GLAZUNOV GLINKA LIADOV. The Seasons Concert Waltzes Carnaval (Schumann) Stenka Razin

Transcription

1 Eloq uence GLAZUNOV The Seasons Concert Waltzes Carnaval (Schumann) Stenka Razin GLINKA Ruslan and Ludmilla Kamarinskaya A Life for the Tsar Valse-Fantasie Jota argonesa LIADOV Baba Yaga Kikimora Chants populairs russes L Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Ernest Ansermet

2 CD ALEXANDER GLAZUNOV ( ) The Seasons, Op I Winter II Spring III Summer IV Autumn Concert Waltz No. 1 in D major, Op Concert Waltz No. 2 in F major, Op ROBERT SCHUMANN ( ) (ARR. GLAZUNOV, RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, LIADOV, TCHEREPNIN) Carnaval, Op. 9 7 I Préambule II Pierrot III Arlequin IV Valse noble 1 37! V Eusebius 1 VI Florestan 0 59 VII Coquette 1 36 $ VIII Papillons 0 59 % IX A.S.C.H S.C.H.A ^ X Chiarina 0 56 & XI Chopin 1 47 * XII Estrella 0 33 ( XIII Reconnaissance 1 33 ) XIV Pantalon et Colombine 1 05 XV Valse Allemande 0 57 XVI Paganini 1 26 # XVII Aveu 1 00 XVIII Promenade 1 33 XIX Pause 0 26 XX Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins 2 51

3 CD Stenka Razin Symphonic Poem, Op MIKHAIL GLINKA ( ) 2 Overture: Ruslan and Ludmilla Kamarinskaya Fantasy Overture: A Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin) Valse-Fantasie Jota argonesa 9 23 ANATOLY LIADOV ( ) 7 Baba-Yaga, Op Kikimora, Op Chants Populairs Russes, Op I Sacred Song II Christmas Song 1 25! III Lament 2 IV Comic Song 0 55 V Tale of the Birds 1 34 $ VI Lullaby 1 53 % VII Dance 0 50 ^ VIII Choral Dance 1 25 Total timing: L Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Ernest Ansermet It is sometimes said that Alexander Glazunov was born slightly too late. His birth was in St. Petersburg in August 1865 (at one time the city has also been known as Leningrad) and he died in Paris in March 1936 (having left the Soviet Union in 1928). His last years were of little creative output (his fine Saxophone Concerto of 1934 being a notable exception) and he was not one to move forward stylistically. He is a genuine nineteenth-century composer, relishing traditional musical virtues. The majority of his output symphonies, orchestral works, ballet scores and chamber music was composed before World War I and shows an inclusion of many Russian traits (the use of folk song, for example) and an open recognition of Western European music (in this Glazunov may be compared to Tchaikovsky). Glazunov himself was an appreciable talent, highly gifted as a pianist and in absorbing music per se as an art his well-received Symphony No. 1 dates from his teenage years and he studied privately with a doyen of Russian music, Rimsky-Korsakov. He absorbed musical references and his style embraces a natural compositional facility as well as openness to nationalism without being bombastic. All these qualities are present in The Seasons a masterpiece of a ballet score that paints vivid pictures for the imaginative listener. No dancing is needed! It was first performed in 1900 in St. Petersburg. It is a relatively short work (certainly in comparison to Glazunov s very grand score for the ballet Raymonda, 1898), and concise in each of its sections, the whole taking us through the seasons of the year (from Winter to Autumn) with a deftness, brilliance and melodic generosity that is both captivating and stirring. Glazunov s orchestration is masterly in its own right and also wonderfully evocative in terms of ideas and colouring in creating just the right seasonal effect. Ernest Ansermet was a very experienced ballet conductor. Throughout this finely judged performance his tempos evoke the spirit of the dance and engage with the deftness, characterisation, charm and melodic beauty of a score, one not short either on passion or excitement, and which remains freshly engaging, moving, charming and rewarding. In a similar vein are the two Concert Waltzes, music without pretence and also suggestive of pre-revolution times in Russia generally and St. Petersburg in particular. The first of the waltzes is the better known one, a confection

