There’s a weird little hierarchy in classical music where “pleasant” is treated like a dirty word. The sweeter and more singable the piece, the faster some people rush to dismiss it as shallow. Waltz of the Flowers gets this treatment all the time: overplayed, overrated, “too syrupy.”
The audacity! Tchaikovsky crafted every bar with care, every note is perfection. The orchestration is rich and luminous, structure is classic, and the melody is unforgettable without ever feeling cheap.
When people sneer that Waltz of the Flowers is “too sweet” “too basic”, I smell a lot of insecurities. As if only listening to “difficult” music makes one deep. It doesn’t. Liking Tchaikovsky at his most luxurious doesn’t make one basic; it just means you’re not afraid of beauty. Balanchine understood the mission: