Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 3 Op. 72 / 79: Unfinished Business

(c) Wikipedia

Tchaikovsky died in 1893 under questionable circumstances. Some attribute it to cholera and others to committing sucide through taking poison. Whatever the circumstances surrounding his death, he definitely left some unfinished business. He started writing his third Piano Concerto in 1892 and till the time of his death, he has only finished the first movement in Allegro brillante leaving the remaining two movements in Andante and Finale unfinished. However, he signed off "The end. God be thanked." at the end of the original manuscript of the first movement which seems inconsistent with a composer that have another two more movements to write. As a speculation consistent with the suicide theory surrounding his death, it could be that life was becoming so unbearable that he could no longer bear to live to finish the remaining two movements before bidding goodbye to this world. Tchaikovsky did not lead a very regular live as there were rumours about his homosexuality as well as his marriage to Antonina Miliukova supposedly as a cover for his homosexuality.

Taneyev attempted to complete the last two movements of the unfinished work by providing the orchestration to it after the death of Tchaikovsky. The completed work as published as Op 79. However at the premiere of this work on 19 January 1985 in St Petersburg, only the original first movement was played. Perhaps as a mark of respect to the original composer Tchaikovsky.

In 1956, Bogatryryev made another attempt on a different plane by creating a four movement symphony by combining the three movements of the piano concerto done by Taneyev with a Scherzo from Tchaikovsky eighteen pieces for piano Op 72. This synthesis has transformed a Piano Concerto to a Symphony and in my opinion might be far from what Tchaikovsky intended the piece to be.

I would be going to Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert with pianist Stephen Hough and conductor Zhang Xian to listen to their rendition of this controversial piece on 10th July 2009.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye