Tchaikovsky's 'The Seasons' with Morton Gould and Lev Oborin

Detail of Tchaikovsky portrait by Nikolai Kuznetsov

The headline says this post is devoted to Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. So why does the Morton Gould record cover below say The Months?

That's something we would have to ask Gould, were he still around. The composer called his suite The Seasons, and most other recordings I have seen call it the same.

Gould did have logic on his side. Tchaikovsky wrote the work on a month-by-month basis for the publication Nuvellist in 1875-76, and the individual pieces are subtitled for the appropriate month. But the composer and the publisher still called the suite The Seasons.

By whatever name, we have two versions of this piano work for you: one an arrangement by Gould for piano and orchestra, the other a Russian recording by Lev Oborin of the original suite.

The Months with Morton Gould

The title was not all that Gould changed. The suite was written for piano, but Gould orchestrated the work in Tchaikovsky's style, retaining a piano part.

It all works quite well in this 1951 recording, made in Columbia's 30th Street Studio, and a bit more steely sounding than usual from this source. It's a light suite, most similar in approach to the composer's ballet scores. (He was orchestrating Swan Lake at about the same time.)

The best known selections are probably the "Barcarolle" (June) and "In the Troika" (November). The latter is sometimes heard at Christmas, even though the composer assigned it to the previous month. Tchaikovsky's composition, however, is not heard as often as Prokofiev's "Troika" from the Lieutenant Kijé Suite.

I don't want to slight Tchaikovsky's December piece, which is one of his most felicitous waltzes.

Morton Gould in the recording studio

The Seasons has been arranged for orchestra several times. Most recordings use the orchestration by Russian conductor Aleksandr Gauk. As far as I can tell, this is the only recording of Gould's version. It has not been reissued for many years, to my knowledge.

The Seasons with Lev Oborin

Although his name is not often heard these days, Lev Oborin (1907-74) was a distinguished Russian pianist who won the first International Chopin Competition in 1927. Oborin often performed with David Oistrakh, and Aram Khachaturian dedicated his Piano Concerto to him.

Lev Oborin

Oborin's recording dates from 1950. This version is from a 1963 LP issued on the small Bruno label, possibly a quasi-bootleg. The LP was reissued many times on LP in Russia, but I haven't turned up any CD issues nor any other Western releases, save for a UK Parlophone album (that was, incidentally, titled The Months).

The recording is adequate; the performance is splendid, although Oborin's troika just ambles along, apparently in no hurry to get to Babushka's house. The pianist does, however, excel in the concluding waltz.

Thanks to my friend Ernie, who alerted me to the Gould LP on Internet Archive.