On Tchaikovsky and Chekhov…
As one of Russia’s leading writers during his lifetime, Anton Chekhov was part of an elusive circle of accomplished Russian artists, and he often interacted with composers such as Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) and Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). Chekhov loved music; he even dedicated one of his story collections, Gloomy People (1890), to Tchaikovsky, for whom Chekhov had boundless admiration.[1]Interestingly enough, the respective works of Tchaikovsky and Chekhov have often been compared to each other by critics and scholars not only in the present day, but ever since the 19th century. One 19th-century scholar wrote that the works of Tchaikovsky and Chekhov are linked by “…a striving for happiness, for the truth of life, beauty, the hatred of evil and violence, a deeply realistic understanding of human feelings, wise simplicity and a common accessibility of style…”[2] Indeed, upon analysis, there are many formalistic and stylistic similarities between the two artists’ final works, The Cherry Orchard and Symphony no. 6 in b minor “Pathetique,” Op. 74. I’ve always enjoyed doing these kinds of parallel analyses, and I think findings show that a solid understanding of Chekhov’s works can lead to a more enlightened and inspired interpretation in the performance of Tchaikovsky’s music, and vice-versa.
Premiered in 1904, The Cherry Orchard traces the gradual process of the eminent dispossession of land to its owners, a unique amalgamation of tragedy and farce. While Chekhov himself described the play as a “comedy,” the overall plot of The Cherry Orchard, with its focus on loss and descent, is actually quite dark and tragic.[3] At the beginning of the play, Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya, an aristocratic Russian landowner, returns to her beloved family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard). Unfortunately, this beloved family estate and its cherry orchard needs to be auctioned off due to the disastrous state of her debts. Clueless to the dire nature of her debts, and unresponsive to solutions to save the estate, Lyubov obliviously sells the beloved property to the son of a former serf. At the end of the play, all of the characters, who had greeted Lyubov and her daughter upon their arrival at the beginning of the play, are now bidding them a permanent farewell , as they have no choice but the leave. The family leaves to the heartbreaking sound of the trees from their beloved cherry orchard being cut down.
As with many of Chekhov’s other works (such as the short story The Black Monk), The Cherry Orchard possesses elements of sonata form. The exposition and recapitulation both take place with the entire cast in the nursery of Lyubov’s estate. I believe that the “abstractness” of this play, as it has often been described as, comes from the delayed resolution of conflict, and the eventual non-resolution of it. Both the exposition and recapitulation are rather short: in the exposition, audience members are introduced to the cast of the play through the arrival of the main characters, and in the recapitulation, audience members see the main characters forced to leave their land. However, the conflict, the fact that Lyubov and her daughter cannot pay off their debts, is introduced immediately, and the attempt to find a resolution is dragged on throughout the rest of the play. Some of the characters come up with potential solutions from time to time, but with Lyubov being completely unresponsive to them, these attempts are useless. Frequent detours from the plot take place in the development, with side stories of love triangles between minor characters (which give the play its “comedic” aspect), but the overall conflict looms throughout. This same narrative can be traced in the harmonic scheme of the first movement of Pathetique Symphony, and to the arc of its four movements; I believe that this is why the two works feel so similar to each other.
Premiered in 1893, Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique Symphony has been described as a “unique fusion of technique and expression.”[4] The final movement, Adagio lamentoso, is one of the most psychologically devastating movements in the entire Western repertoire, as the entire movement features stepwise descents, a figure associated with the lament ever since the Baroque period. While the overall theme of The Cherry Orchard focuses on loss and descent, the Pathetique features a musical downward descent. Scholars argue that Pathetique steps away from a normative symphony in that it doesn’t adhere to the typical form of “perasperad ostra (through adversity to the stars).”[5] Instead, the dramatic and exciting third movement tricks listeners into thinking that they have reached the triumphant end, until they are met with the tragic Adagio lamentoso finale, which, like the first movement, features a down-ward descent.
Similar to The Cherry Orchard, the first movement of Pathetique features a relatively short exposition, (lasting from measures 19-89) and recapitulation (measures 245-301), with the majority of the movement featuring a “scherzando-fantasy” development section lasting through measures 89-245.[6] The “scherzando-fantasy” development section is comparable to the supposedly comedic elements of The Cherry Orchard, in which Chekhov dedicates generous amounts of the plot to the ridiculous ventures of the minor characters who are meant to add humor to the play, despite the pending doom to come. Just like the main characters never figure out how to keep their estate in The Cherry Orchard, the first movement of Pathetique never reaches a proper resolution after its lengthy development; the first tonic chord of the recapitulation is in the first inversion instead of root position.[7] Therefore, the recapitulation serves not as the beginning of a resolution, but as a “passing through” to the movement’s final descent. The development and recapitulation section of The Cherry Orchard plays a similar role in the overall plot of the play. Its development is a mere divergence from the unpreventable tragedy yet to come, and the moment of recapitulation, the re-gathering of the main cast, is only a stepping stone to the final and devastating sounds of cherry trees being chopped down.
[1] Tchaikovsky Research Contributors, “Anton Chekhov,” in Tchaikovsky Research, Tchaikovsky Research, http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/index.php?title=Anton_Chekhov&oldid=64704.
[2] Arnold McMillan, “Russian Music in and around Chekhov,” in Academia, https://www.academia.edu/5871492/Russian_Music_in_and_around_Chekhov_-_Arnold_Mcmillin?fbclid=IwAR1Qy1Lo-edbXe90biytVzP4CbuQBjh2URqEhewtAMVFA1tNkkfNBrbsC_0.
[3] Robert Brustein, forward to Anton Chekhov: The Major Plays, by Anton Chekhov (NY: Signets Classics, 1964), xxii.
[4] Walter Frisch, “Concert Culture and the ‘Great Symphony,” in Music in the Nineteenth Century, (Worcester, Massachusetts: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012), 196.
[5] Jackson, Tchaikovsky, 24.
[6] Jackson, Tchaikovsky, 30.
[7] Jackson, Tchaikovsky, 116.