Francesca da Rimini (Tchaikovsky)

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For other classical works, see Francesca da Rimini (disambiguation).

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini: Symphonic Fantasy after Dante, Op. 32 was composed in less than three weeks during his visit to Bayreuth in the autumn of 1876.

In this fantasia, Tchaikovsky presents a symphonic interpretation of the tragic tale of Francesca da Rimini, a beauty who was immortalized in Dante's Divine Comedy. In the fifth canto of Inferno, Dante the narrator meets the shade of Francesca da Rimini, a noblewoman who fell in love with the brother of her ugly husband. After the lovers were discovered and killed in revenge by the husband, they were condemned to hell for their adulterous passions. In their damnation, the lovers are trapped in a violent storm but separated from each other, never to touch again. They are tormented most of all by the ineradicable memory of the joys and pleasures of the embraces they once shared.

In writing Francesca da Rimini, Tchaikovsky expressed a poignant identification with the heroine and her tragic fate, a sympathy which was also dramatically evoked in his ballet Swan Lake and the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.

This symphonic poem, perhaps more than any other of Tchaikovsky's works, shows the influence of Liszt, both musically and in terms of subject matter. Liszt frequently chose subjects of a gothic, devilish nature: the Dante Symphony (1857), Totentanz (1849) and Sonata "Après une lecture de Dante" (1856) are cases in point. Tchaikovky's use of swirling chromaticism in the depiction of the flames of hell also owe a great deal to Liszt.

The score calls for 3 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, and strings. Duration, 25 minutes.

[edit] Notable recordings

Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Houston Symphony in 1994.
Riccardo Muti conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999.
Arranged and recorded for organ by Josh Perschbacher in 2006.
Figures prominently in the 1948 motion picture Unfaithfully Yours by Preston Sturges