Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listener's Companion(Listener's Companion)

The music of Tchaikovsky remains as much loved in the twenty-first century as it was a hundred years ago. But it has so much more to offer than luscious orchestration and tuneful melodies. In Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listener’s Companion, historian and scholar David Schroeder looks beyond traditional views of Tchaikovsky to explore the dramatic impact of his music by walking readers through the remarkable range of works by this great Russian composer. Drawing on a select, but highly representative, group of compositions from Tchaikovsky’s vast output, from his groundbreaking ballet Swan Lake to his great opera Eugene Onegin, Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listener’s Companion offers in-depth explorations without technical jargon. In addition to looking at his ballets and some of his operas, Schroeder probes the many other genres in which Tchaikovsky worked, from his chamber music pieces and symphonies to his other orchestral works and concertos. Throughout, Schroeder draws connections among the works, painting a fuller, more coherent picture of Tchaikovsky through his thematic interests, musical techniques, sonic signatures, and literary and cultural focuses. For context, Schroeder describes the works of personal significance for the composer through such contemporary literature as Tchaikovsky’s letters to Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy patroness whom he never met. Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listener’s Companion is for anyone who left a ballet performance whistling themes from Swan Lake or humming melodies from The Nutcracker. It is the ideal work for concertgoers, music students, opera buffs, ballet enthusiasts, and anyone who appreciates this musical master.

Table of Contents:
Series Editor’s Foreword Introduction List of Abbreviations Timeline Chapter 1: Symphonic Poems, Shakespeare, and Music with Meaning Chapter 2: A Little Help from my Friends: Concertos Chapter 3: For the Love of Mozart: Chamber Music, Suites, and Serenades Chapter 4: Ballet’s New Way: Swan Lake Chapter 5: Pushkin’s Gentle Mockery, Tchaikovsky’s Immoderate Ardor: Eugene Onegin Chapter 6: Symphony as Opera Chapter 7: Sorcery, Caprice, Blindness, Saints, and Stacked Decks: More Operas Chapter 8: Two Fairytale Ballets Chapter 9: Above and Beyond: From His Death to the Present Glossary Selected Reading Selected Listening Index About the Author

About the Author :
David Schroeder is professor emeritus at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and he holds a doctorate from Cambridge University. He is the author of major studies on Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, film music, and opera. His most recent work is Experiencing Mozart: A Listener's Companion (Scarecrow Press 2013).

Review :
While this book makes no claims to be a scholarly study or a biography, it strikes me that Schroeder has read widely in the essential biographical material and has thought hard about what to listen for in the pieces he has chosen to deal with in some depth. . . .His approach to doing this is that 'it’s more useful to look at a few works in detail than to consider a large number superficially.' I think this is a good strategy, especially as he tries to show certain essential characteristics of Tchaikovsky’s compositional approach, which can then be useful in considering his other music. . . .[T]his book is well written, even occasionally trendy (Star Wars makes an appearance).