Elena Kruglikova (1907-82) was from Podolsk. She studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Xenia Dorliak (mother of the concert singer Nina Dorliak), graduating with distinction in 1932 and almost immediately joining the Bolshoi, where she sang until 1956. Best known as an opera soloist, she was also in demand for concerts. From 1958 she taught singing at her alma mater. Her repertoire included a number of the more lyrical Russian opera roles, as well as Matilde in Guillaume Tell and the lighter Wagnerian parts. She recorded several other complete operas.

Tully Potter

Both a composer and a conductor, Alexander Melik-Pashayev studied initially with Nikolai Tcherepnin at the Tbilisi Conservatory and joined the Tbilisi Opera in 1921 as a répétiteur and as leader of the orchestra before being promoted to the position of conductor in 1924. Further formal study of conducting with Alexander Gauk at the Leningrad Conservatory followed between 1928 and 1930, the year in which Melik-Pashayev returned to the Tbilisi Opera as chief conductor. He joined the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow as a conductor in 1931, making his debut with Verdi’s Aida, and worked there steadily in this capacity until 1953, when he replaced Nikolai Golovanov as chief conductor, following the latter’s unceremonious sacking.

Unlike his two predecessors, Samosud and Golovanov, Melik-Pashayev conducted a considerable number of operas from the Western repertoire by composers such as Verdi, Bizet, Massenet, Puccini, and Leoncavallo, as well as those by Russian composers. He also did much to introduce new operas into the Bolshoi’s repertoire, conducting for instance works by Shaporin and Kabalevsky, and in 1954 conducted the first performance of Shostakovich’s Festival Overture. Melik-Pashayev had very high standards indeed: when the distinguished German conductor Hermann Abendroth was invited to conduct Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Bolshoi he was stunned by the exceptional quality of the company’s production. Having made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades in 1961, Melik-Pashayev returned the following year to conduct immensely exciting and superbly proportioned performances of Verdi’s Aida, with Galina Vishnevskaya in the title role.

His reign at the Bolshoi came to an unexpected end in 1962 when, like Samosud and Golovanov before him, he found himself summarily dismissed. One day, stopping by the Bolshoi’s billboard for the next month, he did not see his name there and knew that was it: he was succeeded by Evgeny Svetlanov and died two years later. Fortunately Melik-Pashayev’s very considerable art is preserved through a relatively high number of complete recordings of operatic productions from the Bolshoi. These include Beethoven’s Fidelio, Bizet’s Carmen (a live recording with Irina Arkhipova and Mario del Monaco), Borodin’s Prince Igor, Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (two versions, with the basses George London and Ivan Petrov in the title role), Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Rubinstein’s The Demon, Shaporin’s The Decembrists, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and The Slippers, and Verdi’s Aida and Falstaff. He also shared the conducting of a fine pre-war recording of Eugene Onegin with Alexander Orlov. Melik-Pashayev’s non-operatic recordings were few in number, but included an exceptionally fervent account of Verdi’s Requiem with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and a finely moulded reading of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’ with the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Conductors, Naxos 8.558087–90).

Tchaikovsky was one of the earlier students of the St Petersburg Conservatory established by Anton Rubinstein, completing his studies there to become a member of the teaching staff at the similar institution established in Moscow by Anton Rubinstein’s brother, Nikolay. He was able to withdraw from teaching when a rich widow, Nadezhda von Meck, offered him financial support; this support continued for much of his life, although, according to the original conditions of the pension, they never met. Tchaikovsky was a man of neurotic diffidence, his self-doubt increased by his homosexuality. It has been suggested by some that an impending scandal caused him to take his own life at a time when he was at the height of his powers as a composer, although others have found this improbable. His music is thoroughly Russian in character, but, although he was influenced by Balakirev and the ideals of the Russian nationalist composers ‘The Five’, he may be seen as belonging rather to the more international school of composition fostered by the Conservatories that Balakirev, leader of ‘The Five’, so much deplored.

Operas

Two above all of Tchaikovsky’s operas have retained a place in international repertoire. Eugene Onegin, based on a work by Pushkin, was written in 1877, the year of the composer’s disastrous and brief attempt at marriage. He returned to Pushkin in 1890 with his powerful opera The Queen of Spades.

Ballets

Tchaikovsky, a master of the miniature forms necessary for ballet, succeeded in raising the quality of the music provided for an art that had undergone considerable technical development in 19th-century Russia under the guidance of the French choreographer Marius Petipa. The first of Tchaikovsky’s full-length ballet scores was Swan Lake, completed in 1876, followed in 1889 by The Sleeping Beauty. His last ballet, based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, was The Nutcracker, first staged in St Petersburg in December 1892.

Orchestral Music

Symphonies

Tchaikovsky wrote six symphonies. The First Symphony, sometimes known as ‘Winter Daydreams’, was completed in its first version in 1866 but later revised. No. 2, the so-called ‘Little Russian’, was composed in 1872 but revised eight years later. Of the other symphonies, No. 5, with its motto theme and waltz movement in the place of a scherzo, was written in 1888, while the last completed symphony, known as the ‘Pathétique’, was first performed under Tchaikovsky’s direction shortly before his death in 1893.

Fantasy Overtures and other works

Tchaikovsky turned to literary and dramatic sources for a number of orchestral compositions. Romeo and Juliet, his first fantasy overture after Shakespeare, was written in 1869 and later twice revised. Burya is a symphonic fantasia inspired by The Tempest, and the last of the Shakespearean fantasy overtures, Hamlet, was written in 1888. Francesca da Rimini translates into musical terms the illicit love of Francesca and Paolo, as recounted in Dante’s Inferno, and Manfred, written in 1885, draws inspiration from the poem of that name by Byron. The Voyevoda is described as a symphonic ballad and is based on a poem by Mickiewicz. Other, smaller-scale orchestral compositions include the Serenade for strings, the popular Italian Capriccio, and, rather less well known, four orchestral suites. Tchaikovsky thought little of his 1812 overture, with its patriotic celebration of victory against Napoleon 70 years before, while Marche slave had a topical patriotic purpose. Souvenir de Florence, originally for string sextet, was completed in 1892 in its final version.

Concertos

The first of Tchaikovsky’s three piano concertos has become the most generally popular of all Romantic piano concertos. The second is not so well known, while the third, started in 1893, consists of a single movement, Allegro de concert. Tchaikovsky’s single violin concerto, rejected as being too difficult by the leading violinist in Russia, Leopold Auer, later found a firm place in repertoire. For solo cello Tchaikovsky wrote the Variations on a Rococo Theme and the Pezzo capriccioso. Shorter pieces for violin and orchestra include the Sérénade mélancholique and the Valse-scherzo. Souvenir d’un lieu cher, written as an expression of gratitude for hospitality to Madame von Meck, was originally for violin and piano.

Chamber Music

Tchaikovsky’s chamber music includes three string quartets. The slow movement of the first of these has proved very popular both in its original form and in an arrangement by the composer for cello and string orchestra. The Andante funèbre of the third quartet also exists in an arrangement by the composer for violin and piano.

Piano Music

Tchaikovsky provided a quantity of music for the piano, particularly in the form of shorter pieces suited to the lucrative amateur market. Collections published by the composer include The Seasons, a set of 12 pieces (one for each month), and several sets of pieces with varying degrees of difficulty.

Vocal and Choral Music

Tchaikovsky wrote a considerable quantity of songs and duets, including settings of Goethe’s Mignon songs as well as of less distinguished verse by his contemporaries. His choral works include the 1878 Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and a number of other settings, many of them for unaccompanied voices, of sacred and secular texts.