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Overture to La forza
del destino ("The Force of Destiny")
By Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
In the opera La forza del destino, Leonora, the daughter of the
Marquis of Calatrava, elopes with her lover Alvaro, who has killed the
Marquis in a fatal accident. Leonora's brother, Carlos, intent on avenging
his father's death and his sister's seduction, sets out to find the lovers.
Leonora finds refuge in a monastery; Alvaro has gone to war where, by
chance, he meets and befriends Carlos, whom he does not recognize. Carlos
eventually finds out who his friend really is, but is unable to confront
him until much later. Then Alvaro kills Carlos in a duel and Carlos, with
his last remaining strength, stabs his sister. This tragic story was told
in a 19th-century Spanish drama that provided the source for Verdi's opera;
however, the composer and his librettist also included a number of comic
interludes that almost amount to a separate opera within the opera.
The opera was originally written in 1862 and revised seven years later.
The overture, in its present form, was expanded for the new production
from what was a much shorter prelude in the first version. Verdi used
four of the opera's most memorable melodies. The first is a kind of Leitmotiv
(recurrent theme) that appears several times in the piece, always associated
with Leonora. The second is from the last act, where Alvaro asks Carlos
for mercy. The third is Leonora's prayer from Act II, and the last is
from her duet with the Father Guardian, the head of the monastery who
allows her to hide there, dressed as a monk. After these four melodies
have been introduced, the overture becomes ever faster and more excited
as the ending approaches.
"Dawn on the Moscow River" -- Prelude to Khovanshchina
(1872-79)
by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
orchestrated by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1841-1908)
Soon after completing his first opera, Boris Godunov, Mussorgsky
began work on a second one, which he called Khovanshchina. The
title, not easy for English speakers to pronounce, is even harder to translate.
The word is derived from the name Khovansky, borne by two of the opera's
protagonists (father and son), and can be rendered approximately as "The
world of the Khovanskys," "The times of the Khovanskys,"
or "The ways of the Khovanskys." The older Prince Khovansky,
Ivan, is a conservative Russian leader, opposed by Prince Vasily Golitsyn,
head of a progressive faction. Their conflict is part of the complex political
situation at the end of the 17th century, preceding the reign of Czar
Peter the Great. Mussorgsky conducted extensive historical research on
this period before writing the libretto of his opera. (In Boris, he used
Pushkin's drama as his starting point. In Khovanshchina, however,
there was no literary source for him to rely on; the drama was created
directly from the history books.)
"Dawn on the Moscow River" is Mussorgsky's own title for the
prelude. It is based on a single melody of strong Russian flavor. In the
course of the prelude, this melody gradually grows in intensity and then
fades back into silence.
There has been a lot of controversy about the relationship of this prelude
to the opera. After all, Khovanshchina is a rather gloomy work
about the struggle of various political parties for control over Russia,
while the prelude is a gentle lyrical piece with no hints at dramatic
conflicts of any kind. The theme of the prelude returns only once in the
opera, in the portions completed by Mussorgsky, and the symbolic meaning
of that quote is not entirely clear. It is probably best to interpret
this music as an abstract expression of hope for a better world, a dream
of happiness that never comes true in the opera, or -- according to Mussorgsky's
pessimistic philosophy -- in the world.
Variations on a Rococo Theme
for Violoncello ad Orchestra, Op. 33
by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Romantic composer to the core, yet he
was endlessly fascinated by the Classical times of Mozart, which represented
to him an ideal if distant world for which he felt great nostalgia.
After completing his orchestral fantasy Francesca da Rimini (1876),
Tchaikovsky needed a change from the fatal passions and the horrors of
hell depicted in that hyper-Romantic work. He turned (or, we might say,
escaped) to the past, put on an imaginary powdered wig, and embarked on
a composition that was clearly 18th-century in its inspiration. The new
piece was intended for Tchaikovsky's colleague at the Moscow Conservatory,
German cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, who played the first performance on
November 30, 1877, in Moscow under the direction of Nikolai Rubinstein.
The title of the piece requires a little commentary. The 19th century
was fond of drawing parallels between the arts, and the concept of "Rococo"
music enjoyed a certain currency. Originally, the term "rococo"
was used to refer to a style of architectural decoration in France whose
two successive stages were known as "style régence" (Regency
style) and "style Louis XV," respectively. The word derives
from rocaille, French for "shell," since the shell was
an ornamental motif frequently encountered on Rococo artworks. Winsome
and elegant arabesques, sometimes with a touch of frivolity, were the
main characteristics of this style. In the 19th century, the word "Rococo"
was also frequently applied to the music of the period that included composers
from Couperin and Domenico Scarlatti to Haydn and Mozart. Today, however,
most musicians feel that the above description of Rococo art does not
really fit the music of those composers, and there is less talk of "Rococo"
music than there used to be.
