Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Hapsal, Op. 2 (with Score)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:
Souvenir de Hapsal, Op. 2, TH 125 (with Score)
Composed: 1867
Piano: Valentina Lisitsa

0:00 1. Ruines d'un chateau. Adagio misterioso (E minor)
4:35 2. Scherzo. Allegro vivo (F major)
8:34 3. Chant sans paroles. Allegretto grazioso e cantabile (F major)

Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Hapsal, Op. 2 (1867) is a set of three pieces that takes its title from the Baltic seaside town where Tchaikovsky completed the music during a summer holiday. The first piece, "Ruines d'un chateau" (Ruins of a Castle), opens nostalgically in E minor, Adagio mysterioso, and closes with the same material after a blithe central Allegro section. The second piece is a rather Schumann-esque Scherzo in F major with a florid, lyrical middle section. The final piece, in F major, is Tchaikovsky's earliest "hit tune," "Song without Words." Its first section is marked grazioso e cantabile, but the music seems to want to dance rather than sing. A brief, more declamatory section follows before the earlier material returns in wisps rather than in a full reprise.