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

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Brown writes about the Marche slave: "Tchaikovsky, at Nikolay Rubinstein's request, had set about a piece for a charity concert in aid of victims of the war that had broken out between Turkey and Russia's fellow Slavs in Montenegro and Serbia — a war into which it seemed Russia might herself be drawn. Not normally a political animal, Tchaikovsky nevertheless experienced a surge of patriotism, and within five days an eight-minute Slavonic March was not only composed but scored. At the concert a month later it created a sensation. As one person present recorded: 'The rumpus and roar that broke out beggars description. …' No piece demonstrates more powerfully Tchaikovsky's super-professionalism in responding to commissions. The Slavonic March is not a great piece, but it is a prodigiously well-targeted one. Adapting three Serbian folktunes, and incorporating a portion of the Tsarist national anthem in the middle in preparation for a full-blown restatement before the final furore-prompting coda, it is no surprise the piece was rapturously received. …" (p. 123).