Featured Book: Tchaikovsky by David Brown (cont'd)

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Brown writes about the Suite no. 1: "Probably the most famous suites are those composed by Bach in the late baroque period … namely, his French and English Suites for keyboard. These are made up mainly from dances of the time. … Tchaikovsky's four orchestral suites are, by contrast, a very diverse bunch. Nevertheless, the first does reveal Bach as a formative influence, for it opens with an introduction and fugue, and closes with a gavotte, a baroque dance. … But the pièce de résistance, though by far the shortest movement, is the cute Marche Miniature (no. 4). Scored for the upper woodwind, with only very discreet contributions from the violins, plus triangle and bells, it is an irresistible confection that would have fitted perfectly into the Nutcracker to come. … As for the final Gavotte, here Tchaikovsky was deliberately choosing to model himself on a stately baroque dance, but his music has nothing to do with Bach style; indeed, in its discreet piquancy, it could perhaps be an ancestor of that famous gavotte to come some thirty-eight years later in Prokofiev's Classical Symphony" (pp. 191-192).