RAVEL Orchestral Works Volume 3

Transcription

1 Eloq uence RAVEL Orchestral Works Volume 3 Daphnis et Chloé Valses nobles et sentimentales Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa

2 MAURICE RAVEL ( ) Daphnis et Chloé Choreographic Symphony in three parts with chorus, based on a scenario by Mikhail Fokine PART ONE 1 Introduction 2 37 Lent A meadow at the edge of a sacred wood. Hills in the background. On the right, a grotto, at the entrance of which, cut out of the rock, three Nymphs are represented in an archaic sculpture. A little towards the back, on the left, a great mass of rock vaguely simulates the shape of the god Pan. In the middle ground, sheep are grazing. A clear springtime afternoon. The curtain rises on an empty stage. Youths and maidens enter, carrying open baskets of gifts intended for the Nymphs. Très modéré The stage gradually fills. The crowd bows down before the altar of the Nymphs. The maidens encircle the pedestals with garlands. 2 Modéré Religious Dance In the far background, Daphnis becomes visible, preceded by his flocks Chloé joins him. They make their way towards the altar and disappear round a corner. Un peu Daphnis and Chloé reappear in the foreground, coming to prostrate plus lent themselves before the Nymphs. The dance is interrupted. Tender emotion at the sight of the couple. 4 Vif The maidens entice Daphnis and surround him with their dancing Chloé feels the first pangs of jealousy. 5 Just then, she is drawn into the dance of the young men The drover Dorcon shows himself particularly venturesome. Daphnis, in his turn, seems upset. 6 General Dance 0 45 Beaucoup At the end of the dance, Dorcon, emboldened, wants to kiss Chloé. moins vif Innocently, she offers her cheek. 7 Vif But, with a brusque movement, Daphnis brushes the herdsman aside 2 25 and gently approaches Chloé. The young men intervene. Placing themselves in front of Chloé, they gently lead Daphnis away.

3 Plus modéré One of them proposes a dance contest between Daphnis and Dorcon. A kiss from Chloé will be the winner s prize. Très modéré Dorcon s grotesque dance Pesant Ironically, the crowd imitates the awkward movements of the herdsman who ends the dance amidst general laughter. 8 Assez lent The light and graceful dance of Daphnis 2 29 Animé All invite Daphnis to receive the award. Vif Dorcon also comes forward, but he is chased away by the crowd accompanying him with noisy laughter. 9 Lent The laughter breaks off when the radiant couple formed by 1 41 Daphnis and Chloé entwined is sighted. Moins lent The crowd retires, leading Chloé away. Daphnis remains motionless, as if in ecstasy. Then he lies flat on the grass, his face in his hands. Très libre Lyceion enters. She sees the young shepherd, approaches him, lifts his head, putting her hand before his eyes. Daphnis thinks it is one of Chloé s pranks. But he recognizes Lyceion and wants to get away. 0Très modéré Lyceion dances. As if by accident, she lets one of her veils fall Daphnis picks it up and puts it back on her shoulders. Ironically, she continues her dance, which, more languorous, quickens till the end. Another veil falls to the ground. Again, Daphnis picks it up. Vexed, she slips away, mocking, and leaving the young shepherd very confused.!modérément The noises of weapons and war cries are heard coming nearer animé The women cross the middle of the stage, pursued by pirates. Daphnis dreams of Chloé, perhaps in danger, and hurriedly leaves to rescue her. Chloé runs in, lost and seeking shelter. She throws herself before the altar of the Nymphs, imploring their protection. Très animé A group of brigands rush in, see the young maid and abduct her. Lent Daphnis enters, looking for Chloé. On the ground, he finds a sandal which she has lost in the struggle. Très agité Mad with despair, he curses the gods who have been unable to protect the young girl and falls fainting to the ground before the entrance to the Modéré A strange light envelops the landscape. A small flame suddenly 1 23 illuminates the head of one of the statues. Coming to life, the Nymph descends from her pedestal. The second Nymph descends. The third Nymph descends. Plus lent They act in concert Lent et très beginning a slow and mysterious dance souple de mesure They notice Daphnis. They lean over him and dry his tears. They revive him and lead him towards the rock. They invoke the god Pan. Gradually, the form of the god takes shape. Daphnis prostrates himself, imploring. The scene grows dark. PART TWO $ Même Off-stage, voices are heard, very distant at first mouvement Trumpet calls in the distance. The voices draw nearer. A dull light. It is the pirates camp. A very rough coast. In the background, the sea. On the right and left, a perspective of rocks. A trireme is visible near the coast. Here and there, cypress trees. Pirates are seen, running hither and thither, loaded with plunder. They carry torches, which violently light up the scene. % Animé et War Dance 2 03 rude ^ Un peu 1 48 moins animé & Très rude The pirates fall down drunk, and Bryaxis orders the captive to 3 27 be brought in. Chloé, her hands bound, is led in by two pirates. Bryaxis commands her to dance. Modéré Chloé s dance of supplication Animé She tries to flee. Violently, she is brought back. Assez lent Desperately, she resumes her dance. Animé A second time, she tries to escape. Again, she is brought back.

