Ravinia 2022, Issue 5

PREVIOUS PAGE: KYLE DUNLEAVY Tchaikovsky resented the popularity of the 1812 Overture, and he also resented the popularity of The Nutcracker . He considered it trashy. But 1812 is still good. It rocks. It explodes! One of the most recognizable pieces of music ever composed, it’s been incorporated endlessly in mod- ern-day pop culture: factoring into episodes of The Muppet Show , The Simpsons , and Agatha Christie’s Poirot ; folded into the film scores of zany comedies (Woody Allen’s Bananas ) as well as dystopian political thrillers ( V for Vendetta ); and even used to sell breakfast cereal in a 1962 commercial. But some people can’t abide a popular thing, and apparent- ly Tchaikovsky was one of them. “He wound up not liking the piece very much,” acknowledges Emil de Cou, who’ll be leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra August 21 in a performance featuring the overture (along with three other pieces) for the annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular. “He resented the popularity of the 1812 Overture, and he also resented the popularity of The Nutcracker . He considered it trashy. But 1812 is still good. It rocks. It explodes!” de Cou says with a chuckle. In one sense, de Cou owes his very livelihood to the composer. The 65-year-old conductor remembers exactly where he was when he first heard Tchaikovsky’s music: “It was the Nutcracker Suite in Fantasia ,” he recalls, citing a re-release of the Disney film that synced animations to beloved pieces of music, such as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Beetho- ven’s “Pastoral” Symphony. “I’d never heard any of that music before. I was 14 years old. It literally changed my life. When I left that little crummy movie theater in Garden Grove, CA, I thought, ‘I want to be a professional musician.’ I knew it like I knew the day of the week or my last name. I just knew it. There was no turning back.” So Damn Catchy WHAT’S THE SECRET to Tchaikovsky’s earworms? It’s not just 1812 Overture and The Nutcracker ; he wrote so much music, including still-famous scores to several other ballets, including Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty . And, of course, no one discounts his Violin Concerto, also on the lineup for the upcoming Spectacular. How did he do it, time and again? “Catchy is exactly it! He had the greatest gifts—of melody, primarily; and harmony, secondarily,” de Cou observes. “He didn’t invent anything, like Wagner or Berlioz; he wasn’t like Beethoven, who would invent a new version of symphonies. He was a very mainstream composer—but his inventiveness was his unbelievable wealth of melody. Not just a tune you could whistle, but a tune that’s informed by the harmonies and be- comes usually quite melancholy.” That pensive element adds depth to his joyful music. And de Cou sees connections between key elements of the composer’s identity and the complex art he created. Tchaikovsky was gay and also struggled with depression, he observes: “You don’t have to read too much into that, but you can’t dismiss it, just like you can’t dismiss that Beethoven was deaf. These things profoundly affect you as a person and as a musician. With Tchaikovsky, there’s always a slight sense of melancholy, even underneath the happy melodies, and I think that resonates.” Another way Tchaikovsky demon- strated his remarkable talents is through his smartly paced use of motifs. “He did it better than most. Everything’s in the score for a reason,” de Cou continues. “You know, whis- pering something at the beginning, which becomes a shout at the end. It’s all amazingly placed to manipu- late and thrill us. That’s why he’s so extraordinarily popular after all these years, when many other composers who were equally famous in his life- time are forgotten.” De Cou is far from the only professional musician who felt lured in their youth by these compelling compositions. As a violin student, George Stelluto also remembers hearing Tchaikovsky and aspiring to be a conductor. “I was just taken by Tchaikovsky’s genius,” he says. “He obviously has an ability to convey emotion in his music,” Stelluto continues. “He’s also got this intel- lectual side that comes to play in the midst of all that emotional content. It’s got so much depth, so much breadth. People can hang whatever they feel onto his music. We can all share it, but it still has a specific private meaning for each one of us.” That quality comes through in spades in the 1812 , Stelluto believes. And he’s got plenty of experience with it: Stelluto fired Ravinia’s cannons for several summers before conducting the entire Spectacular last year. “The picture he paints of the peasants strug- gling against an invasion—if you really listen to it, it also has meaning for your own personal struggles and tri- umphs,” he says. “Of course, add can- nons into that, and you’ve got a recipe for wild popularity. He knew what he was doing when he wrote this.” Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky around the time of the 1812 Overture’s writing in 1880 RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 28, 2022 18