Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 - I. Andante sostenuto - Allegro vivo

ok, i have cultivated a bad situation and attitude regarding this. like all every day things, once you start not doing it every day, then you feel like one more day of not doing it will not make that big a difference. tough.

this symphony is subtitled "little russian," because of a collection of three ukrainian folk songs he used throughout the symphony (ukraine was called "little russia" sometimes, as a nickname). it was written in 1872 on holiday there, and (as one can tell from the nickname) is usually considered the most blatantly nationalistic of all his symphonies (most program notes mention that it earned considerable esteem in the eyes of the russian five, whom he showed the work to in its compositional stages). he revised it in 1879, and this is the version that we hear most often today. it's certainly the most played of the first three symphonies, though it doesn't get as much limelight as any of the latter three.

this movement opens with a pretty stylized version of a ukrainian song called down by mother volga. the first of many repetitions of this theme is stated by a solo horn. apparently this horn solo is a big deal. i had a friend at summer camp who had been assigned to play this, and she basically did nothing all week but panic and practice it.
at 1:37 or so, we hear the theme start to be fragmented, with the winds playing variations on the first bar and the strings playing a swirly rising motif that will also become prominent.
more layers are added, until at 2:40 we end up in a sort of d-flat major arrival. we quickly sink back into the solo horn statement, rounding off the introduction.

3:40 is the beginning of the allegro vivo. we finally get a new theme: it's much more martial, four eighths and a quarter; this becomes a heavily stated rhythmic motif for the rest of the movement. you may hear its influence in rimsky's russian easter overture. the much more pastoral, calmer second theme, with oboes, comes at 4:16.

5:26 is an arrival at E-flat major, the relative major key to the c minor. this is a pretty cool moment, and then he goes on to push it just a step downwards (one of those modulatory tricks that can seem hokey at times, but works nicely here) to D-flat major. he repeats this cadence in this key, and then goes to state the mother volga theme again this time in keys stepping merely sideways. we enter a turbulent development section filled with fragments of the mother volga theme as well as the first subject of the allegro vivo.

the end of the development comes with a sinking back into the second subject, instead of the first. this is at 7:41.
aroung 8:22 we get a couple interesting key areas touched on in the exit from the second subject. we end up in the key of c major for a redevelopment.

8:50 begins the coda to the movement. he intertwines all three themes, building them up into a gigantic climax in the home key. we end quietly, with the horn solo repeating the opening.