Puppets endowed with life, mysterious islands of death, and other spooky tales
We killed it at our Halloween Spooktacular concert a few weeks ago! But now that it's finally Halloween, it's time for a very mysteriously eerie Classics concert featuring some true heavy hitters.
There are an endless amount of exciting second horn parts in the orchestral repertoire. Beethoven always has me ready for exciting duets and low solos, Brahms has me leaping into the depths of the lower tessitura, and Mahler has every horn soaring on epic melodic lines. Recently though, I've discovered just how exciting a composer who wrote predominantly Ballet music can be.
Stravinsky is intensely exciting because he keeps your on your toes. I don't think I know another composer who wrote with as much variety in what he asks for technically. We have beautiful, flowing melodies, the shortest and sharpest of accents, thick, gentle, shadowy low notes, loud, high, brash interjections, not to mention plenty of mixed meter and very individualized parts. We ended last season with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and this year I'm thrilled to be revisiting this genius composer this week with his ballet, Petrushka.
Stravinsky became instantly famous after the premiere of his first ballet, The Firebird in 1910. (He was only 28- that's my current age!) His music was the epitome of modern Russian music and audiences couldn't get enough. Petrushka was received with just as much enthusiasm in 1911. When he began writing music with the idea of a puppet coming to life, his intention was to write a concert piece featuring piano. However, when Stravinsky shared some of his first sketches with the impresario, Serge Diaghilev, he thought it had immense theatrical potential, and so, the budding composer went to work on his second ballet.
Stravinsky had the idea of a puppet coming to life for his new Ballet and only later decided upon the story of Petrushka, a popular character found originally in 16th century Commedia dell'arte. (This is not to be confused with his later Ballet, Pulchinella. It's the same story, but if you give it a listen, it's very clearly not your average Stravinsky. It's actually mostly the music of Giovanni Batista Pergolesi, an 18th Century Italian composer. Stravinsky was hired to orchestrate Pergolesi's music, so don't be fooled!) Petrushka is Stravinsky finding his true voice in music. The ballet is set in St. Petersburg at a pre-lenten festival (Mardi Gras, anyone?) where a magician brings 3 puppets to life. Petrushka is the character of a sad clown who rivals with the Moor puppet in their attempts to win the heart of the beautiful ballerina. Petrushka, who is horribly clumsy and unpleasant looking, is rejected by the ballerina who runs into the arms of the handsome but stupid Moor, who ends up slaying Petrushka in the end.
The music is in 4 scenes, the outer two are set in the fair with people bustling about and dancing. In the first scene, once the magician appears in the crowd, he plays his flute and casts a spell to give his 3 puppets life. The inner two scenes are in private rooms, one with Petrushka dancing alone in his loneliness and then chasing the ballerina away. The second inner scene is in the Moor's room, where the ballerina woos the Moor by dancing and playing (a very famous) trumpet solo. The final scene is back at the festival watching the different acts at the fair: a dancing bear, wet nurses dancing and then Petrushka is chased into the middle of everything and with a slash of his sword, the moor kills petrushka! The fairgoers all seem shaken, but the magician comes over and picks up the Petrushka puppet and shakes him to show that he is just a doll. As everyone goes back to their business, the ghost of Petrushka appears atop the carnival tent thumbing his nose (a blaring trumpet solo) at the magician, who flees in terror.
The character of Petrushka is portrayed within the music with what we've dubbed the "Petrushka chord." This consists of a C-major chord and an F#-major chord played simultaneously to create a sort of clownish dissonance, indicating the awkward, brash, and misfortunate nature of the character. This dissonance also contrasts sharply with the diatonic tuneful sound of the fairgoers music. Most of this music is borrowed from popular French songs, Russian folk tunes, and Austrian waltzes. The layers of music that you can hear in this music is also such an amazing representation of the many ongoings of a festival. There is constant motion in the music, just as there are endless activities, sights, and sounds at the fair. The Petrushka chord is played again at the very end of the piece. Stravinsky uses polytonality (overlapping chords in different keys) to show duality of the character being both puppet and human. This simple story of misfortune is meant to chip at the perceived line between illusion of the puppet show and the darkness of reality.
