Student Exercises

Fourteen short student exercises, for various combinations of instruments, have survived from Tchaikovsky's years in Anton Rubinstein's composition classes at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1863 or 1864:

TH	ČW	Opus	Title	Key	Description	Year
152	323	—	Allegretto moderato	D major	For string trio	1863/64
153	333	—	Allegretto	E major	For string quartet	1863/64
154	325	—	Allegro vivace	B-flat major	For string quartet	1863/64
155	322	—	Andante molto	G major	For string quartet	1863/64
156	328	—	Adagio	C major	For horn quartet	1863/64
157	329	—	Andante ma non troppo	E minor	For string quintet	1863/64
158	326	—	Adagio molto	E-flat major	For string quartet and harp	1863/64
159	327	—	Allegro	C minor	For piano and string sextet	1863/64
160	330	—	Adagio	F major	For wind octet	1863/64
161	334	—	Allegro ma non tanto	G major	For string orchestra	1863/64
162	324	—	Largo and Allegro	D major	For two flutes and strings	1863/64
163	331	—	Agitato and Allegro	E minor	For small orchestra	1863/64
164	335	—	Andante ma non troppo	A major	For small orchestra	1863/64
165	332	—	Allegro vivo	C minor	For small orchestra	1863/64

Several larger-scale works also date from Tchaikovsky's time as a Conservatory student, between September 1862 and December 1865:

• Boris Godunov, music for a scene in Pushkin's drama (lost)
• The Romans at the Coliseum, musical picture (lost)
• The Storm, overture to Ostrovsky's play
• Characteristic Dances for orchestra
• Overture in C minor
• Overture in F major (1st version)
• Ode to Joy, graduation cantata (1865)
• At Bedtime, chorus (2 versions)
• String Quartet in B-flat major (1 movement)
• Theme with Variations in A minor, for piano
• Impromptu in E-flat minor, for piano
• Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor (1865)
• Orchestration of Weber's Menuetto capriccioso
• Orchestration of part of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata
• Orchestration of Schumann's Symphonic Studies
• Orchestration of Gungl's waltz Le retour
• Allegro in F minor for piano (unfinished)