When Tchaikovsky called his Op. 33 "Variations on a Rococo Theme,"
he probably thought of little else than a pleasant diversion (or, to use
the related Italian word so important in 18th-century music, "divertimento")
and leave all cares and troubles behind for a while. The orchestra is
reduced to 18th-century dimensions, and the theme for the variations is
definitely modeled on 18th-century melodies. Yet it is not a real 18th-century
melody. It is rather what Tchaikovsky wanted it to be: a nostalgic look
at the past from a hundred years later.
The work opens with a short orchestral introduction followed by the first
presentation of the theme. Before and between the variations, we hear
some interesting transition passages, containing chromatic progressions
that definitely belong to the year 1876 rather than to the 18th century.
Each of these transition passages closes on the dominant -- that is, with
the equivalent of a musical question mark -- after which the new variation
arrives like an answer.
Some of the variations make use of the cello's ability to sing long lyrical
melodies, while others are virtuosic in character. On several occasions,
the cello launches into grandiose cadenzas. There is no shortage of spectacular
trills, double stops, and other technical stunts; yet one never loses
sight of the ingratiating main melody.
The version in which the "Rococo Variations" have become famous
is not the original form. Fitzenhagen completely rearranged the order
of the variations, and even cut one that Tchaikovsky had written, despite
the composer's vehement protests. Although the original version was recently
published in Russia, it has yet to gain universal acceptance, and most
performers still use the Fitzenhagen score, which is what we shall hear
at this morning's performance.
Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34
by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
"According to my plans, the Capriccio was to glitter with
dazzling orchestral color, and manifestly, I had not been wrong"
-- wrote Rimsky-Korsakov in his autobiography, titled My Musical Life.
The work, completed in the summer of 1887, was an instant success which
started even before the premiere: the musicians of the Imperial Opera
orchestra in St. Petersburg applauded each section during the first rehearsal.
Then at the first performance, an enthusiastic audience demanded that
the entire piece be immediately repeated.
Rimsky-Korsakov was not the first Russian composer to be attracted to
the landscape and music of the Mediterranean region. Tchaikovsky wrote
his Capriccio italien seven years earlier, in 1880. Both composers
were preceded, and inspired, by Mikhail Glinka, the "father of Russian
music," as he was called: Glinka had composed his Capriccio brillante,
based on the jota dance of Spain's Aragon region, in 1845. But Glinka
had spent much time in Spain, just as Tchaikovsky wrote the Italian Capriccio
in Italy. Rimsky-Korsakov, on the other hand, had stopped in Spain only
briefly while, as a young naval officer, he was returning from a three-year
voyage that had taken him to the United States and South America. The
tunes used in the Capriccio came to him from a book of Spanish folk music;
his personal copy has been preserved, containing all the authentic melodies
that had found their way into the score.
Rimsky-Korsakov could have arranged the Spanish folk melodies in a suite,
where the different tunes followed one another in a loose sequence. Instead,
he chose to give the work a sense of unity by organizing it around a main
melody, heard at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. This melody
is called "Alborada," which means "dawn song." Alboradas
are usually played on the bagpipes to the accompaniment of a side-drum.
(Another famous work inspired by this musical form is Ravel's Alborada
del gracioso.)
The lively opening Alborada is followed by a set of slow variations,
whose simple melody is repeated several times, played by varying instrumental
combinations. We hear, in turn, the quartet of horns, strings, with the
cellos playing the highest part, English horn and French horn in alternation,
and full orchestra. After the return of the Alborada, we move on to a
section called "Scene and Gypsy Song," which opens with a series
of virtuoso cadenzas (the first for horns and trumpets, and then one each
for violin, flute, clarinet, and harp). Then, finally, the orchestra launches
into the impassioned Gypsy song. The colorful "Fandango" --
another Spanish dance -- ends with the return of the now-familiar Alborada.
Capriccio espagnol is a brilliant orchestral showpiece requiring
considerable virtuosity on the part of each player. The violin solos are
particularly prominent (Rimsky-Korsakov's first idea was to write the
piece for violin and orchestra), but many other instruments have their
turns to shine. In addition, the composer used a number of special effects,
as in the "Gypsy Song" where he instructed the violinists and
cellists to imitate guitars. But Rimsky-Korsakov didn't want his work
to be appreciated for those effects alone. As he wrote in his autobiography:
The opinion formed by both critics and the public, that the Capriccio
is a magnificently orchestrated piece -- is wrong. The Capriccio
is a brilliant composition for the orchestra. The change of timbres,
the felicitous choice of melodic designs and figuration patterns, exactly
suiting each kind of instrument, brief virtuoso cadenzas for instruments
solo, the rhythm of the percussion instruments, etc., constitute here
the very essence of the composition and not its garb or orchestration.
The Spanish themes, of dance character, furnished me with rich material
for putting in use multiform orchestral effects. All in all, the Capriccio
is undoubtedly a purely external piece, but vividly brilliant for all
that. I was a little less successful in its third section (Alborada,
in B-flat major), where the brasses somewhat drown the melodic designs
of the woodwinds; but this is very easy to remedy, if the conductor
will pay attention to it and moderate the indications of the shades
of force in the brass instruments by replacing the fortissimo by a simple
forte.
Peter Laki © 2005
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