Download Classics III Exotic Musical Tales Program Notes Overture to La

Classics III
Exotic Musical Tales
Program Notes
Overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)
Gioachino Rossini
Born in Pesaro, February 29, 1792; died in Paris, November 13,
1868
By the time Rossini was twenty-five, in 1817, he had virtually
completed his career as an opera buffa composer in Italy. He
was to compose only two other comic operas: Adina (1818),
performed in Lisbon in 1826, and Le Comte Ory (1828) for the
Paris Opéra. On February 11 he left Rome after an enormous
success with his Cenerentola (Cinderella) in January, and
traveled via Bologna to Milan to compose a two-act work of a
different sort: an opera semiseria, which turned out to be La
gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie).
Portrait of Rossini by Viennese
artist Mayer, 1820
Under contract with La Scala, Rossini was provided with a libretto by Giovanni Gherardini based
on La pie voleuse (The Thieving Magpie), a “mélodrame du boulevard” (melodrama of the
boulevard theaters) that had been successfully staged in Paris in 1815. Rossini demanded some
changes in the story and continued to revise scenes of dialogue even after the opening
performance in Milan on May 31, 1817. From the end of March to the end of May was a much
longer period than Rossini usually had to prepare an opera. He used the time to assess the taste
of his audience and to lavish extra care on the score. His recent successes in Rome and Naples
meant nothing to the Milanese, who had not liked any of his works since La pietra del paragone
(The Touchstone) in 1812.
The story, which had its origins in a curious French legal case, deals with a servant girl who is
convicted to be hanged for stealing a silver spoon which, in truth, has been taken by a magpie.
A young soldier is in love with the unfortunate girl, and the opening military march of the
Overture, with its characteristic drum rolls, depicts his return from the wars. The innovative use
of drums in the orchestra (now often performed antiphonally) was too much for one student of
a La Scala violinist; he declared publicly that he ought to assassinate Rossini in order to save the
art of music! The allegro section in E minor contains themes ideal for opera semiseria; suspense
and energetic tension are later transformed into pomp and wit with the aid of the now-famous
long “Rossini crescendos.” Rossini incorporated much more thematic material from the opera
in this Overture than was his custom, with splendid results.
The care Rossini took over La gazza ladra paid off—the Milanese were ecstatic; Stendahl raved
that it was the most successful first night he had ever attended. The 1817 season at La Scala
included twenty-seven performances of the opera, and by 1829 the work had been performed
139 times there. The Overture itself achieved great popularity even during Rossini’s lifetime,
and was often played at formal occasions to announce the arrival of nobility or royalty.
—©Jane Vial Jaffe
Scored for flute, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones,
tuba, timpani, bass drum, snare drum, triangle, and strings
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, op. 43
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born in Oneg or Semyonovo, April 1, 1873; died in Beverly
Hills, March 28, 1943
Happy to be spending the summer of 1934 at Senar, his
newly completed villa on the shores of Switzerland’s Lake
Lucerne, Rachmaninoff composed his Rhapsody on a Theme
of Paganini in seven weeks. Beyond simply writing variations
on a theme by Paganini, he may have felt like an ancient
rhapsodist (reciter of epic poetry) in telling a programmatic
tale about the virtuoso violinist. In 1935 he suggested a detailed scenario for the work to
choreographer Michel Fokine based on “the legend about Paganini, who, for perfection in his
art and for a woman, sold his soul to an evil spirit.”
Though the scenario was formulated one year after the completion of the work, Rachmaninoff
scholar Barrie Martyn has made a convincing case for the composer having had a Paganini story
in mind all along. Such a story may have prompted him to weave the Dies irae (medieval
sequence from the Mass for the Dead) into several of the variations. Rachmaninoff’s
unexplained obsession with the Dies irae manifested itself frequently in his compositions,
though he always quoted only its opening phrase.
