Your Top 5 Favorite Tchaikovsky Works

[ritter]

Only piece by Tchaikovsky I like is Le baiser de la fée...

[Ken B]

I suggest the following rule on polls: Mirror Image is always restricted to one fewer choice than anyone else.

Do I have a second for the motion?

[Jo498]

I never liked the Rococo and I became sick of the violin concerto very quickly. But I still like the b minor piano concerto once in a while in interpretations with sufficient sweep. There are other pieces where I admire some movements and quite dislike others, e.g. I could easily do without the finale of the 4th symphony but the other three movements are remarkable. One nasty thing is that I only have to think of the violin concerto or the 4th finale and the music will enter my brain as an earworm...
The seasons or the first string quartet are lovely pieces that deserve to be better known. Tchaikovsky seems a fairly extreme case of  some super-popular works drowning the rest of his oeuvre. And unfortunately these works are sometimes not that good or become trite very quickly after listening more than twice... 1812... Marche slave... Capriccio italienne...
Even the standard Ballett suites sometimes leave out the best stuff (clearly in Nutcracker where the suite gives a completely skewed impression of the whole piece).

I really should get to know the famous operas better; I have a recording of Onegin on my shelves but only listened once or twice many years ago. (It's my old problem of not wanting to listen to opera on disc unless I already love the piece which makes it difficult to get into new operas...)

[Brian]

I am not sure if any solo piano or song/lied by Tchaikovsky is cornerstone repertoire, but otherwise it is true that in the 1870s/80s he was maybe the most versatile. But he was not the only one (major, of course there were plenty of second rate composers who wrote all kinds of stuff, e.g. Spohr).
Dvorak has no ballett (but neither has Mozart, in fact Tchaikovsky seems the first mainstream major ballet composer, so I think one should leave this genre out) and only one of his operas (Rusalka) really entered the repertoire. Smetana and Saint-Saens might also qualify although they might lack choral works (I don't know any) and have even fewer important solo piano pieces.
Schubert and Schumann also wrote "everything" but their operas were failures.

Taruskin may have committed a bit of sleight of hand by including newer genres (e.g. lieder) but excluding older genres which were still active but perhaps less popular (e.g. organ). I thought of organ when contemplating Brahms, who of course like Dvorak has no ballet.

If "ballet" were expanded to general "dance music", then Brahms and Dvorak both gain admittance, I think.

[amw]

Dvorak has no ballett (but neither has Mozart, in fact Tchaikovsky seems the first mainstream major ballet composer, so I think one should leave this genre out)

Well to be fair Tchaikovsky did basically put ballet on the map, to the point where whilst it's not fair to include it as a major genre in the work of earlier composers it is a major genre for every subsequent generation.

With Mozart we have essentially the "complete artist" of the late 18th century w/opera seria, opera buffa, symphony, concerto, chamber music, sacred choral works, solo piano, etc. A genre like oratorio was not especially relevant anymore by this point (revived by Haydn after Mozart's death) so he cannot be faulted for not writing one, and a genre like song would not become particularly important until the early 19th century so Mozart's songs are forgiven not being repertoire pieces.

Dvořák iirc was cited in the same article although, while his lack of a ballet was not held against him, the fact that Rusalka is his only remembered opera consigned him to be a one-opera composer like Beethoven in practice if not in fact. Though if any other operas enter the repertoire he'd also be a contender I guess lol

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Honorary mentions:

Pique dame
Cherevicki.

[Scion7]

Violin Concerto
Symphony No.5
Piano Concerto Nr.1
Sleeping Beauty
The Nutcracker

[vandermolen]

You get a yellow card for this!

Guilty pleasure Paul. 

