Monday 8 February 2010
Tune of the Day: Pezzo in forma di sonatina
from Tchaikovsky's Serenade in C major
“Pezzo in forma di sonatina” is the name Tchaikovsky gave to the first movement of his Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48. Premiered in 1880, this work remains one of the late Romantic era's most definitive compositions.
Tchaikovsky intended the first movement to be an imitation of Mozart's style, and he based it on the form of the classical sonatina, starting with a slow introductory section. This stirring “Andante non troppo” introduction, which bears the indication "sempre marcatissimo" (“always very marked”), is restated at the end of the movement, and also reappears, transformed, in the coda of the last movement, thus tying the entire work together.