Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka – ballet music
The ballet Petrushka – or as it appears on the cover “Ballet Burlesque in Four Scenes” – was originally conceived as an orchestral composition. Stravinsky envisaged a piece in which “the piano would play the most important role – a sort of ‘Konzertstück’ ”. “Whilst composing,” Stravinsky later recalled, “a distinct image of a puppet came to my mind: it suddenly sprang to life, testing the orchestra’s patience with an incredible torrent of arpeggios. The orchestra took its revenge with menacing trumpet outbursts. The result is a terrible clamour, which reaches its climax – and at the same time its end – with the puppet’s sad and whimpering collapse.” Upon completing the movement, while searching for a suitable title, the composer came across Petrushka, “the immortal and unhappy hero of all fairs in the world.” When Sergei Diaghilev visited Stravinsky in the summer of 1910, he was surprised to find that the composer was not working on the sketches for The Rite of Spring, commissioned for the Ballets Russes, but on an orchestral piece intended for a concert performance. Stravinsky played a few parts – Petrushka’s Lament and Russian Dance – and Diaghilev immediately recognised the potential for a dramatic adaptation in the music: he persuaded Stravinsky to rework the piece into a ballet. The ballet was eventually premiered in June 1911 at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to great acclaim.
Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Bells (Kolokola), Op. 35
1. Allegro ma non troppo – tenor and choir
2. Lento – soprano and choir
3. Presto – choir
4. Lento lugubre – baritone and choir
It is not easy to define the genre of The Bells. According to the score, it is a “Poem for soprano, tenor and baritone solo, choir and orchestra”. However, The Bells is also often referred to as a cantata or a choral symphony. The latter description is apt as the work has fundamentally been conceived in a symphonic manner although its four-movement structure was inspired not predominantly by the traditions of the genre of the symphony but by the four-part structure of the poem.
In the first movement, the silver sleigh bells assume a central role. In Rachmaninov’s orchestra – alongside the strings, woodwinds and brass instruments, the harp and timpani – a number of other unusual instruments are also featured: these are the triangle, tambourine, bells, celesta and the piano or upright piano – and they are all sounded as percussion instruments.
Poe’s text evokes the image of sleighs gliding and jingling through a clear, starlit winter night whilst Balmont’s translation has enriched the lines with a second layer of meaning. The sleigh bells conjure up childhood memories from the depths of oblivion: the image of a small child’s carefree smile and sweet sleep. The music also vividly reflects upon this layer with a buzzing chorus echoing the innocent, wonderfully serene dream.
The music of the Mellow Wedding Bells depicts the sweet but concurrently tormenting and sultry eroticism of love desire. An analysis by Hungarian music historian Márta Papp drew attention to two tonal characteristics of the movement, “the coexistence of which is unique in the musical canon. One is the oriental-exotic tone of Russian music, and the other is the intricate line of sounds characterising Wagnerian German music – the ‘Tristan harmony’ if you like.”
From an orchestrational point of view, the third movement is the most virtuosic. This time, the bell signals a fire, and once again let us quote Márta Papp: “the composer sets the crackling of sparks and the flickering of flames to music for his orchestra. The deadly terror triggered by the fire is expressed in highly chromatic, almost toneless music. This is already the sound of the 20th century, the music of irresolvable anxiety.”
In the fourth movement, a baritone soloist – together with the choir – sets the tone for, and also voices, the idea of death. The sound of a distant bell irrevocably conveys to both believers and non-believers that there is no turning back.
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Stravinsky and Rachmaninov
30 SEPT 7:30 PM
Müpa – Béla Bartók National Concert Hall
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photo: Ágnes Molnár ©Gábor Molnár