4 of lovely tunes and sweetly lucid orchestration suggesting a rich and trouble-free world for those with the means to enjoy it in which the most arduous activity for socialites was gliding across the ballroom floor without a care. Glazunov s music has heart though, and a suggestion of fantasy, with which to gently dance the night away. The Second Waltz retains a similar easeful innocence and simplicity of tuneful means that ably conveys a graceful musical method that is carried through with skill and candour. The recordings here conducted by Ernest Ansermet are without sentimentality or affectation; rather he and his orchestra play the music straight, without inflation, and appreciating these pieces for what they are: a succession of dance-measures in a sophisticated setting. Stenka Razin shows another side to Glazunov s art. This dramatic symphonic poem, from 1885, is a musical picture of the Cossack who led a rebellion and paid for it with his life he was executed in Moscow in Stenka Razin is a folk-hero who began his career as a diplomat and pilgrim, but who re-emerged as bloodthirsty and antiestablishment. Glazunov s graphic if stylised piece (Shostakovich also composed a related cantata, The Execution of Stenka Razin) includes to the familiar strains of The Volga Boatman s Song (the area around the River Volga being a stronghold of Stenka Razin and his cohorts) that depicts the warrior s marauding (he was a hero to some) as well as the beauty of a Persian princess that he has captured. An object of his desire she may have been, but this does not detain him throwing her off his boat (a moment included by Glazunov in his vivid musical story-telling) to her death through drowning when it suits him to do so! Ansermet leads a performance that in its opening is both brooding and pregnant; with a resolute belief in its symphonic construction the varied episodes emerge with an overall musical tautness. Glazunov was also involved in an orchestral version of Schumann s Carnaval, one of the highpoints of 19th-century Romantic piano music, a series of portrait-pieces based on characters from the commedia dell arte as well as musical sketches of admired fellow composers, such as Chopin and Paganini. A ballet version of Carnaval was first seen in St. Petersburg in 1910 with choreography by Fokine and with Nijinsky among the dancers and later taken up the impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Although sometimes credited as being by Glazunov and others, the required orchestration of Carnaval was shared between several composers and included Rimsky- Korsakov (who had died in 1908), Liadov (see below) and Alexander Tcherepnin. It s a superb piece of work from all concerned, the music, so idiomatically composed for the piano, brought to pertinent life by the orchestra and, here, in a performance of the utmost sympathy and relish, Ansermet s experience as a ballet conductor shines through. This recording is a relative Ansermet rarity, for a long time a highly prized LP (not least when coupled on Ace of Diamonds SDD 271 with a public performance from February 1950 of Schumann s Piano Concerto played by Dinu Lipatti). But on its own terms this is an especially flavoursome example of Ansermet s art, capturing wholeheartedly the sweep, grandeur and balletic grace that the Russian composers added to Schumann s piano original. How transmutative Carnaval proved to be crossing from piano to orchestra and from the imagination to public theatre more easily than one might expect. Certainly Ansermet and his orchestra s convinced and convincing account is a most enjoyable listen: for the music, for the arrangers skills and for reminding that Ansermet relished the lighter side of musical life. Heard as performed here with animated distinction Carnaval passes as a Russian ballet original rather than a potentially-misguided attempt to inflate music that should be left alone to Schumann s piano and to listeners fancies. Mikhail Glinka ( ) is sometimes referred to as the father of Russian music. He was effectively the founder of a national school and his music was played successfully outside of his own country. Glinka embraced Russian folk music and, then, through his studies in Berlin and an extended visit to Italy (and later in Paris, where he met Berlioz, and Spain, that country s musical rhythms being of particular fascination) he developed a cosmopolitan style that was a significant influence on later Russian composers. His opera A Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin) helped put Glinka on Russia s musical map and although his next opera, Ruslan and Ludmilla, was less well received, its brilliant overture has long been a favourite in the concert hall. Jota aragonesa is Glinka s Spanish Overture No. 1 (there is a second); Valse-Fantaisie is an exact description of its charms; and Kamarinskaya is another fantasy, this time in the form of variations on Russian folksong (the soulful opening not being indicative of the whole for an exuberant dance breaks out