Petrushka is the main attraction of this concert for sure, but we have two other spooky pieces on this Halloween inspired concert. Going along with our story telling theme, we're playing Edvard Grieg's incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt. These days, what do most people think of when they hear the infamous music of Peer Gynt? Usually commercials or The Looney Toons- specifically the speedy and dramatic build up from 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' as well as the tune from 'Morning Mood.' (Cue rooster crowing as the sun rises over the barn...) When I saw that we were going to be playing both suites from Peer Gynt, that's pretty much what came to my mind as well as a long sigh at the incredibly overused music. It turns out, there's a lot more to this music than the Pringles and Mercedes commercials (my personal favorite) might lead us to believe.
As both playwright and composer are Norwegian, it is suiting that the title character is based on a legendary Norwegian folk hero. It portrays the story of Peer Gynt, who leaves his home as a young peasant in search of adventure. Peer's character is described by Rolf Fjelde, who translated the play, as having "no ruling passion, no calling, no commitment, the eternal opportunist, the charming, gifted, self-centered child who turns out finally to have neither center nor self." (He sounds like quite the catch, ladies!) He is confident that he will be successful in his journeys but each of them ends in disaster.
Just as Stravinsky created music that would perfectly depict scenes and movement, controlling the dance instead of serving the dance, Grieg extracts truly clear images of what he wants to portray. At first he had a difficult time writing for this story saying that is was "the most unmusical of subjects." However as he progressed into the project and the folklore behind it, he began to feel as if he was the right man for the job.
In 1874, he wrote to a friend about his progress on what is now his most famous couple minutes of music he ever composed:
"It is a horribly intractable subject except for a few places.... And I have something for the hall of the troll-king that I literally can't bear to listen to, it reeks so of cow-pads and super-Norwegianism."
Truly though, as hard as he was on himself while writing this music, Grieg came up with some incredible music that pushed him into the spotlight as Norway's greatest composer.
We're opening this dark and spooky concert with a truly ominous and not often performed tone poem by a composer I have somehow escaped performing up until now: Rachmoninov! Instead of being based on folklore or legends, Rachmaninov's "Isle of the Dead," was based solely off of the composer's immediate and powerful reaction to Arnold Böcklin's painting of the same name. The composer first saw a black and white print of the painting which depicts a solitary island with an approaching rowboat carrying a coffin. This was meant to represent the River Styx and the passage of a recently deceased soul embarking on the afterlife. Once Rachmaninov finally saw the original painting in color he was actually disappointed and said he probably would not have been inspired to create his Isle of the Dead if this was what he had seen first. Harsh critic!
The piece opens in the unusual time signature of 5/8, which creates a rocking motion, much like the rowing of a boat on open water. During rehearsal, our music director, Carlos Miguel Prieto also shared with us Rachmaninov's obsession with breathing, the life sustaining cycle of inhaling and exhaling that is also very reminiscent to the uneven meter of 5/8. We begin with only timpani and low strings and the music rocks but doesn't seem to have any destination in mind. Out of this mysterious looming darkness, we get a solo horn call like a beacon of hope glancing through the mist (you'll hear our amazing Mollie Pate!). As the piece gathers steam, urgency, and direction, we can see the island coming into view. We start to hear fragments of the Dies Irae, the gregorian chant from the Mass for the Dead, a motive of judgement and mortality. (Not to mention foreshadowing for our classics 5 next month with Mozart's Requiem!) We move through a section of uplifting passion, what one might experience when looking back on life with all the emotions of joy, love, regret, pain, and everything in between. The Dies Irae takes over almost all of the melodic material in fragments now as we come to the climax of the poem and death overtakes us. As is dies down, we are offered some hymn-like brass prayers and then head back into the rocking 5/8 of the shadowy depths of the dark waters.
