Andante cantabile

Tchaikovsky Research
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

The Andante cantabile (TH 63 ; ČW 348) from Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1, Opus 11 (1871), was arranged for cello and string orchestra by the composer for a concert in February 1888.

Instrumentation

The piece is scored for solo cello and string orchestra (violins I, violins II, violas, cellos, and double basses).

Duration

There is one movement: Andante cantabile (B major, 176 bars), lasting approximately 7 minutes in performance.

Composition

The second movement of Tchaikovsky's First String Quartet was one of his most famous compositions, and evidently the composer made this arrangement for a performance by Anatoly Brandukov in Paris in February 1888. It appears that the orchestration was itself based on Wilhelm Fitzenhagen's a transcription of the movement for solo cello with piano [1].

The orchestral version was transposed to the key of B major; in the quartet the movement is set in B-flat major.

Performances

The first performance appears to have been at a private concert in Paris at the home of Marie de Benardaky on 16/28 February 1888, by members of Édouard Colonne's Orchestra, with Anatoly Brandukov as the soloist, conducted by the composer [2]. Five days later, on 21 February/4 March 1888, the piece was given its public premiere at the 16th Châtelet concert in Paris, with the same soloist and conductor.

The Andante cantabile was heard for the first time in Russia in Moscow on 6/18 November 1891, in a concert organised by Aleksandr Ziloti, once again with Anatoly Brandukov (cello), conducted by Tchaikovsky.

Publication

The score was published for the first time in volume 30Б of Tchaikovsky's Complete Collected Works (1956).

Autograph

Tchaikovsky's manuscript score (which omits the cello part) is now preserved in the Tchaikovsky House-Museum Archive at Klin (a1, No. 69).

Recordings

See: Discography

Related Works

See also: String Quartet No. 1 (1871) and Nocturne (1888).

External Links

Notes and References

  1. Fitzenhagen's arrangement was published by P. Jurgenson in Moscow in 1872.
  2. The editors of ČW suggest that on this occasion Brandukov may have played some other pieces, while the Andante cantabile was performed by a string orchestra.