Trivia / Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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• Covered Up: Disney's adaptation of Sleeping Beauty made liberal use of his original score for the ballet in its own score and soundtrack. At the time it came out, people might have been more familiar with the ballet and understood the Musical Nod. Today, however, most people recognize "The Garland Waltz" as the melody to "Once Upon a Dream," as Disney did little to change it other than adding lyrics.
• Creator Backlash: Tchaikovsky reportedly hated The Nutcracker, which is, ironically, quite possibly his best known composition.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance:
  • While The Nutcracker became his most popular work, he wasn't generally pleased with the score, and was disappointed that his other compositions didn't fare as well with the public. Nowadays, however, Swan Lake is generally better known than The Nutcracker.
    "I gave them a masterpiece in Swan Lake, but all they want from me is fluff."
  • He also didn't much care for his 1812 Overture, calling it "very loud and noisy, but without any actual art in it", yet it is perhaps the most well-known of his compositions.
  • Both pieces were pretty much written because he was paid to write them.
• Music to Invade Poland to: Inverted with the "1812 Overture," which celebrates Russia's victory over Napoleon's failed attempt to invade and conquer. The repeated use of the French anthem as a leitmotif with the cannons really hammers home that it was France who tried, and France who failed.
• Revival by Commercialization: The Nutcracker was largely forgotten about following its initial run, though the concert suite had a better life. Fantasia brought it back to the public notice in the 1940s, and by the 1960s it was an annual tradition for many ballet companies.
• Tough Act to Follow: His Piano Concerto No. 1 was so popular, both in his time and ours (it was the first classical album to sell over a million copies), that the Second and Third Concertos are almost forgotten.

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