4 Lent She abandons herself to despair, thinking of Daphnis. *Assez animé Bryaxis wants to seduce her. She implores Triumphant, the pirate chief bears her off. ( Lent Suddenly, the atmosphere seems charged with strange new elements In places, lit by invisible hands, little fires break out. Fantastic creatures jump, here and there. Gradually, terror seizes the whole camp. Little fauns appear on all sides and surround the pirates. Plus animé The earth opens up. Formidable, with a menacing gesture, the shadow of Pan is profiled against the mountains in the background. All flee, bewildered. On the deserted stage, Chloé holds herself motionless. A luminous crown is placed on her head. The scene seems to dissolve. It is replaced by the landscape of Part One towards the end of night. PART THREE ) Lent No sound but the murmur of the brooklets gathered by the dew 5 06 that flows from the rocks. Daphnis still lies stretched out in front of the grotto of the Nymphs. Gradually day breaks. Birdsong is heard. In the distance, a shepherd passes with his flock. Another shepherd crosses the back of the stage going farther away. Enter a group of shepherds looking for Daphnis and Chloé. They discover Daphnis and awaken him. Anguished, he seeks Chloé with his eyes. At last, she appears, surrounded by shepherdesses. They throw themselves into each other s arms. Daphnis notices Chloé s crown. His dream was a prophetic vision. Pan s intervention is manifest. The old shepherd Lammon explains that if Pan has saved Chloé, 2 01 it is in memory of the nymph Syrinx, with whom the god was once in love. Daphnis and Chloé mime the tale of Pan and Syrinx. Chloé depicts the young Nymph wandering in the meadow. Daphnis-Pan appears and declares his love for her. The Nymph rejects him. The god becomes more pressing. She disappears into the rushes. Desperate, he tears off some reeds, makes a flute with them and plays a melancholy air. Très lent Chloé reappears and depicts, in her dance, the accents of the flute The dance becomes more and more animated, and, in a bewildered swirling, Chloé falls into the arms of Daphnis. # Lent Before the altar of the Nymphs, he plights his troth by two ewes Animé Enter a group of young maidens, dressed as bacchantes, shaking tambourines. Lent Daphnis and Chloé tenderly entwine. Animé A group of young men invades the stage. Joyous tumult. General Dance 3 13 Dance of Daphnis and Chloé Dance of Dorcon Final Dance Bacchanal Valses nobles et sentimentales «le plaisir délicieux et toujours nouveau d une occupation inutile.» Henri de Régnier I. Modéré 1 25 II. Assez lent 2 36 III. Modéré 1 28 IV. Assez animé 1 26 ª V. Presque lent 1 26 º VI. Assez vif 1 01 VII. Moins vif 2 52 VIII. Épilogue: Lent 4 28 Total timing: Doriot Anthony Dwyer, solo flute [Daphnis et Chloé] Tanglewood Festival Chorus [Daphnis et Chloé] Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa

