Tchaikovsky - Melodrama from the incidental music to "Hamlet" Op.67a (1891)

Tchaikovsky's incidental music for Shakespeare's play was hardly a labour of love. Having promised the actor Lucien Guitry to write music for his performance of the eponymous prince six years prior (and delivering the famous Overture Op.67 in 1888), the actor's claim of the promise came in untimely. Tchaikovsky was still exhausted from composing "The Queen of Spades", a score he dashed off in less than two months, and consequently hardly in the mood for commissioned work. It is therefore not surprising that most of the work consists of material recycled from earlier sources. The only original pieces are music for Ophelia's scene, the gravedigger's song, a funeral march and the melodrama presented in this video, besides a few ultra brief fanfares.


[Please do not reproduce these notes without crediting me.]

Alexander Gauck and the USSR State Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra were so kind to record this piece.