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| {{picture|file=Vincenzo Bellini.jpg|caption='''Vincenzo Bellini''' (1801-1835)}} | | {{picture|file=Anton Rubinstein.jpg|caption='''Anton Rubinstein''' (1829-1894)}} |
| Italian composer (b. 3 November 1801 in Catania; d. 23 September 1835 at Puteaux, near [[Paris]]), born '''''Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini'''''.
| | '''Anton Rubinstein''' was a Russian pianist, composer, conductor and teacher (b. 16/28 November 1829 in Vikhvatinets; d. 8/20 November 1894 in [[ Peterhof]]), born '''''Anton Grigoryevich Rubinshteyn''''' (Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн). |
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| ==Tchaikovsky and Bellini== | | ==Tchaikovsky and Anton Rubinstein== |
| Bellini was one of the composers whose music, like that of [[Mozart]], Tchaikovsky discovered as a child, and all his life he would retain an affection for the wonderful melodies of the "Swan of Catania". Indeed, according to a letter of 1882 to [[Nadezhda von Meck]] (quoted below), the very figure of Bellini had for many years been surrounded by a "poetic aureole" in his mind because he had imagined him to be as "childlike and good-natured" as [[Mozart]]. Unfortunately, when he read about the composer's life in Francesco Florimo's recently published book, his illusions were shattered, but still in the brief ''[[Autobiography]]'' which Tchaikovsky put to paper in 1889, he emphasized that "there are some melodies of Bellini which I can never hear without my eyes filling with tears!".
| | Born into a humble family of Jewish origins, but raised in the Christian faith, both Anton and his younger brother [[Nikolay Rubinstein|Nikolay]] (1835–1881) showed early musical aptitude. Anton received piano lessons from his mother at the age of five, and within four years he had given his first public recital, and then toured through Western Europe and Russia with his tutor Aleksandr Villoing (1808–1878), and brother [[Nikolay Rubinstein|Nikolay]]. |
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| We know about Tchaikovsky's early fascination with Bellini from the account included by [[Modest Tchaikovsky]] in his biography of the composer (and partly based on conversations and letters exchanged with [[Fanny Dürbach]] after 1894), which describes the effect produced on 5-year-old Petia by the orchestrina which his [[father]] had brought with him to [[Votkinsk]]. This mechanical instrument could play the tune of Zerlina's aria from [[Mozart]]'s ''Don Giovanni'', and this was the boy's earliest and most profound musical impression, but apart from that, "the orchestrina also acquainted him with the music of [[Rossini]], Bellini, and [[Donizetti]], and his love of Italian music, which never left him all his life (even when this music was subjected to the most frenzied persecution in serious musical circles in the 1860s and 70s), probably came to him from there" <ref name="note1"/>.
| | Returning to Russia in 1848 he taught, gave recitals, and became a leading figure in [[Saint Petersburg]]'s musical world. With the support of the Grand Duchess [[Yelena Pavlovna]] (1807–1873), he established the Russian Musical Society in 1859, and founded the [[Saint Petersburg]] Conservatory three years later. Tchaikovsky was a student of Rubinstein's instrumentation classes in the conservatory's first intake, but relationship between master and tutor was by no means an easy one, and the young student's works were often judged very harshly. Nevertheless, Rubinstein recommended Tchaikovsky for the post of professor of harmony at the [[Moscow]] Conservatory, after his graduation in 1866. |
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| Another important influence on the young Tchaikovsky's enthusiasm for Italian opera came some years later, when the family had already moved to [[Saint Petersburg]]. In 1856, he met the Neapolitan singing-master Luigi Piccioli, who had come to Russia in the 1840s and was much sought after as a teacher in the Imperial capital. Some of Piccioli's fanatical devotion to Italian ''bel canto'' rubbed off on to Tchaikovsky at the time, as [[Modest]] would later recall: "The essence of his [Piccioli's] musical creed boiled down to a complete rejection of all music other than the music of [[Rossini]], Bellini, [[Donizetti]], and [[Verdi]]. He would with equal contempt scoff at a [[Beethoven]] symphony, a gypsy song, a [[Bach]] mass, a cherubic hymn by [[Bortnyansky]], [Glinka's] ''A Life for the Tsar'', and [Aleksey Verstovsky's 1824 opera] ''Askold's Grave''. Apart from the works of the great melodists of Italy, everything else was unworthy of the name of music and did not even deserve to be taken notice of" <ref name="note2"/>. Although Tchaikovsky did not succumb entirely to this fanaticism, thanks to his love of [[Mozart]] and the piano lessons which he was receiving from Rudolph Kündinger in those years (1855–58), it seems that he was so carried away by the performances of Bellini's ''Norma'' and ''La sonnambula'' (as well as [[Rossini]]'s ''Guillaume Tell'') which he attended at the Mariinsky Theatre, that for a while he was rather reluctant to go to the few symphony concerts that were organized in [[Saint Petersburg]] at the time <ref name="note3"/>.