5 Ravel s ballet Daphnis et Chloé is based on a pastoral romance written by Greek poet Longus in the third century A.D., or possibly later. The tale became newly popular in the sixteenth century, and it was translated and adapted into several languages, including Italian, English and French. In 1909, Sergei Diaghilev, director of the Ballets Russes, approached Ravel about a ballet based on this subject. The composer acquainted himself with it in a French translation by Amyot, but it was choreographer Mikhail Fokine who was primarily responsible for writing the ballet s scenario, which omits several episodes found in Longus s original. The ballet, which is set on the island of Lesbos, is in three parts. It is springtime and the island s inhabitants are reveling in the joys of the season. Although Daphnis, a chaste and handsome young goatherd, is the cynosure of all female eyes, he is in love only with the shepherdess Chloé. Dorcon also desires Chloé, and so the two men compete in a dancing contest. The clumsy Dorcon is decisively bested and is driven off amidst the derisive laughter of the spectators. The crowd departs, leaving Daphnis alone. He is surprised by Lyceion, who is something of a vamp, compared to the innocent Chloé. Lyceion dances suggestively for Daphnis, who pays her little heed, and she gives up in frustration. Daphnis, no less innocent than Chloé, is nevertheless troubled by the sensual mysteries which Lyceion has revealed to him. An alarm rises: pirates have landed on the island, and the distraught women are being chased by them. Chloé hides under an altar devoted to the island s beneficent nymphs, but is discovered and taken away by the pirates. Daphnis, who did a better job of hiding, discovers her sandal and fears the worst. He faints. The nymphs pity Daphnis and invoke the god Pan s assistance. Daphnis bows in supplication. The second scene takes place in the pirates camp. The captive Chloé, her hands bound, is ordered to dance by the pirate chief Bryaxis. She dances for the pirates, begging for mercy. Bryaxis is inflamed with desire and is about to have his way with her when satyrs and fauns appear, and then, to the terrifying peal of thunder, Pan himself. The pirates run off, leaving Chloé behind. Dawn is breaking at the start of the third scene. Daphnis is still mourning Chloé, who is brought onstage, no worse for wear, by other shepherds. The lovers are joyfully reunited. An old shepherd tells the story of how Pan, in love with but rejected by the nymph Syrinx, fashioned a flute from reeds. It was in memory of Syrinx that Pan saved Chloé. The shepherd s tale is reenacted. Chloé falls into Daphnis s arms, and he pledges himself to her. Bacchantes, shaking tambourines, rush onto the stage, and an increasingly frenzied Danse générale in celebration of life and love brings the ballet to a close. Ravel claimed that it was not his intention to reproduce ancient Greece with historical accuracy, but rather to recreate it as it had appeared in his dreams. In the previous century, ballets had been comprised of a series of scenes and dances, largely disconnected and musically unrelated to one another. In contrast, Ravel approached the score to Daphnis symphonically, using a limited number of themes which would be developed according to a rigorously worked out schema. Nevertheless, the score also is influenced by the Russians, and Ravel admitted although probably with tongue slightly in cheek that he solved the problem of the closing Danse générale simply by copying Rimsky-Korsakov s Scheherazade. Having set his standards so high, it took Ravel nearly three years to find what he was looking for, and Diaghilev became increasingly annoyed with the delay. At one point, Ravel nearly gave up, and offered money to his friend and fellow composer Louis Aubert to rewrite the last part of the ballet. (It is fortunate that Aubert refused because the last scene which Ravel subsequently dashed off in two weeks has turned out to be the ballet s most beloved excerpt.) The problems didn t end there. Fokine and Diaghilev had a falling out and Fokine left the company. The dancers had trouble with Ravel s unsquare rhythms. The Danse générale, for example, is in 5/4 time, and the only way the corps could cope with it was to repeat the syllables Ser-gei-Dia-ghi-lev under their breaths. The premiere on 18 June 1912 starred Vaslav Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina in the title roles; Pierre Monteux was the conductor. The audience was nonplused and the ballet was given only twice that season. Ravel and Diaghilev never collaborated again. Time has vindicated Daphnis, however, not just on the stage but in the concert hall, where the complete ballet and its two suites particularly the second,

6 which corresponds to the ballet s third scene are performed with even greater frequency. The title of the Valses nobles et sentimentales references Franz Schubert, who wrote both noble and sentimental waltzes, but in no way is this work either an homage to or a parody of the Austrian composer. As with many of Ravel s orchestral works, the Valses originally were written for piano, in The aforementioned Louis Aubert was the first pianist to perform them, and the occasion was a concert of the Société Musicale Indépendante. The name of the composer was not listed in the program, and audience members were invited to guess who wrote the waltzes. What probably was intended as a publicity stunt backfired: most attendees did not guess Ravel Erik Satie and Zoltán Kodály were two of the names put forward but they did, however, become vocal in their protest against this new work, which they found stupid, shocking or aggressive. Seated next to the composer, his dear friend Cipa Godebski even asked him who could have written such idiotic music! Perhaps the audience s confusion can be forgiven. Ravel was hardly the first person they would associate with the Viennese waltz the orchestral cataclysm known as La Valse was almost a decade away and the clean harshness of the harmonies in the Valses was something new for the composer. In 1912, he orchestrated them for a ballet known as Adélaïde ou la langage des fleurs. The ballet was commissioned by Natasha Truhanova, and the scenario not very distinguished, by most accounts was by the composer himself. The premiere took place just weeks before Daphnis et Chloé, and the other works on the program were Vincent D Indy s Istar, Paul Dukas s La Péri (Truhanova was Dukas s mistress), and Florent Schmitt s La Tragédie de Salomé each one conducted by its respective composer! Not even the ballet s title has adhered to the music, and today, Valses nobles et sentimentales is used both for the piano original and for the version for orchestra. Raymond Tuttle If you would like a FREE copy of the Eloq uence catalogue, please write to: Universal Classics & Jazz, Eloquence Catalogue, PO Box 17, Millers Point, NSW 2000 Recording producer: Thomas Mowrey Coordinating Producer: Franz-Christian Wulff Recording engineer: Hans-Peter Schweigmann Recording locations: Symphony Hall, Boston, USA, April 1974 (Valses), October 1974 (Daphnis et Chloé) Eloquence (Australia) series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Art direction: Chilu Tong