Tchaikovsky’s “Autumn Song” (October) from “The Seasons”: Olga Scheps

In 1876, while completing the ballet score for Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky composed The Seasons, a series of atmospheric tone paintings for solo piano. Commissioned by the publisher, Nikolay Bernard, the brief pieces were published on the first day of each month in the St. Petersburg music journal, Nuvellist. 

Set in D minor, Tchaikovsky’s October submission, Autumn Song, is quiet and melancholy. It accompanies a poem by Tolstoy which describes yellow windswept leaves. The interpretive marking is Andante doloroso e molto cantabile (“moderately slow, sorrowful, and very song-like”). Moving into an elegiac major, the middle section unfolds as a dialogue between higher and lower voices. There is a ballet-like sense of grace and motion throughout. The final bars fade away into despondent gloom, and drift off with a single lonely descending melodic line.

Autumn Song was played at the funeral of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. This performance, recorded on April 29, 2016, features German pianist Olga Scheps:

Autumn Song (October):

The autumn, falling on our poor orchard,

The yellow leaves are flying in the wind.

Alexey Tolstoy

Featured Image: “Golden Autumn” (1895), Isaac Levitan

About Timothy Judd

A native of Upstate New York, Timothy Judd has been a member of the Richmond Symphony violin section since 2001. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he earned the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music, studying with world renowned Ukrainian-American violinist Oleh Krysa.

The son of public school music educators, Timothy Judd began violin lessons at the age of four through Eastman’s Community Education Division. He was a student of Anastasia Jempelis, one of the earliest champions of the Suzuki method in the United States.

A passionate teacher, Mr. Judd has maintained a private violin studio in the Richmond area since 2002 and has been active coaching chamber music and numerous youth orchestra sectionals.

In his free time, Timothy Judd enjoys working out with Richmond’s popular SEAL Team Physical Training program.

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