Composing in the symphonic form is especially challenging in this sense, because you are always operating in an abstract, ambiguous world. Tchaikovsky once declared that it was “only through constant, persistent work” that he had managed to “complete forms that correspond to a certain degree to the content”. There is no such fragility in the ballets. As a result, this final movement gives the impression that it is ultimately pointless to fight against fate. The Fifth, for example: an enduring sadness pervades the first movements of this symphony, even the waltz in the third movement is inhabited by a latent melancholy, and the supposedly triumphant mood in the finale seems fragile. Music like in his Fifth or Sixth Symphony, the “Pathétique”, would be inconceivable in Tchaikovsky’s ballets – and vice versa. In his ballets, Tchaikovsky succeeds in leading the audience away from the everyday into the world of dreams – in contrast to his symphonies, where life appears darker, more catastrophic. For Tchaikovsky, writing ballets meant freedom The stories in Tchaikovsky’s three most famous ballets, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, have a similar construction: like the literary genre of the folk tale, they deal with the themes of good against evil and of victory over darkness.

In his ballets, dance finally became the driving force of the plot and part of the story. If you look at the piano works of this period, you come across titles such as Polka de salon, Valse-Caprice and Scherzo humoristique. Even in his early years, he made use of waltzes, mazurkas, polonaises, and Russian dances. Tchaikovsky had a fondness for dance music long before he wrote his ballet compositions. The composer was taken with it, worked out parts during his trip to Europe and in the end was very satisfied with his work: “ Sleeping Beauty is perhaps my best work.” Absolute aesthetic judgements may be questionable, but there are good reasons for Tchaikovsky’s appraisal: refined harmonies with bold modulations, a dazzling abundance of melodies, flexible rhythms – all of these are woven together into a melange of colours all of its own. The director himself sketched the first outline of the plot. It was prompted by a commission from the director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky, who asked for a new ballet score in May 1888: Sleeping Beauty, based the French version of the story by Charles Perrault. In this literally and figuratively early autumnal phase of his life, Tchaikovsky returned to the world of ballet, which he had left behind years before. Like his previous trip, this one would end in the fog of London. He had just completed his Fifth Symphony and was embarking on a European tour conducting his own works. It was the late 1880s, and Tchaikovsky was slowly approaching fifty. His eyesight was failing, making it harder for him to read, especially in winter.

His hair had become thinner and greyer, and the increasing depressive episodes were getting to him. He defended it against contemporaries who classified it as mere incidental music, and found great freedom and serenity in writing Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is rightly considered the maestro of ballet music. Home Stories Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Ballet Composing against the Darkness Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Ballet Ballet dancers in typical Swan Lake costume

Pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky compositions