The Seasons

In The Seasons, Tchaikovsky captures the mood of each month of the year in a series of graceful and highly melodic piano miniatures. The set was commissioned in 1875 by Nikolay Matveyevich Bernard, editor of the St Petersburg journal Nouvellist. The works were published, one per month, throughout the following year. Bernard provided titles for the movements, each evoking a scene or celebration. Many of the movements are inward looking and reflective: January finds the composer sitting at his fireside in contemplation, and his responses to the call of the lark in March and “Autumn’s Song” in October are also intimate. Several of the movements have become popular as standalone works. “Barcarolle” (June) has a particularly memorable melody and has been arranged for many different ensembles. “Troika”, depicting a November sleighride, was a favourite encore for Rachmaninoff. Tchaikovsky ends his cycle in typically elegant fashion, with a spirited but refined waltz to celebrate Christmas.