My first listen through this piece, I absolutely fell in love, I was shocked by the power of the piece. I have never been the biggest fan of Rachmaninov (I know, booooo me), as I've always heard his music as sort of soupy and I didn't understand where he was trying to take his audience. This tone poem has completely opened my mind and my ears to Rachmoninov's greatness. Much like the storytelling of Grieg and Stravinsky, Rachmoninov does a beautiful job of creating the visual scene of the painting within the notes. The commissioner of Böcklin's painting was a widow who wanted, "Ein Bild zum Träumen," or a picture to dream by. I think Rachmaninov did a magnificent job of creating a musical picture to dream by.
This program certainly surprised me by becoming one of my favorites of this season so far. Come join The LPO Halloween night for an enchantingly spooky night of ghost stories and great music! :)
 |
| LPO Horns rocking it as the Four Seasons |
There are an endless amount of exciting second horn parts in the orchestral repertoire. Beethoven always has me ready for exciting duets and low solos, Brahms has me leaping into the depths of the lower tessitura, and Mahler has every horn soaring on epic melodic lines. Recently though, I've discovered just how exciting a composer who wrote predominantly Ballet music can be.
Stravinsky is intensely exciting because he keeps your on your toes. I don't think I know another composer who wrote with as much variety in what he asks for technically. We have beautiful, flowing melodies, the shortest and sharpest of accents, thick, gentle, shadowy low notes, loud, high, brash interjections, not to mention plenty of mixed meter and very individualized parts. We ended last season with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and this year I'm thrilled to be revisiting this genius composer this week with his ballet, Petrushka.
Stravinsky became instantly famous after the premiere of his first ballet, The Firebird in 1910. (He was only 28- that's my current age!) His music was the epitome of modern Russian music and audiences couldn't get enough. Petrushka was received with just as much enthusiasm in 1911. When he began writing music with the idea of a puppet coming to life, his intention was to write a concert piece featuring piano. However, when Stravinsky shared some of his first sketches with the impresario, Serge Diaghilev, he thought it had immense theatrical potential, and so, the budding composer went to work on his second ballet.
 |
| Igor Stravinsky, posing with his work |
 |
| The 3 puppets dancing after being given life in a production by the Ballet Russes |
The music is in 4 scenes, the outer two are set in the fair with people bustling about and dancing. In the first scene, once the magician appears in the crowd, he plays his flute and casts a spell to give his 3 puppets life. The inner two scenes are in private rooms, one with Petrushka dancing alone in his loneliness and then chasing the ballerina away. The second inner scene is in the Moor's room, where the ballerina woos the Moor by dancing and playing (a very famous) trumpet solo. The final scene is back at the festival watching the different acts at the fair: a dancing bear, wet nurses dancing and then Petrushka is chased into the middle of everything and with a slash of his sword, the moor kills petrushka! The fairgoers all seem shaken, but the magician comes over and picks up the Petrushka puppet and shakes him to show that he is just a doll. As everyone goes back to their business, the ghost of Petrushka appears atop the carnival tent thumbing his nose (a blaring trumpet solo) at the magician, who flees in terror.
The character of Petrushka is portrayed within the music with what we've dubbed the "Petrushka chord." This consists of a C-major chord and an F#-major chord played simultaneously to create a sort of clownish dissonance, indicating the awkward, brash, and misfortunate nature of the character. This dissonance also contrasts sharply with the diatonic tuneful sound of the fairgoers music. Most of this music is borrowed from popular French songs, Russian folk tunes, and Austrian waltzes. The layers of music that you can hear in this music is also such an amazing representation of the many ongoings of a festival. There is constant motion in the music, just as there are endless activities, sights, and sounds at the fair. The Petrushka chord is played again at the very end of the piece. Stravinsky uses polytonality (overlapping chords in different keys) to show duality of the character being both puppet and human. This simple story of misfortune is meant to chip at the perceived line between illusion of the puppet show and the darkness of reality.
