Romeo & Juliet - Fantasy Overture

With its ominous opening, fierce fight music, and glorious love theme, Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture captures every aspect of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The Overture was Tchaikovsky’s first major orchestral score, the earliest version completed when he was only 29. It was an older composer, Mily Balakirev, who first suggested Romeo and Juliet as a subject, and even told Tchaikovsky how the piece should be structured. Tchaikovsky completed the first version in 1869, and it was premiered the following year (this version is sometimes performed today, but is a rarity). The piece was revised twice, and the final 1880 version, which is now standard, has a new introduction, a re-orchestrated central section, and an expanded ending. The work opens with a gentle, rising theme in the woodwinds. This represents Friar Laurence, the go-between for the lovers in the story. The work’s main theme is a percussive, off-beat melody, suggesting sword fighting and the warring families, the Montagues and Capulets. This is contrasted by the love theme, first heard in the cor anglais and violas. These themes interact throughout the work, as a conflict between love and “honour”. The climax is a grand reprise of the love theme, now bathed in rich orchestral sonorities, then interrupted again by the fight music. The story’s tragic ending is represented in the quiet coda, with the love theme now heard in a sombre minor key before a final outburst of the fight music brings the work to a close.