| | In 1873, Tchaikovsky dedicated his [[Six Pieces on a Single Theme, Op. 21]] for piano to his former tutor, and also supplied two pieces for the celebrations of Anton Rubinstein's fiftieth year as an artist in 1889: the chorus ''[[A Greeting to Anton Rubinstein]]'' and the piano ''[[Impromptu in A-flat major|Impromptu]]'' in A-flat major. |
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| Even though Tchaikovsky's musical horizons widened tremendously during his studies with [[Nikolay Zaremba]] and then at the [[Saint Petersburg]] Conservatory (1861–65), chiefly through his discovery of the works of [[Schumann]], [[Beethoven]], [[Berlioz]], and to a lesser extent [[Liszt]], and despite the fact that as a composer he, too, wanted to seek out new paths, in later years he still retained his fondness for Italian opera, especially Bellini. Thus, in his obituary of the composer, [[Herman Laroche]] would emphasize that Tchaikovsky, for all his sympathy for those who went in new directions, had never been a "musical radical" (that is, like the members of the "Mighty Handful" who rejected Italian opera as a pursuit of meaningless beauty), and that "he even 'worshipped' ''La sonnambula'' and urged me to write a long article on Bellini" <ref name="note4"/>.
| | Anton Rubinstein's fame continued to grow at home and abroad, and after resigning his position at the [[Saint Petersburg]] Conservatory in 1867 as a result of tensions within the faculty, he devoted his time to giving concert tours in Russia, Western Europe and (in 1872/73) the United States. After briefly returning to the conservatory (1887–91), he then settled in [[Dresden]], and only returned to Russia three years later when his health began to fail. He died at [[Peterhof]], Russia, on 8/20 November 1894, as a result of heart failure, aged 64. |
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| In the 1870s, Tchaikovsky had several opportunities to hear Adelina Patti as Amina in ''La sonnambula'' at the Bolshoi Theatre in [[Moscow]], and in an article of 1872, for example, he praised her superb coloratura singing in this "delightful opera, which is full of sweet and tender melodies" (TH 269]]). It is true that in one of his later articles Tchaikovsky did lump ''La sonnambula'' together with operas which he liked considerably less, such as [[Verdi]]'s ''La traviata ''and ''Il trovatore'', as examples of those "dishes from the Italian trattoria" which the profit-greedy impresario of the Italian Opera Company kept serving up to the [[Moscow]] public — in productions, moreover, of dubious quality — and which most people were "sick and tired of by now" (see [[TH 298]], written in 1874). However, these disparaging remarks reflect not so much a sudden change in attitude towards Bellini's idyllic masterpiece as Tchaikovsky's frustration at the policy of the Imperial Theatres' Directorate, which had allowed [[Moscow]]'s principal stage to be taken over by the Italians and failed to give any encouragement to native Russian opera. For his feelings about ''La sonnambula'' remained unchanged, or rather, they were now informed by his greater understanding of orchestral technique but still essentially the same as far as the melodic flow of the singing parts was concerned. Thus, [[Laroche]] would recall: "In later years Tchaikovsky expressed on several occasions his admiration for Bellini and even bought Florimo's book about him. He often said that he would like to re-orchestrate ''La sonnambula'', since, as he put it, it would be a genuine masterpiece if only Bellini had not orchestrated it in such a monotonous and importunately noisy fashion" <ref name="note5"/>.