Petrushka is the main attraction of this concert for sure, but we have two other spooky pieces on this Halloween inspired concert. Going along with our story telling theme, we're playing Edvard Grieg's incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play, Peer Gynt. These days, what do most people think of when they hear the infamous music of Peer Gynt? Usually commercials or The Looney Toons- specifically the speedy and dramatic build up from 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' as well as the tune from 'Morning Mood.' (Cue rooster crowing as the sun rises over the barn...) When I saw that we were going to be playing both suites from Peer Gynt, that's pretty much what came to my mind as well as a long sigh at the incredibly overused music. It turns out, there's a lot more to this music than the Pringles and Mercedes commercials (my personal favorite) might lead us to believe.
 |
| Edvard Grieg, making Norwegians proud |
Just as Stravinsky created music that would perfectly depict scenes and movement, controlling the dance instead of serving the dance, Grieg extracts truly clear images of what he wants to portray. At first he had a difficult time writing for this story saying that is was "the most unmusical of subjects." However as he progressed into the project and the folklore behind it, he began to feel as if he was the right man for the job.
In 1874, he wrote to a friend about his progress on what is now his most famous couple minutes of music he ever composed:
"It is a horribly intractable subject except for a few places.... And I have something for the hall of the troll-king that I literally can't bear to listen to, it reeks so of cow-pads and super-Norwegianism."
Truly though, as hard as he was on himself while writing this music, Grieg came up with some incredible music that pushed him into the spotlight as Norway's greatest composer.
 |
| Rachmaninov |
 |
| Isle of the Dead, Böcklin (In full color.. what do we think?) |
The piece opens in the unusual time signature of 5/8, which creates a rocking motion, much like the rowing of a boat on open water. During rehearsal, our music director, Carlos Miguel Prieto also shared with us Rachmaninov's obsession with breathing, the life sustaining cycle of inhaling and exhaling that is also very reminiscent to the uneven meter of 5/8. We begin with only timpani and low strings and the music rocks but doesn't seem to have any destination in mind. Out of this mysterious looming darkness, we get a solo horn call like a beacon of hope glancing through the mist (you'll hear our amazing Mollie Pate!). As the piece gathers steam, urgency, and direction, we can see the island coming into view. We start to hear fragments of the Dies Irae, the gregorian chant from the Mass for the Dead, a motive of judgement and mortality. (Not to mention foreshadowing for our classics 5 next month with Mozart's Requiem!) We move through a section of uplifting passion, what one might experience when looking back on life with all the emotions of joy, love, regret, pain, and everything in between. The Dies Irae takes over almost all of the melodic material in fragments now as we come to the climax of the poem and death overtakes us. As is dies down, we are offered some hymn-like brass prayers and then head back into the rocking 5/8 of the shadowy depths of the dark waters.
 |
| The black and white print of Böcklin's Isle of the Dead |
My first listen through this piece, I absolutely fell in love, I was shocked by the power of the piece. I have never been the biggest fan of Rachmaninov (I know, booooo me), as I've always heard his music as sort of soupy and I didn't understand where he was trying to take his audience. This tone poem has completely opened my mind and my ears to Rachmoninov's greatness. Much like the storytelling of Grieg and Stravinsky, Rachmoninov does a beautiful job of creating the visual scene of the painting within the notes. The commissioner of Böcklin's painting was a widow who wanted, "Ein Bild zum Träumen," or a picture to dream by. I think Rachmaninov did a magnificent job of creating a musical picture to dream by.
This program certainly surprised me by becoming one of my favorites of this season so far. Come join The LPO Halloween night for an enchantingly spooky night of ghost stories and great music! :)
Comments
Post a Comment