Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini”
Notes by TŌN bassist Nozomi Sugimoto
How vividly do you remember Dante’s Inferno? Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini might help you reimagine it. This symphonic fantasy is based on the tragedy of Francesca and Paolo from Canto V.
Tchaikovsky had considered turning Francesca’s story into an opera before his brother Modest suggested it as the subject of a symphonic poem. In 1876, while traveling, he read Dante’s Inferno and felt inspired to compose the work.
During the same journey, Tchaikovsky heard Wagner’s Ring at Bayreuth and later acknowledged its influence on Francesca da Rimini. I can hear this influence especially in the opening, in its unresolved harmonies and its heavy, enormous sound. I had always felt a similarity between Wagner and Tchaikovsky in the way they create a thick and powerful orchestral sound, so while researching this piece, it was fascinating to discover this connection. Perhaps musicians have not changed that much over time. When we encounter something great, we naturally want to try it in our own music.
In the second circle of Hell, Dante encounters Francesca and Paolo among souls swept forever through a violent storm, which Tchaikovsky depicts with a wild and powerful orchestra. The music eventually changes completely as Francesca begins to tell her story. Married to Giovanni Malatesta, Francesca fell in love with his brother Paolo, and they kissed while reading the story of Lancelot together. What stays with me most is the melody here. It is beautiful, but also somehow unstable. To me, it feels like a fleeting dream, destined to disappear almost as soon as it begins. But Francesca and Paolo are killed by Giovanni, and the music becomes violent again, almost as if we are suddenly pulled out of the dream and back into reality. They are swallowed once again by the storm of Hell.
I have always felt that Tchaikovsky’s music has some sense of hope or salvation somewhere, no matter how dark or heavy it becomes. But I find very little of that in Francesca da Rimini. Even its most lyrical moments eventually disappear without finding any sense of resolution. Listening to this piece feels to me like turning the pages of a novel, as the story of Francesca and Paolo unfolds through the music.