| | ==Tchaikovsky's Arrangements of Works by Rubinstein== |
| | * ''[[Ivan the Terrible (Rubinstein)|Ivan the Terrible]]'', TH 177 (1869) — arrangement for piano 4 hands of Rubinstein's characteristic musical picture for orchestra, Op. 79 (1869) |
| | * ''[[Don Quixote (Rubinstein)|Don Quixote]]'', TH 180 (1871) — arrangement for piano 4 hands of Rubinstein's comic musical picture, Op. 87 (1870). |
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| Given Tchaikovsky's admiration for Bellini, it is significant that in October 1877 [[Lauro Rossi]], director of the Collegia di Musica in [[Naples]], sent the Russian composer an invitation to contribute to an album of piano pieces which was being prepared to mark the unveiling of a monument to Bellini in the city where he had studied after leaving his native Sicily. Tchaikovsky replied (in French) from [[Clarens]] on 1 November {{NS}}: "It is with the utmost pleasure that I accept your offer of taking part in the collection which you intend to publish in honour of the great master of whom I have always been a fervent admirer" <ref name="note6"/>. However, Tchaikovsky was unable to meet the deadline of 1 December 1877 {{NS}} specified by [[Rossi]], probably because at the time he was trying to complete ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' and the [[Fourth Symphony]], but doubting whether he would recover from the crisis of his marriage to [[Antonina Milyukova]] and find the energy for new compositions <ref name="note7"/>. When [[Rossi]] reminded him in a letter of 11 May 1878 of his promise and urged him to send in his contribution as quickly as possible, since the Bellini album was about to be sent to press <ref name="note8"/>, Tchaikovsky decided to make use of the piano piece ''Danse russe'' — No. 10 of the [[Twelve Pieces, Op. 40]] (1878), which in fact he had written earlier in 1877 as an additional number for ''[[Swan Lake]]''. Tchaikovsky now changed some nuances in the dynamics and phrasing of the ''Danse russe'' and sent the new manuscript score (written in his own hand) to [[Naples]], where to this day it is still kept in the library of the Conservatory. The ''Danse russe'', alongside 35 other piano pieces contributed by contemporary composers (including [[Liszt]]), was incorporated into the ''Album per pianoforte alla memoria di Vincenzo Bellini,'' which was eventually published by [[Ricordi]] in [[Milan]] in 1885 <ref name="note9"/>.
| | ==Tchaikovsky's Translations of Works by Rubinstein== |
| | * ''[[Twelve Persian Songs (Rubinstein)|Twelve Persian Songs]]'', TH 334 (1869) — translation from German to Russian of Rubinstein's ''Zwölf'' ''Lieder des Mirza-Schaffy'', Op. 34 (1855) |
| | * ''[[Songs and Romances (Rubinstein)|Songs and Romances]]'', TH 335 (?1870–71) — Russian translations of nineteen song texts (from Opp. 32, 33, 72, 76 and 83) from German, French, Italian and English, for a collected edition published by [[Vasily Bessel]]. |
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| Further evidence of Tchaikovsky's enduring affection for Bellini's music is provided by the memoirs of [[Aleksandra Panayeva]]. A week or so after the premiere of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' at the Maly Theatre in [[Moscow]] on 17/29 March 1879, Tchaikovsky travelled to [[Saint Petersburg]] and visited [[Aleksandra Panayeva|Aleksandra]] and her father, with some trepidation at first because he knew that she was an enthusiastic admirer of his music and had often performed his songs at concerts. However, his unease vanished very soon when, at his request, she started to sing various romances and arias, including from [[Mozart]]'s ''Le nozze di Figaro'' and ''Die Zauberflöte''. Tchaikovsky also asked for "an aria from ''La sonnambula'', which, as he said, he liked very much in his early youth" <ref name="note10"/>.
| | ==Dedications== |
| | Tchaikovsky dedicated three of his works to Anton Rubinstein: |
| | * [[Six Pieces on a Single Theme, Op. 21]], for piano (1873) |
| | * ''[[A Greeting to Anton Rubinstein]]'', for mixed chorus (1889) |
| | * ''[[Impromptu in A-flat major|Impromptu]]'' in A-flat major, for piano (1889). |
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| As mentioned above, in March 1882 Tchaikovsky, while staying in [[Naples]], came across a copy of Francesco Florimo's biography of Bellini, and he was disappointed to find out that the author of such heartfelt melodies had not been free of vanity and selfishness — faults which Tchaikovsky often encountered when reading about the lives of composers, the one exception always being [[Mozart]]! (See the letter to [[Nadezhda von Meck]] quoted below).
| | ==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky== |
| | 2 letters from Tchaikovsky to Anton Rubinstein have survived, dating from 1887 and 1891, both of which have been translated into English on this website: |
| | * '''[[Letter 3213]]''' – 30 March/11 April 1887, from [[Maydanovo]] |
| | * '''[[Letter 4392]]''' – 2/14 June 1891, from [[Maydanovo]] |
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| In Chapter IX of his ''[[Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888]]'', reflecting on the decline of Italian music in the second half of the nineteenth century, Tchaikovsky observes sadly how there were still so many young Italian composers who carried on merely recycling "the operatic ''commonplaces'' of Bellini and [[Donizetti]]". This evidently critical remark about Bellini's style should, though, be offset against what he wrote a year later in his ''[[Autobiography]]'': in this brief text, intended for readers in Germany, that is a country where Italian ''bel canto'' was frowned upon by many (even if [[Wagner]] had expressed his admiration for ''Norma''), Tchaikovsky was not ashamed to admit that some melodies of Bellini still made him cry <ref name="note11"/>. Likewise, during his stay in [[Florence]] in February 1890, Tchaikovsky went to hear ''I Puritani'', and, although his diary entry afterwards suggests that he was not pleased with the performance, he still wrote that Bellini was "delightful". (The diary entry is quoted below.)
