A poor architect but a superb craftsman of detail, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was never fully successful as a symphonist, but he was one of the finest ballet composers of all time.
Tchaikovsky's strengths were melody and orchestration. That isn't enough to hold a symphony together. Structurally, though not melodically, Tchaikovsky's six popular symphonies are as limp and seam-split as a rag doll that Fido's gotten his teeth into.
Tchaikovsky was a detail man, and his most effective work was in ballet. There he could write tune after tune without worrying about sonata form, and he could translate emotions into vivid music without concern for proper modulation sequences.
With his French counterpart Léo Delibes, Tchaikovsky professionalized ballet composing, which for the hundred years before 1870 had been a pastime for musical hacks.
Early 19th century ballet music was merely decorative. Ballet's emphasis was primarily on the dance and secondarily on the decor. Music was about as important as the footlights - as long as it was there, nobody in the audience needed to pay any attention to it.
It was the functional work of insipid composers whose main duty was to keep a good, clear, danceable beat. In fact, through the 18th and early 19th centuries, most ballet scores were simply cobbled together from popular tunes of the time.
In 1841, a French composer named Adolphe Adam wrote the score for `` Giselle.'' This is the earliest full-length ballet still in the international repertory.
Adam's score has its flimsy moments, but it's not altogether negligible.
Instead of just tossing together a bunch of silly tunes that more or less reflected the stage action, Adam pioneered the use of leitmotif.
This is the technique of using certain melodies several times throughout a work, each melody representing a specific character, emotion or situation. A well-used leitmotif heightens the music's drama.
After Adam, Tchaikovsky and Delibes wrote the first major ballet scores that were truly integral to the production. The scores consisted of well-crafted pieces that propelled the story but were strong enough to stand on their own.
Delibes' two major works are ``Coppélia'' of 1870, still widely danced, and ``Sylvia'' of 1876, now known mainly through orchestral excerpts.
Tchaikovsky heard ``Coppélia'' soon after he'd finished his first ballet, ``Swan Lake.'' He exclaimed that if he'd known what glorious music Delibes had written, he'd have been too intimidated to complete his own score.
Tchaikovsky began ``Swan Lake'' around 1871 as a fairly modest entertainment for his sister's household. In 1875-76 he expanded the score for a full-fledged four-act ballet that was first performed in Moscow in 1877.
Perhaps for the first time in dance history, here was a ballet with music far stronger than its choreography. The introduction sets the tone with a haunting woodwind theme. This represents the fate of Odette, a beautiful woman by night who is transformed into a swan during daylight hours until a prince swears his eternal devotion to her.
Tchaikovsky brings back this swan theme at several points in the story, intensifying the work's dramatic effect. But the nearly three-hour score is not all tragedy.
There are graceful waltzes, a famous bumptious scene for a group of cygnets, and passionately lyrical passages danced by Odette and the prince who loves her.
A duet passage like this is called a pas de deux; if it's for three dancers, it's a pas de trois, and so on, counting in French.
A pas de deux really kicks off a series of dances, beginning with a piece for both participants. Then there's a series of variations, the two dancers taking turns at solos.
But these aren't usually variations in the musical sense. The music accompanying each solo is not necessarily an elaboration of the opening theme, although it can be. Only contrast and brilliance really matter here, because this is where the primary dancers show off their highest leaps and most dizzying turns.
Because dance is the focus of the pas de deux, the accompanying music can be utilitarian, as sometimes even Tchaikovsky's was. The most sparkling and colorful passages usually come in the sequence of character dances.
This is a part of a ballet - almost every ballet - where the story comes to a halt so the main characters can be entertained by dancers of various nationalities.
This is given to fairy-tale characters in Tchaikovsky's second and third ballets, ``The Sleeping Beauty'' and ``The Nutcracker,'' but it's traditionally international in ``Swan Lake.''
If you want to hear a Hungarian czárdás a Polish mazurka, or typical dances of Russia, Spain and Naples, check out the third act of ``Swan Lake.''
``The Sleeping Beauty'' of 1890 is Tchaikovsky's most highly regarded ballet score, with its complex use of leitmotifs and smooth integration of character dances. Its reputation has been boosted by the choreography of Marius Petipa; it's perhaps the best work of that gifted, influential late 19th-century choreographer.
But ``The Nutcracker,'' first performed in 1892, is certainly Tchaikovsky's most popular ballet. The famous story is gotten out of the way in the first act, and the second is devoted almost entirely to sparkling character dances.
What makes this score so beguiling? First of all, it's tuneful. If you grew up humming some piece of classical music, chances are you heard it at a ``Nutcracker'' kiddie matinee.
Second, it's colorfully scored. The strings do not carry all the melodies; nearly every instrument from the piccolo to the harp gets at least a brief solo. And when Tchaikovsky combines the strings, woodwinds and brass, it's hard to imagine sounds more plush.
Third is an aspect that's often suppressed in happy, child-oriented productions - a dark streak.
Act I's music implies that the mysterious Drossselmeyer, who gives young Clara the magical nutcracker, is a sinister figure. Later, in the ``Waltz of the Flowers,'' and especially in the Act 2 passages for Clara and her nutcracker prince, the score can express a poignance and yearning that wouldn't be heard again in ballet music until Sergei Prokofiev's World War II-era ``Romeo and Juliet'' and ``Cinderella.''
Tchaikovsky listening suggestions
``The Nutcracker'' is usually heard in a 20-minute suite drawn mostly from the Act 2 dances, but the work contains so much fine music that you really should obtain the complete score. Try the version conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras on Telarc if you're interested in ``The Nutcracker's'' dark streak.
Otherwise, the Antal Dorati version on Mercury is an old favorite.
John Lanchbery has recorded all three Tchaikovsky ballets complete for EMI. This conductor's extensive pit experience - his many years of conducting the scores for ballet companies - lend his work a special verve and authority. But be prepared to shell out for two or three compact discs per ballet.
If you want a single disc containing the most popular excerpts from all three works, try Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra on RCA, André Previn and the London Symphony on EMI, or Mstislav Rostropovich and the Berlin Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon.