Info:
Duration: 70’ 14”
Narrated by Christopher Nupen
Year of production: 1988
This is the first of two films about the music of Tchaikovsky, written and directed by Christopher Nupen.
It covers the period from the first tentative stirrings of Tchaikovsky's musical talent to the time of the composition of Eugene Onegin and the disastrous failure of his marriage to Antonina Milyukova.
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Up to the time of his marriage the prime source of inspiration for much of his best music lay in Tchaikovsky's deep identification with the fate of his vulnerable young heroines. All through his life he was preoccupied with the idea of fate and in the early years it was the fate of these young women that touched him most; Katerina in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini and above all Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. His identification with Tatyana was so complete that it had a direct influence on his decision to marry Antonina Milyukova with such desperately unhappy consequences.
The American dancer Cynthia Harvey who is a principal with the Royal Ballet plays Katerina, Juliet and Odette. The Welsh soprano Helen Field who is a principal singer with the Welsh National Opera sings Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. Cynthia Harvey is partnered by Mark Silver who is also a principal with the Royal Ballet. Choreography is by Graham Lustig.
The music is performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy who has appeared in so many Allegro films during the past 22 years.
Mozart's Donna Anna, who touched Tchaikovsky so deeply at the age of ten, makes a brief appearance, sung by the Swedish soprano Clarry Bartha.
The second film will be concerned with Tchaikovsky's preoccupation with his own fate in the composition of the later symphonies.
Tchaikovsky’s Women - part one
Tchaikovsky: Fate - part two
Info:
Duration: 85’ 35”
Narrated by Christopher Nupen
Year of production: 1988
Part two continues the examination of Tchaikovsky's preoccupation with the idea of fate as a governing force in our lives.
The first film (Tchaikovsky's Women) focused on the young composer's identification with the fate of his vulnerable young heroines, from Katerina in his first orchestral work, The Storm, to his dearly beloved Tatanya in Eugene Onegin. It ended with the composition of that Opera and its close connections to the disastrous failure of Tchaikovsky's marriage to Antonina Milyukova.
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After his mother, Nadezhda von Meck was the most important person in Tchaikovsky's life and she became his most intimate confidante. They never met and came face to face only once, by accident (to the acute embarrassment of both parties), but their long and highly charged correspondence is full of the most intimately revealing details of Tchaikovsky's innermost concerns.
So important was the relationship that when von Meck withdrew her support both as patron and as friend it dealt Tchaikovsky a blow from which he never recovered. This dramatic event contributed to an increasing depression which made him so vulnerable - only three years later - to the demands for his enforced suicide.
The orchestra once again is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the film ends with a complete performance of the last movement of the Sixth Symphony; that most powerful augury of the composer's own death.
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