Третий фортепианный концерт П. И. Чайковского и проблема цикличности

Abstract

The article examines one of Piotr Tchaikovsky’s last compositions – the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3, its creation, comprehension and performance. The genre-related and, as a result, the cyclic issues of this compositions not possessing univocal interpretation in contemporary scholarly literature come out to the foreground. Having been relegated to the periphery of performance practice, the Third Piano Concerto has acquired the reputation of an “unsuccessful composition” and has disappeared from the repertoire of pianists for a lengthy period of time. However, the interest in its “symphonic prototype” – the unfinished symphony in E-flat major – as well as its edition by Semyon Bogatyryov and its performance have once again aroused interest in the concerto. The issue of cyclicity of this composition has substantially become sharpened: some performers incline towards the one-movement version, while others prefer the three-movement version. In this context the necessity arose of carrying out the analysis of the authorial genre-related terminology and the attention towards epistolary material (letters of Piotr and Modest Tchaikovsky, Alexander Siloti, Sergei Taneyev, Mitrofan Belyayev), which had direct connection to the fate of the Third Piano Concerto. The outcome of the work was the conclusion about the validity of the existence of the three-movement version as the Third Piano Concerto, while the genre status of the one-movement must be reexamined. Keywords: Tchaikovsky’s Third Piano Concerto, Andante and Finale, Konzertstuck, unfinished symphony, Louis Diemer, late romantic art.