ALL ACCESS: Chin, Mozart & Tchaikovsky: Oct 3–5, 2025
- Tiffany Valvo
- 19 hours ago
- 7 min read
unsuk chin
subito con forza
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Unsuk Chin (1961- ) is a composer from South Korea who has been based in Berlin, Germany since 1988. Chin was interested in music from a young age and began by teaching herself piano and music theory. She eventually studied composition at Seoul National University and went on to study with the highly influential composer György Ligeti at the State University for Music and Theater in Hamburg. Chin has won many prestigious awards for her compositions including the internationally recognized Grawemeyer Award for her 2004 Violin Concerto.
Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by major ensembles, symphony orchestras, and operas around the world. For her part, Unsuk Chin doesn’t think of her music as belonging to any specific culture but includes 20th century Eurasian composers Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Anton Webern, Iannis Xenakis, and of course György Ligeti among her influences. She also counts her work with electronic music, Balinese Gamelan, and Medieval era composition techniques as important influences.
Highlights:
Chin composed Subito con forza (Suddenly with power) in 2020. It was a joint commission from Kölner Philharmonic, BBC Radio 3, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam where the world premiere was conducted by Klaus Mäkelä. The work is dedicated “On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.”
With the exception of additional piano and percussion, Subito con forza is scored for a typical Classical era orchestra that Beethoven would’ve experienced: winds and brass in pairs, timpani, and strings.
It begins with the same gesture as Beethoven’s Coriolanus Overture, and if you listen carefully toward the end you’ll also hear a cascade of 4 repeated notes in the wind and brass sections which recalls the famous fate motive of Beethoven’s fifth symphony.
Subito con forza received some tasty critical praise, including the following descriptions:
From the San Francisco Chronicle - Subito con forza “takes a gesture from Beethoven’s Coriolanus Overture and dances it around through a series of oratorical pronouncements and clattery percussion.”
Another review called it a “truculent” tribute to Beethoven “in which fleeting snippets of original Beethoven act as touch paper to Chin’s own explosive responses.”
The Times of London described it as “effective and eerie, with plenty happening in five teeming minutes.”
wolfgang amadeus mozart
piano concerto no. 24
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozat (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was just 35 years old when he died, but he got a pretty strong head start having famous composer violinist Leopold Mozart for a father, who also managed to open doors for him and get him situated as a child prodigy. Wolfie was writing some of his first symphonic works by the age of 10, and became one of the most prolific and influential composers of the 18th century Classical era, writing more than 800 works for all types of ensembles. Mozart, along with Franz Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, were the absolute rock star composers of the Classical era - roughly 1750 to 1820 - and all worked in Vienna overlapping their work and relationship to one another during the same period of time. These three, led by Haydn, pushed on by Mozart, and blasted into the future by Beethoven, formed what we now refer to as the First Viennese School of composition, basically templating the characteristics of the Classical era, laying the groundwork for innovations that would lead us into the Romantic era of the 1800s, and ultimately into the diverse and wondrous array of experimentation of the 1900s so that now in the 21st century we can celebrate the amazing variety of beauty and power in composed long form acoustic music on stages like this one.
About the Concerto:
Mozart finished composing Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor in 1786 just 3 weeks after completing his 23rd piano concerto and shortly before finishing his opera The Marriage of Figaro. He was essentially composing the concerto and opera simultaneously, which is a point of interest considering the lightness and comic nature of the opera in contrast to the darker minor key sounds of the concerto.
Mozart was scheduled to premiere the concerto performance with himself as soloist so he didn’t bother writing out the solo part in full but rather premiered it partially from memory… like a freakin boss. Or maybe like an overbooked neurospicy showoff. You be the judge! He was definitely in a rush to finish the orchestra parts. We even get a rare glimpse of his frantic editing in a couple pages of the autograph manuscript.
Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor is considered one of Mozart’s best and most complex concertos. It was a favorite of his contemporary Ludwig van Beethoven, and of Romantic era composer Johannes Brahms. Beethoven is said to have told a colleague “We shall never be able to do anything like that.” and it seems clear that it influenced his own 3rd piano concerto composed a decade or so later, also in the key of C minor, and with a similar opening theme. Brahms called it a “masterpiece of art and full of inspired ideas”, and was inspired to write his own cadenza (fancy classical music term for a solo break) for the first movement.