| | 3 letters from Anton Rubinstein to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1887, are preserved in the [[Klin]] House-Museum Archive. |
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| ==General Reflections on Bellini==
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| ===In Tchaikovsky's Letters===
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| * [[Letter 1987]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 7/19 March 1882, from [[Naples]]:
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| {{quote|In the hours that I have been free from my work and not going for walks I have managed to read a very interesting book about Bellini, which has been recently published. This book was written by his friend Florimo, who is now an old man of eighty! I have always felt great sympathy towards Bellini. When I was still a child the emotions which his graceful melodies, always tinged with melancholy, awakened in me were so strong that they made me cry. And to this day, in spite of his many shortcomings — that is his vapid accompaniments, the vulgar and trivial strettas of his ensembles, the coarseness and banality of his recitatives — I have nonetheless retained my sympathy for his music. As for his life, apart from the fact that he died young and was a sensitive and kind person, I knew nothing about him. Florimo's book, apart from a biography of Bellini, also includes his quite extensive correspondence. And so it was with great pleasure that I opened this book to read about the life of a composer, who for a long time had been surrounded in my imagination by an especially poetic aureole. I had always thought that Bellini in life must have been just as childlike and good-natured a being as [[Mozart]] was. Alas! I had to suffer a disillusionment in this respect. For it seems that, in spite of all his talent, Bellini's was a very ordinary character. In this book you see him all engrossed in self-adoration; you see how he admires every single bar he has written, how he cannot tolerate any criticisms of his music whatsoever and sees jealous and intriguing enemies everywhere, even though success never (or almost never) deserted him from the very beginning of his career to the very end. Judging from his letters, he did not love anyone, he never cared about anybody else, and indeed nothing that lay outside the sphere of his interests seemed to exist for him. It is remarkable that the author of this book evidently failed to notice the unfavourable impression of Bellini which his letters cause — otherwise he would surely not have published them <ref name="note12"/>.}}
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| ==On Specific Works by Bellini==
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| ===In Tchaikovsky's Music Review Articles===
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| * ''La sonnambula'', opera (1831) — [[TH 269]]
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| ===In Tchaikovsky's Letters===
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| * ''I Capuleti e i Montecchi'', opera (1830) — [[Letter 840]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 23 May/4 June 1878, in which he explains that he was planning to write an opera ''[[Romeo and Juliet (projected opera)|Romeo and Juliet]]'' (TH 215):
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| {{quote|I am not put off by the operas by ''Bellini'' and ''[[Gounod]]''. In these [[Shakespeare]] is corrupted and distorted beyond recognition. Don't you find that this magnificent, archetypal drama is admirably suited to music?}}
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| ===In Tchaikovsky's Diaries===
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| * ''I Puritani'', opera (1835) — Diary entry for 24 February/7 March 1890, [[Florence]]:
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| {{quote|Warm and grey weather, a few rain showers. Went for a walk around ''San Casciano'' area; wonderful. In the evening one act of ''Puritani''. And still, this ''Bellini'' is delightful in spite of all the horrendousness [безобразие]" [of the music or the performance?]}}
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| ==Bibliography== | | ==Bibliography== |
| * {{bib|1996/71}} (1996) | | * {{bib|1883/12}} (1883) |
| | * {{bib|1889/15}} (1889) |
| | * {{bib|1892/36}} (1892) |
| | * {{bib|1893/165}} (1893) |
| | * {{bib|1893/59}} (1893) |
| | * {{bib|1893/60}} (1893) |
| | * {{bib|1903/8}} (1903) |
| | * {{bib|1905/7}} (1905) |
| | * {{bib|1923/5}} (1923) |
| | * {{bib|1924/5}} (1924) |
| | * {{bib|1927/8}} (1927) |
| | * {{bib|1937/58}} (1937) |
| | * {{bib|1962/73}} (1962) |
| | * {{bib|1962/123}} (1962) |
| | * {{bib|1973/131}} (1973) |
| | * {{bib|1973/80}} (1973) |
