Opening Weekend may include Tchaikovsky, but it is a very American program: Ives’ Three Places in New England, Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, and Tchaikovksy’s First Piano Concerto. The Americanness of the Tchaikovsky comes via its premiere, which was in Boston in 1875. This doesn’t make Tchaikovsky’s concerto American music, but it was an American audience hearing the work performed by an American orchestra. We get some claiming rights.
Charles Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut the previous year, in 1874, and his father, a musician and bandleader, undoubtedly would have known of the Boston Symphony world premiere. The Russian composer would be an influential part of the American musical landscape that Charles Ives would help establish.Tchaikovsky died at about the time that Ives wrote his First Symphony. Art is made out of connections and influences, some as faint as memory.
Charles Ives also played America’s game. According to Ives biographer Jan Swafford, “As a pitcher Charlie tended to be a little wild…” but he had a dandy pick-off move. Ives proudly recalled his W against Yale throughout his long life.
And who knows, Tchaikovsky may have witnessed a pick-up game on Boston Common on a warm October afternoon.
