available for the first time as a single set arranged for string quartet.
Parts: $39.95