| | * {{bib|1979/140}} (1979) |
| | * {{bib|1979/83}} (1979) |
| | * {{bib|1980/120}} (1980) |
| | * {{bib|1980/185}} (1980) |
| | * {{bib|1981/66}} (1981) |
| | * {{bib|1983/95}} (1983) |
| | * {{bib|1985/61}} (1985) |
| | * {{bib|1992/11}} (1992) |
| | * {{bib|1993/171}} (1993) |
| | * {{bib|1993/250}} (1993) |
| | * {{bib|1999/116}} (1999) |
| | * {{bib|2006/11}} (2006) |
| | * {{bib|2012/19}} (2012) |
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| ==External Links== | | ==External Links== |
| * [[wikipedia:Vincenzo Bellini|Wikipedia]] | | * [[wikipedia:Anton_Rubinstein|Wikipedia]] |
| * {{IMSLP|Bellini,_Vincenzo}} | | * {{IMSLP|Rubinstein,_Anton Works by Anton Rubinstein at the}} |
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| ==Notes and References==
| | [[Category:People|Rubinstein, Anton]] |
| <references>
| | [[Category:Composers|Rubinstein, Anton]] |
| <ref name="note1">{{bib|1997/94|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 1}} (1997), p. 41.</ref>
| | [[Category:Conductors|Rubinstein, Anton]] |
| <ref name="note2">{{bib|1997/94|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 1}} (1997), p. 116.</ref>
| | [[Category:Correspondents|Rubinstein, Anton]] |
| <ref name="note3">See {{bib|1997/94|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 1}} (1997), p. 117.</ref>
| | [[Category:Dedicatees|Rubinstein, Anton]] |
| <ref name="note4">{{bib|1980/87|Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском}} (1980), p. 44.</ref>
| | [[Category:Pianists|Rubinstein, Anton]] |
| <ref name="note5">From [[Herman Laroche]]'s ({{bibx|1898/15|Foreword}}) to his 1898 edition of Tchaikovsky's music review articles, which is reprinted (in German translation) in {{bib|2000/42|Peter Tschaikowsky. Musikalische Essays und Erinnerungen}} (2000), xxxi.</ref>
| | [[Category:Teachers (of Tchaikovsky)|Rubinstein, Anton]] |
| <ref name="note6">[[Letter 623a]] to [[Lauro Rossi]], 20 October/1 November 1877. The original text in French reads as follows: "C'est avec la plus grande joie que j'accepte la proposition que V[ous] me faites de prendre part au recueil que V[ous] avez l'intention de publier en l'honneur du grand maître, dont j'ai toujours été un fervent admirateur". It is included in {{bib|1998/46|Paris vaut bien une messe! Bisher unbekannte Briefe, Notenautographie und andere Čajkovskij-Funde}} (1998), p. 190–191.</ref>
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| <ref name="note7">See [[Letter 650]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 18/30 November 1877: "Unfortunately, I don't always have enough strength to work. My God, if only I could find in myself the energy and enthusiasm for new projects! Now all I can do is finish and polish off ones that I've already started... In [[Naples]] an album of [piano] pieces is going to be published to mark the unveiling of a monument to Bellini, and many foreign composers have been invited to take part in this. I, too, received an invitation about a month ago. I replied saying that I would send in my piece by the deadline (by 1 December). Now the deadline is fast approaching, and — something which has never happened to me before — I haven't been able to squeeze out a single note from myself! It is too late now; I have deceived the editors of the album... Still, I do not lose hope. I shall complete the [[Symphony No. 4|symphony]], I shall finish the [[Yevgeny Onegin|opera]], and then we'll see".</ref>
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| <ref name="note8">A Russian translation of [[Lauro Rossi]]'s letter to Tchaikovsky in the name of the Royal Collegia di Musica of [[Naples]] is included in {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 79.</ref>
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| <ref name="note9">Information provided by Thomas Kohlhase in {{bib|1998/46|Paris vaut bien une messe! Bisher unbekannte Briefe, Notenautographie und andere Čajkovskij-Funde}} (1998), p. 190–191.</ref>
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| <ref name="note10">{{bib|1980/120|Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском}} (1980), p. 124.</ref>
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| <ref name="note11">See also how Oblomov in Ivan Goncharov's eponymous novel of 1859 is always moved to tears whenever he hears Olga sing "Casta diva" from ''Norma''.</ref>
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| <ref name="note12">Quoted in {{bib|1997/95|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 2}} (1997), p. 449–450.</ref>
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| </references>
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| [[Category:People|Bellini, Vincenzo]] | |
| [[Category:Composers|Bellini, Vincenzo]] | |