Piano Concerto No. 24 is in a standard 3 movement form of quick-slow-quick, in this case Allegro (strong up tempo), Larghetto (medium slow tempo), and Allegretto (light up tempo) with variations.
A typical performance lasts about 30 minutes.
Watch & Listen!
Pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky
Symphony no. 4
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. In addition to his 6 symphonies, he wrote some of the most popular music in the long form acoustic music repertoire. Despite his international acclaim, Tchaikovsky endured many points of personal crises and depression. He was deeply shaken by the untimely deaths of his mother and later of a close friend and colleague, left financially bereft by the collapse of his 13 year association with a commissioning patron, and increasingly anxious about being unable to be openly queer in a deeply intolerant society. There is something universal in the emotional heft of Tchaikovsky’s expressions which resonates with anyone who struggles with their human flaws, whether perceived or real.
highlights:
Tchaikovsky completed Symphony No. 4 in F minor in 1878 when he was just 38 years old. It carries the nickname “Fate” Symphony based on notes Tchaikovsky made about the primary theme of the first movement.
In a letter to his sponsoring patron, Tchaikovsky wrote “the fanfare first heard at the opening is the kernel, the quintessence, the chief thought of the whole symphony and stands for Fate, specifically the fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness. There is nothing to be done but to submit to it and lament in vain.” He continued to explain that the meaning of the first movement is basically that "all life is an unbroken alternation of hard reality with swiftly passing dreams and visions of happiness where no haven exists. Drift upon that sea until it engulfs and submerges you in its depths.”
I mean… we’ve all had days like this, right? 🫣 Sounds like he needed a nap and maybe some chocolate.
Tchaikovsky also wrote to his composer friend Sergei Taneyev that Symphony No. 4 was a reflection on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, also known for its 4 note ‘fate’ motive in the first movement.
Symphony No. 4 is in four movements, or chapters in a musical chapter book, and follows a fairly standard tempo structure. The first movement is a slow introduction followed by quicker music, the second movement is in a moderately slow tempo, the third movement is a spry tempo dance, and the fourth movement is a splashy race to the end with a gentle secondary theme taken from the popular Russian folk song "In the Field a Birch Tree Stood" and a brief detour into the first movement fate fanfare music.
A typical performance of Symphony No. 4 lasts about 45 minutes.
There are many beautiful and powerful moments for woodwind soloists in the orchestra, as well as the string and percussion sections, but the real stars of the 4th symphony are the brass instruments. Watch Colorado Symphony's 2nd Horn Carolyn Kunicki chat with me about all the insider goss from a french horn player's perspective.
Initial reviews of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony were mixed at best. Tchaikovsky was in Italy during the Moscow premiere and relied on reports from friends and colleagues - who carefully avoided sharing negative feedback, including a telegram from the orchestra musicians and conductor of the premiere saying they’d done a good job performing it. Not exactly getting the likes and shares on that one… Things were a little warmer a year later at the St. Petersburg premiere, but when it made its way to the US in 1890 one reviewer wrote “The Fourth Tchaikovsky Symphony proved to be one of the most thoroughly Russian, i.e. semi-barbaric, compositions ever heard in the city. ... If Tchaikovsky had called his symphony 'A Sleigh Ride Through Siberia' no one would have found this title inappropriate.” Ouch.
In 1893 the British premiere was received enthusiastically with applause after every movement, but after an 1897 performance in Germany a reviewer wrote "The composer's twaddle disturbed my mood. The confusion in brass and the abuse of the kettledrums drove me away!"
Out of curiosity I looked up the German translation for “twaddle”. Surprisingly there are a few to choose from: Geschwätz, Geblödel, Schwafelei, and my personal favorite Schnickschnack.
Despite its sleeper status, Symphony No. 4 has become a mainstay of orchestral repertoire, and continues to be one of the most frequently performed symphonies from the late 19th century Romantic era.
It has also been featured in popular culture in a number of film and television spots but none quite so imaginative and weird as a scene from the 1964 movie What a Way to Go! where automatic painting robots strangle Paul Newman’s character as they paint to the last movement. You're welcome.
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