A Tale of Two Romantics: Tchaikovsky & Bruch
February 4, 2025
By D. T. Baker
It will surprise no one that the creators of the music the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra is privileged to play have come up with some of the greatest melodies ever written. They have influenced music and musicians of every stripe, and it might even surprise quite a few people to learn how many hit songs have roots in what is considered “classical” music.
But that’s a two-way street; some of the greatest orchestral pieces have not only been influenced by the music of others – they quote directly from them. And when the ESO presents Tchaikovsky & Scottish Fantasy on February 21 & 22, two of the greatest works from the Romantic era will make that abundantly clear.
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) spent some of his happiest times away from his home in St. Petersburg, and one of his favourite pastimes was listening to the traditional folk songs he heard in villages and at rural festivities. He quoted many traditional songs in his music. His Fourth Symphony is quintessential Romanticism – a deeply personal statement on the inexorability of Fate. It is a powerfully emotional work; often dark, but with a final movement that seeks to find some glimmer of hope to which to cling. To represent that ideal, Tchaikovsky quotes the folk song “In the Field There Stands a Birch Tree,” noting that if one cannot find joy within oneself, find it “among the people.”
Tchaikovsky’s use of the traditional music of his homeland was also part of a wider trend in music in the second half of the 19th century. “Nationalism,” when the term is applied to music, refers to the promotion of the music of one’s heritage through incorporation in works composed in the western art tradition. It could be done through direct quotation (as in Tchaikovsky’s symphony), or through the use of dance rhythms or even the often more fragrant harmonies to be found in the centuries-old music from all over Europe. Nationalism brought new and fresh musical ideas to the heart of the Romantic era. The folk songs that Tchaikovsky grew up listening to, for example, were excitingly exotic to audiences in Paris, or London, or Vienna.
Max Bruch (1838-1920), on the other hand, was hardly Scottish. While he was German through and through, Bruch’s famous “Scottish” Fantasy for violin is just as profoundly Romantic as Tchaikovsky’s symphony – for different reasons. The Romantic era saw the rise of the artist – the creator – as paramount in the creation of art. Prior to Romanticism, composers were often employees – writing music to suit the needs of others. Now, however, the artist created the art that welled up from their soul, and the public decided whether or not to embrace it.
Romanticism idealized the worldly figure of the traveler, the stranger in a strange land. It also embraced the literature of the time. Let’s see how each of those elements applies to Bruch’s fantasy, which makes use of a number of Scottish folk songs.
The influence of foreign locales on the Romantic-era visitor is everywhere in Romantic music – at its beginning, for example, in the “Italian” and “Scottish” symphonies of Felix Mendelssohn; and right to the end of the Romantic, with Richard Strauss’ Aus italien. At the time of Bruch’s “Scottish” Fantasy’s first performance in 1881, he was the director of the Liverpool Philharmonic. During his three years there, he was exposed to much of the traditional music of the British isles. It’s worth noting that he only got to Scotland itself a year after the work’s premiere.
But the writing of Walter Scott was also a factor in Bruch’s masterpiece. “The Scottish author Sir Walter Scott is second only to Shakespeare for the number of musical pieces that his works, both plays and poetry, have inspired,” is the opinion of Maureen Buja (“The Scottish Inspiration of Walter Scott,” Sept. 4, 2019). One thinks of such works as Ivanhoe, the Elizabethan-age drama Kenilworth, and The Bride of Lammermoor as having been fruitful soil from which musical works have grown. While not citing any specific work by Scott, Bruch did mention the Scotsman’s writing as inspiration.
Scattered through the four movements (plus a prelude) of the “Scottish” Fantasy (Bruch vacillated several times as to whether to call this work a “fantasy” or an actual “concerto,” and at times used either title) are quotes from four distinct Scottish songs. I cannot hazard a guess as to how obvious the tunes may sound to someone steeped in Scottish tradition, but their presence in a work so profoundly a product of the German classical oeuvre lends it a charm and vivacity that has made it a favourite of audiences for nearly a century and a half.
Both Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Bruch’s “Scottish” Fantasy are among the Romantic era’s favourite works. The two composers were exact contemporaries – and in these works, at least, we find common aspects – yet the breadth and impact of each is unique and powerful in its own way. It’s a delight to have them return to the Winspear stage, and to welcome back two good friends of the ESO – conductor Jean-Philippe Tremblay and violinist Timothy Chooi – to present them.