Francesca da Rimini in E Minor

In Francesca da Rimini, Tchaikovsky writes intensely passionate music for a tale of forbidden love and eternal damnation. The story, taken from Dante’s Inferno, tells of Francesca, who is forced to marry a nobleman, Giovanni Malatesta, but falls instead for his brother, Paolo. Giovanni discovers their affair and murders them both. Dante depicts the couple condemned to Hell for the sin of lust, cast about for all eternity in a perpetual storm. Tchaikovsky’s brother, Modest, suggested the story as the subject for an opera. Tchaikovsky thought the idea impractical and set to work instead on a purely orchestral version. His Symphonic Fantasia was composed in 1876 and first performed the following year in Moscow. The work opens with ominous brass chords—Dante enters Hell through a gate inscribed “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here”. The music increases in power and turbulence, representing the storm in which the lovers are trapped. Dante speaks to Francesca, and the lyrical middle section is her narration, telling of her forced marriage and the illicit affair. Francesca’s melody is first heard on solo clarinet, then gradually grows with the couple’s love. It is heard in a variety of instrumental combinations and then in a radiant orchestral tutti. A brief, percussive outburst of cymbals and brass depicts the murder. This is followed by a moment of reflection, before the music again whips up the tormenting storms and Dante leaves the lovers to their fate.