[Jo498]

Dvořák iirc was cited in the same article although, while his lack of a ballet was not held against him, the fact that Rusalka is his only remembered opera consigned him to be a one-opera composer like Beethoven in practice if not in fact. Though if any other operas enter the repertoire he'd also be a contender I guess lol

I guess that some of the "national" composers were less fazed by the Wagnerian dominance in opera and did not see a need to pick a side in the quarrel between the "Neudeutsche" around Liszt and Wagner and the more traditionalist strain from Mendelssohn to Brahms. Mendelssohn might have tried an opera had he lived longer and Schumann actually composed a not very successful one. As Tchaikovsky is in practice a two-opera-composer I would not hold their "one opera" status against Beethoven, Dvorak or Smetana.

And as you pointed out, this changes again after the early 1900s with many composers writing at least a few major pieces in all important genres (although they are often one-opera-guys like Bartok or Schönberg and Stravinsky has very little chamber and almost no relevant piano solo)

[(poco) Sforzando]

Taruskin may have committed a bit of sleight of hand by including newer genres (e.g. lieder) but excluding older genres which were still active but perhaps less popular (e.g. organ). I thought of organ when contemplating Brahms, who of course like Dvorak has no ballet.

If "ballet" were expanded to general "dance music", then Brahms and Dvorak both gain admittance, I think.

But "organ" is not a genre. My top 5 Tchaikovsky works probably are:

Symphonies 5 and 6
Nutcracker (but it has to be in Balanchine's choreography)
Romeo and Juliet
Pf Concerto 1

But not 2. Really sorry you had to miss the NYC Ballet in Balanchine's choreography for 2, Brian, since it would have blown you away.

[The new erato]

Eugene Onegin
Piano Concerto No.2
Piano Trio
Violin Concerto
The Nutcracker

I can get behind that list, though I really need the Souvenir de Florence in the sextet version on that list as no 6) - BTW I'll be in Florence at the end of next week.  

[Cato]

Francesca da Rimini (especially the apocalyptic performance from the 70's conducted by Leopold Stokowski )

Manfred (especially the Toscanini/NBC Orchestra performance)

First Symphony

Third Symphony

Sixth and Fifth Symphonies     (and #2 and #4)

[Ken B]

Francesca da Rimini (especially the apocalyptic performance from the 70's conducted by Leopold Stokowski )

Manfred (especially the Toscanini/NBC Orchestra performance)

First Symphony

Third Symphony

Sixth and Fifth Symphonies     (and #2 and #4)

Good to know you were never a math teacher Cato.

[vandermolen]

Francesca da Rimini (especially the apocalyptic performance from the 70's conducted by Leopold Stokowski )

Manfred (especially the Toscanini/NBC Orchestra performance)

First Symphony

Third Symphony

Sixth and Fifth Symphonies     (and #2 and #4)

Good choices. I forgot about Manfred and should have included it in my original list. I especially like the Svetlanov version where he brings the terrific end of the first movement back at the end of the last movement although this wasn't what Tchaikovsky had in mind! 

[Autumn Leaves]

how did I miss this poll ?
my list (not very original - just being honest as usual):

Symphony #6
Romeo & Juliet
Piano Concerto #1
Swan Lake
SQ #3

[Maestro267]

Manfred
Symphony No. 3
Piano Concerto No. 1
Swan Lake
Romeo & Juliet overture

This is my list today. It's always changing though.

[Heck148]

Symphonies 1,2,3
Nutcracker
Swan Lake

also like the Vln Cncerto a lot...

[Karl Henning]

Symphonies 1,2,3
Nutcracker
Swan Lake

also like the Vln Cncerto a lot...

The first three symphonies are much better than many give them credit for.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Wanderer]

I can get behind that list, though I really need the Souvenir de Florence in the sextet version on that list as no 6) - BTW I'll be in Florence at the end of next week.

Excellent! If you have enough days at your disposal, I've been told that Siena is a very worthwhile day-trip from Florence. Have a great time!

[Heck148]

The first three symphonies are much better than many give them credit for.

yup...I much prefer them to #s 4 and 5...tho I admit that over-exposure of performance colors my opinion of 4 and 5.