Rachmaninoff premiered the Paganini Rhapsody with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia
Orchestra in Baltimore on November 7, 1934, and soon played it throughout the United States
and Europe. It won instant popularity, owing in large measure to the glorious eighteenth
variation, which has since been taken out of context frequently and used for radio, television,
and movie themes. Critical reaction to the work was mixed, but since that time, far from fading
into oblivion in the way of other “virtuoso-music” and “fluff,” the Paganini Rhapsody has
secured an even stronger place in the repertory, along with several of Rachmaninoff’s
concertos and symphonies.
The Paganini theme, from his Caprice No. 24 in A minor for solo violin, has cried out for
variation from the start. Paganini himself was the first to subject it to variation treatment in
that Caprice; Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms all made their contributions. Nor was Rachmaninoff
the last—Witold Lutosławski and Boris Blacher, and popular composers such as John
Dankworth and Andrew Lloyd Webber have all been attracted to it.
Rachmaninoff’s structural design for the Rhapsody falls naturally into three sections
corresponding to the movements of a concerto: opening movement, Variations 1–10; cadenzalike transition, Variation 11; slow movement, Variations 12–18; and finale, Variations 19–24.
One thinks of Beethoven in regard to Rachmaninoff’s stern eight-bar introduction and
detached-note first variation, which precedes the presentation of the theme, in the manner of
Beethoven’s Eroica finale.
The Dies irae makes its first appearance in Variation 7, where Rachmaninoff envisioned “a
dialogue with Paganini, when his theme appears alongside Dies irae.” After Variation 10, in
which the Dies irae returns, a wonderful change of mood is ushered in by the “cadenza” of No.
11. The “slow movement” variations, in a variety of keys other than the home key of A minor,
include: a minuet (12), a marchlike variation (13), a major-key variation with the first suggestion
of the theme inverted (14), a scherzando variation full of pianistic dazzle (15), a delicately
scored, shimmering variation (16), a dark variation in B-flat minor (17), and the radiant
eighteenth variation. The lush melody of No. 18 is based on an inversion of the Paganini theme,
yet Martyn has pointed out that it also bears a certain resemblance to the slow movement of
Nikolai Medtner’s Sonata-Fairy-Tale, which Rachmaninoff sometimes played in concert.
The last group of variations returns to the home key of A minor, increasing in pianistic brilliance
through the final variation. In Variations 19 and 24 one is struck by the references to aspects of
Paganini’s legendary violin technique. Variations 22 and 24 bring back the Dies irae. The
dazzling final variation ends with two tossed-off measures approached by a difficult leap, which
apparently caused problems even for the composer. According to a charming story often told
by Benno Moiseiwitsch, a glass of crème de menthe provided the solution for hitting the right
notes for Rachmaninoff, who never drank as a rule. The Rhapsody’s witty ending after all that
has gone before provides a rare glimpse of Rachmaninoff’s sense of humor.
—©Jane Vial Jaffe
Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3
trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, suspended cymbal, glockenspiel, snare drum,
triangle, harp, and strings
Scheherazade, op. 35
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Born in Tikhvin, Novgorod govt., March 18, 1844; died in
Lyubensk, St. Petersburg govt., June 21, 1908
The collection of ancient Persian-Indian-Arabian tales called The
Arabian Nights’ Entertainments or A Thousand and One Nights
has fascinated children and adults for centuries. Arranged in its
present format as early as 1450, probably in Cairo, the collection
was first introduced to the European world in 1704 by the
Frenchman Antoine Galland, whose free rendering of the oldest
known manuscript of 1548 came out in twelve volumes spanning
fourteen years. Many translations later appeared and the immense popularity of the work
continued into the nineteenth century, when Rimsky-Korsakov was inspired to compose his
symphonic suite Scheherazade. Written in the summer of 1888 at Nyezhgovity, RimskyKorsakov’s summer place on the shore of Lake Cheryemenyetskoye, the musical work has
become almost as well known as its literary inspiration.
