Ravinia 2024 Issue 3

PAVILION 5:00 PM SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2024 CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CAROLYN KUAN, conductor † DESIRÉE RUHSTRAT, violin Tchaikovsky Spectacular TCHAIKOVSKY Act I of The Nutcracker , op. 71 * Tableau I 1. Scene of Decorating and Lighting the Christmas Tree 2. March 3. Little Gallop and Entry of the Parents 4. Scene dansante 5. Scene and Dance of the Grandfather 6. Scene 7. Scene Tableau II 8. Scene 9. Waltz of the Snowflakes –Intermission– TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35 Allegro moderato Canzonetta: Andante [ attacca ] Finale: Allegro vivacissimo Desirée Ruhstrat TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture, op. 49 (with cannons) † Ravinia debut * First performance at Ravinia Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Premier Sponsor The Negaunee Foundation as well as The Tchaikovsky Spectacular Consortium . The Tchaikovsky Consortium comprises Sarah & Larry Barden; Judy & Merrill Blau; Carol & Douglas Cohen; Betsy & Arthur Holden; David & Susan Kreisman; Kenneth & Jodi Meister; Lori Ann Komisar & Morris Silverman; and Paul & Mary Yovovich. Ravinia is proud to feature “Charlie’s Cannons” in tonight’s performance of the 1812 Overture. PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840–1893) Act I of The Nutcracker , op. 71 Scored for three flutes and piccolo, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two tenor trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, tambourine, cymbals, triangle, glockenspiel, celesta or piano, harp, and strings Tchaikovsky composed The Nutcracker —his third and final ballet—one year before his death. From the beginning, he considered this two-act dance production half of an evening’s entertain- ment, preceded by his new one-act opera Iolan- the . Both works received their premieres at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg on De- cember 18, 1892. (Tchaikovsky had introduced his Suite from The Nutcracker at a concert in Saint Petersburg nine months earlier.) Though the ballet remains the composer’s most familiar, especially during the winter holiday season, Tchaikovsky judged it inferior to Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty in terms of dramatic and musi- cal content. The tale originated in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Nußknacker und Mausekönig (Nutcracker and Mouse King), published in the first volume of Die Serapionsbrüder (The Brothers of Serap- ion, 1819–21). French author Alexandre Du- mas adapted the tale in 1889 as Histoire d’un casse-noisette (Story of a Nutcracker), the ver- sion that Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the imperial theaters in Saint Petersburg, suggested to Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Peti- pa, the Premier maître de ballet at the imperial theaters. The composer finished the first draft on July 7, 1891, and completed orchestration in January 1892. Petipa fell ill during rehearsals, and the task of completing the choreography fell upon the second ballet master, Lev Ivanov. Vsevolozhsky’s double-premiere utterly failed with the critics. Iolanthe drew the most wide-ranging condemnation. “It entwined no new laurel in the composer’s wreath,” lamented Tchaikovsky’s brother Modeste, who had writ- ten the opera libretto. Reactions to the ballet Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1888) RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 22 – AUGUST 4, 2024 64