俄国钢琴家 Mikhail Pletnev演奏柴可夫斯基的《The Seasons四季》 法国薰衣草 2014-05-30 15:57:13
The Seasons, Op. 37a[1] (also seen as Op. 37b; Russian: Времена года; published with the French title Les Saisons), is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Each piece is the characteristic of a different month of the year in the northern hemisphere. The work is also sometimes heard in orchestral and other arrangements by other hands. Individual excerpts have always been popular – Troika (November) was a favourite encore of Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Barcarolle (June) was enormously popular and appeared in numerous arrangements (for orchestra, violin, cello, clarinet, harmonium, guitar and even mandolin).
The 12 pieces with their subtitles are:
- January: At the Fireside (A major)
- February: Carnival (D major)
- March: Song of the Lark (G minor)
- April: Snowdrop (B-flat major)
- May: Starlit Nights (G major)
- June: Barcarolle (G minor)
- July: Song of the Reaper (E-flat major)
- August: Harvest (B minor)
- September: The Hunt (G major)
- October: Autumn Song (D minor)
- November: Troika (E major)
- December: Christmas (A-flat major)
Orchestral arrangements
A number of musicians have orchestrated Tchaikovsky's pieces. Aleksandr Gauk arranged The Seasons for symphony orchestra in 1942. Morton Gould retained the piano part for many of the pieces and orchestrated the work throughout, recording it with himself at the piano in 1951 for American Columbia. In 1965, Kurt-Heinz Stolze orchestrated a number of the pieces as part of the music for John Cranko's ballet Onegin. More recent orchestral versions have been produced by David Matthews (for symphony orchestra), Peter Breiner (for solo violin and symphony orchestra), and Georgii Cherkin (for solo piano and symphony orchestra).
Poetic epigraphs
Following is a translation of some of the poetic epigraphs contained in the Russian edition (all chosen by the publisher Nikolay Bernard):
- Janvier (January): Au coin du feu (At the Fireside)
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