Before following the career of a composer, Rimsky-Korsakov first took a position in the Russian
Navy, following in the footsteps of his brother, twenty-two years his senior. He sailed aboard
the clipper Almaz as a midshipman for two-and-a-half years, a tour that took him to England,
the Baltic, the Eastern United States, Brazil, and the Mediterranean. His autobiography contains
a wonderful travelogue of his sailing adventure: awe at the magnificence of Niagara Falls, notes
on the American Civil War, tropical nights on the ocean, exotic places in and around Rio de
Janeiro, and the unforgettable luminosity of the Sargasso Sea. This trip fostered the composer’s
lifelong interest in foreign and exotic places. The rich panorama of orchestral colors and the
“sea pictures” in Scheherazade owe almost as much to Rimsky-Korsakov’s sailing adventure as
to The Arabian Nights.
Rimsky-Korsakov prefaced the score of Scheherazade with the following telescoped version of
the story that frames the great collection:
The Sultan Schahriar, convinced of the perfidy and faithlessness of women, vowed to
execute each of his wives after the first night. But the Sultana Scheherazade saved her
own life by interesting him in the tales she told him through 1001 nights. Impelled by
curiosity, the Sultan continually put off her execution, and at last abandoned his
sanguinary resolve. Many marvels did Scheherazade relate to him, citing the verses of
poets and the words of songs, weaving tale into tale and story into story.
The composer at one time gave programmatic titles for the four movements of his symphonic
suite, which are still frequently used in concert programs despite the fact that he later
withdrew them. He thought titles were too definite in associating various themes with specific
characters and incidents. The same motives often have different literary connotations, which,
as Rimsky-Korsakov realized, wreaks havoc on attempts to tie the music to a specific program.
The Scheherazade motive, introduced by the solo violin, is the only one that holds up with
regard to a program. Even the commanding opening motive that possibly represents the sultan
returns later in places unlikely to relate to him.
Referring to the discarded headings—the sea and Sinbad’s ship, the fantastic narrative of the
Prince Kalendar, the Prince and the Princess, the Baghdad festival and the ship dashing against
the rock with the bronze rider upon it—Rimsky wrote in his autobiography:
In composing Scheherazade I meant these hints to direct but slightly the hearer’s fancy
on the path which my own fancy had traveled. . . . All I had desired was that the hearer
. . . should carry away the impression that it is beyond doubt an Oriental narrative of
some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders and not merely four pieces played one
after the other and composed on the basis of themes common to all the four
movements.
This suite, in which almost every instrument of the orchestra is featured, exemplifies Rimsky’s
virtuosity in orchestration, which at this point, he was proud to say, had not been influenced by
Wagner. Scheherazade, and the just as brilliantly orchestrated Capriccio espagnol and Russian
Easter Overture were in fact his last important purely orchestral works, after which he became
almost exclusively an opera composer.
Rimsky-Korsakov begins this piece with the powerful music we associate at first with the Sultan
Schahriar and the seductive, graceful violin solo representing Scheherazade. We sense the roll
of Sinbad’s ship in the composer’s rocking, wave-like theme and a series of adventures as he
develops all three ideas.
The original title of the second movement refers to an unspecified Kalendar prince in the
Arabian Nights. Rimsky seems to represent the Kalendars—a wandering tribe of beggars and
dervishes—with his “Eastern” melodies and colorful solos for bassoon, oboe, flute, and horn.
The lyrical outpouring of the third movement is easily imaginable as love music. RimskyKorakov entwines two main themes, one sensuous and the other more playful. Scheherazade’s
gentle voice appears toward the end.
The composer originally described his Finale as “the Baghdad festival and the ship dashing
against the rock with the bronze horseman on it.” The ship is Sinbad’s and the “bronze
horseman” refers to St. Petersburg’s famous statue of Peter the Great and to a famous poem
by Aleksandr Pushkin that involves the statue and the 1824 flood of the Neva River. RimskyKorsakov must have liked the time warp, imagining Sinbad’s ancient ship crashing against the
statue of his own city in a storm. Following Scheherazade’s introduction, we seem to hear first
dancing at the festival and then waves at sea becoming stormier stormy. Rocking motion and
cymbal crashes represent the waves, and the striking of the tam-tam (gong) surely marks the
climactic moment when the ship hits the rock.
—©Jane Vial Jaffe
Scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2nd oboe doubling English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4
horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, snare
drum, cymbals, suspended cymbal, tam-tam, and strings