Ex. 5-7: Amidst a Noisy Ball

No. 3 from Tchaikovsky's Six Romances (Op. 38), composed in May 1878. The lyrics are by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817–1875), the Russian poet and playwright (not to be confused with Leo Tolstoy).

The song is a gentle, wistful waltz. "I saw you at a noisy ball — your sad eyes, your quiet voice. I cannot forget you, and though I am unsure of my own heart, I think that I love you." Tolstoy wrote this poem from his own experience: in 1851 he met his future wife, Sofya, at a masked ball in Moscow and fell in love. She was already married, and they were not able to marry until 1863.

These songs were written during a difficult time: Tchaikovsky was recovering from his short, failed marriage to Antonina Miliukova in 1877. He described writing these songs as "something between relaxation and work."

The four Tolstoy songs (Nos. 1–4) were composed at the Ukrainian estate of Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy woman who supported Tchaikovsky financially and had suggested he set Tolstoy's poetry to music. The remaining two songs were written earlier in Florence, Italy. The collection was dedicated to his brother Anatoly, in gratitude for helping him through his emotional crisis.

From the album Russian Songs by Margarita Gritskova and Maria Prinz (2019)
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