5 soon enough) all part of Glinka s gregarious musical interests. Ansermet does not exaggerate such contrasts, but neither does he underplay the significant events that the overture to A Life for the Tsar suggests will unfold over the opera s course. And the conductor s seriousness of intent aids Glinka s slyness in setting up something solemn before cajoling the listener with songs and dances Jota aragonesa being a prime example of such deceit! Anatoly Liadov ( ) was perhaps his own worst enemy. Another son of St. Petersburg, Liadov was born into a musical family and developed into a fine pianist as well as being a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov. Liadov was both a promising student and someone who mixed in influential circles. That he left us even a handful of orchestral works is surprising there is though quite a corpus of piano works (albeit these are essentially miniatures) for Liadov was a procrastinator consumed with self-doubt. Consequently hewas unable to compose very much and certainly precious little on a large-scale. Indeed it was Diaghilev that wanted Liadov to compose music for The Firebird ballet, but such an undertaking left the composer stuttering (it seems that he may not have penned even a note for this work) and the commission was eventually handed to young Igor Stravinsky to compose the (circa) 45-minute ballet score; the rest, as they say, is history Nevertheless for all his idleness and the doubts about him that arose in his contemporaries Liadov composed a handful of orchestral works perfectly constructed and scored, fastidiously crafted and characterised. Essentially, Liadov was a true Russian composer, looking to indigenous melody and folklore for his musical inspiration, the latter source represented here by Kikimora and Baba Yaga, both of which suggest Liadov (unlike Glazunov) looking forward in musical terms (he has been compared to Scriabin s development in this respect). Existing material the eight Russian Folk Songs may be, but Liadov s affection for the originals and his elegant orchestral dressings of them produced an attractive set. Ansermet attends to Liadov s keen sculpturing with attentive and perceptive musicianship in recordings wearing their years with ease. Colin Anderson Swiss conductor ERNEST ANSERMET was born in Vevey on 11 November 1883 and died aged 85 in Geneva on 20 February He was inclined to music from an early age, learning the violin and the clarinet. He was also interested in mathematics and taught the subject. Ansermet studied music in Paris and Geneva and made his conducting debut in Although Ansermet is particularly associated with the Geneva-based L Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, he also guestconducted throughout his career including in America (with numerous top orchestras there and in 1962 conducting Debussy s Pelléas et Mélisande, an opera Ansermet twice recorded, at the Metropolitan, New York) and England (with London orchestras and not least when he conducted the première of Benjamin Britten s opera The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne in 1946). Ansermet had previously made his debut at the Salzburg Festival, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in Ansermet s relationship with the Suisse Romande Orchestra lasted for 50 years from 1918, when he founded the orchestra, to 1967 when he stood down as its conductor (and handed the reins to Paul Kletzki). Ansermet continued to work in Geneva until his death; his final concert was in December 1968 and consisted of a typically eclectic mix of composers on that occasion it was J.S. Bach, Bartók, Debussy and Honegger. In his early days (between 1911 and 1927) Ansermet held appointments in Montreux and Buenos Aires and also conducted for Diaghilev s Ballets Russes company. It is however the Ansermet/Suisse Romande association that remains an indivisible partnership one kept alive by the many recordings they made for Decca and which document Ansermet s highly-regarded interpretations of Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky (he knew all three composers) as well as lucid and satisfying versions of symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms (both complete) and Haydn as well as copious further examples of French, German and Russian repertoire, both core and less familiar. LP collectors have long treasured these recordings, which fully exploit the splendid acoustics of the Victoria Hall in Geneva, and they continue to grace the catalogue on compact disc for their musical and audiophile excellence. Ansermet prepared performances notable for their clarity and intelligence; he took all he needed from the composer s score and saw no need to add his own gloss (or vanity) but to focus on the composer s intentions and as Ansermet himself said to touch the heart of the music so as to make its heart-beats heard by the listener. Thus Ansermet s art is not only

6 authoritative it is also timeless and cuts through fads and fashions. Criticism has been levied on the technical quality of the Suisse Romande Orchestra. While it is true that the ensemble was not super-virtuoso or immersed in centuries-old tradition, what is always apparent in these recordings is that the orchestra consisted of dedicated and knowledgeable musicians very much attuned to Ansermet s direction and leaving the listener in no doubt as to their candid commitment to musical truth. Sometimes fallible in execution, maybe but also capable of inspiration there is a musical focus that engrosses, illuminates and sustains. PHOTO : DECCA Colin Anderson Ernest Ansermet Recording producers: John Mordler (Seasons, Concert Waltzes); James Walker (Stenka Razin, Kamarinskaya, Life for the Tsar, Baba-Yaga, Kikimora, Chants populairs russes); James Walker, Michael Williamson (Carnaval); Michael Bremner (Ruslan and Ludmilla, Valse-Fantasie, Jota argonesa) Recording engineers: James Lock (Seasons, Concert Waltzes, Ruslan and Ludmilla, Valse-Fantasie, Jota); Roy Wallace, Gil Went (Stenka Razin, Baba-Yaga, Kikimora, Chants populairs russes); Roy Wallace (Carnaval, Karaminskaya, Life for the Tsar) Recording location: Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, June 1954 (Stenka Razin, Baba-Yaga, Kikimora, Chants populairs russes), November 1959 (Carnaval), February 1961 (Kamarinskaya, Life for the Tsar); April 1964 (Ruslan and Ludmilla, Valse-Fantasie, Jota argonesa); May 1966 (Seasons); June 1966 (Concert Waltz No. 1); October 1966 (Concert Waltz No. 2) Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Art direction: Chilu Tong Booklet editor: Bruce Raggatt

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