Neeme Järvi Bohuslav Martinů, at Home in Vieux-Moulin, France, 1937 Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library / © Památník Bohuslava Martinů Bohuslav Martinů (1890 – 1959)
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ˆ ˆ Suites from ‘Spalícek’ Rhapsody-Concerto Mikhail Zemtsov viola Estonian National Symphony Orchestra Neeme Järvi © Památník Bohuslava Martinů / Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library Bohuslav Martinů,athomein Bohuslav Vieux-Moulin, France, 1937 France, Vieux-Moulin, Bohuslav Martinů (1890 – 1959) Suites from Špalíček’, H 214 (1931 – 32, revised 1937, 1940) (Chapbook) Opera-ballet in Three Acts Liidia Ilves piano Suite No. 1, H 214A* 22:29 1 I Prelude (Předehra). Poco allegro 1:22 2 II Dance with the Hare (Tanec se zajícem). Allegretto poco moderato 1:31 III In the Magician’s Palace (V paláci černokněžníkově) 3 Dance of the Shadows (Tanec stínů). Moderato – Poco allegro – Allegro – 2:18 4 Dance of the Lion (Tanec lva). Moderato – 1:15 5 Dance of the Sparrow-hawk (Tanec krahujce). Allegro vivo – 0:37 6 Dane of the Little Mouse (Tanec malé myšky). Allegretto – Poco vivo – 1:19 7 Change of Scene and Dance of Puss in Boots (Proměna a tanec Kocoura v botách). Lento – Allegretto – Poco vivo 1:42 8 IV Cinderella’s Ball at the Palace (Popelčin ples na zámku). Lento – Moderato – Allegro moderato – Poco vivo – Tempo I 9:32 9 V The Wedding Polka (Svatební Polka). Moderato – Poco vivo – Meno – Allegro – Poco vivo – Più vivo – Allegro vivo 2:33 3 Suite No. 2, H 214B* 22:24 10 I Dance of the Devils (Tanec čertů). Allegro 2:55 11 II The Shoemaker’s Capricious Patron (Ševcova rozmarná zákaznice). Poco vivo 1:22 12 III The Market – Dance of the Bumble-bee (Trh – Tanec čmeláka). Moderato – Moderato (Un poco più vivo) 3:01 IV The Rescue of the Princess (Vysvobození princeznino) 13 1. The Black City (Černé město). Andante – Poco allegro – Andante – 1:49 14 2. The Unhappy Princess (Nešťastná princezna). Moderato – 0:58 15 3. The Struggle between the Butterfly and the Giant (Zápas motýla s obrem). Andante moderato – Allegretto moderato – Poco vivo – Allegro vivo 2:17 16 V Dance of the Ladies-in-waiting and the Country Maidens (Tanec dvorních dam a venkovských děvčat). Andante moderato – Allegretto 2:27 17 VI At the Enchanted Castle (V zakletém zámku). Poco andante – Poco allegro – Poco allegro 3:21 18 VII In the Magic Bag (V kouzelné mošně). Moderato – Più moderato 3:48 4 Rhapsody-Concerto, H 337 (1952)† 19:41 for Viola and Orchestra 19 I Moderato – Poco meno – Tempo I – Poco meno – Tempo I 9:42 20 II Molto adagio – Molto tranquillo – Poco vivo – Quasi cadenza – Poco allegro – Allegro – Andante (molto tranquillo) 9:54 TT 64:55 Mikhail Zemtsov viola† Estonian National Symphony Orchestra Arvo Leibur* • Triin Ruubel† leaders Neeme Järvi 5 Martinů: Suites from ‘Špalíček’ / Rhapsody-Concerto Suites Nos 1 and 2 from ‘Špalíček’ an opera-ballet, since alongside the many Bohuslav Martinů (1890 – 1959) was one of dances there are extensive roles for chorus the most wide-ranging composers of music as well as tenor, soprano, and bass soloists. for the stage. While he had no interest in The title is usually translated as ‘Chapbook’: Wagnerian music drama, verismo, or even a reference to the kind of cheaply produced the great national traditions of Czech collections of popular folk tales and ballads, opera, in his fourteen completed operas he dating from the sixteenth century onwards. explored a remarkable number of genres: More specifically, at a time when Martinů was Roman comedy, in The Soldier and the Dancer thinking increasingly of the folk culture of his (Voják a tanečnice, 1928); mediaeval mystery native land, his memory was almost certainly dramas, in The Plays of Mary (Hry o Marii, stirred by the prolific painter and illustrator 1935); fantasy, in Julietta (1938); commedia Mikoláš Aleš’s Špalíček, ‘a collection of dell’arte, in Mirandolina (1959); baroque opera, national songs and riddles’. In fact, Martinů in Ariane (1961); and grand opera, in The Greek described the work on his manuscript as Passion (1961). He was also enthusiastic deriving from folk games, customs, and about the theatrical possibilities of including fairytales. film in opera, in The Three Wishes (Les Trois He composed Špalíček between January Souhaits, composed 1929), and also willing 1931 and February 1932 in Paris where he had to experiment with new media such as radio, settled in 1923. The premiere was given in the in The Voice of the Forest (Hlas lesa, 1935) National Theatre in Prague on 19 September and The Comedy on the Bridge (Veselohra na 1933, followed by a performance, in the mostě, 1937), and television, in What Men Live Moravian capital, Brno, on 25 November. by (1953) and The Marriage (1953). Martinů made revisions to the score for Špalíček in many ways belongs to this projected performances in 1937 and 1940. experimental tendency. Although it was This final version saw the composer altering published and billed at its first performance the orchestration, reordering the first act, as a ballet, it might best be described as and leaving off the concluding section, based 6 on Erben’s The Spectre’s Bride (Svatební poor farmer’s boy. The scene changes to košile); it was premiered, at last, on 2 April the palace of a wicked Magician, at which 1949 at the National Theatre in Prague. Puss and the boy have arrived: their stealthy Although Martinů was firmly ensconced approach is followed by the sinuous ‘Dance in Paris as he got to work on Špalíček, his of the Shadows’, which rises to a frenzied surroundings did much to prompt thoughts of climax. This is followed by three dances in home for he was living in a pleasant verdant which the Magician is persuaded to change oasis away from the centre of Paris, in the into different animals: a Lion, a Sparrow- extensive garden of a certain Monsieur hawk, and finally into a Little Mouse, at Vautier, also known as Père Gogo. These which point he is promptly dispatched by congenial circumstances seem to have Puss in Boots. The reward for the boy in the worked their magic: Martinů marvelled at the ballet is the hand of the Princess, but in the quiet, the opportunity to garden in spring, Suite this is replaced by the celebratory and the feeling that he was in the country. ball for Cinderella, starting in the style of a The two suites were assembled by Miloš Řiha waltz and culminating in a ‘Wedding Polka’, a with Martinů’s approval; even without the hilarious near-parody of the famous Smetana vocal contribution, they convey much of the style. vitality and comic charm of the ballet. Suite No. 2 comprises dances from the The First Suite, comprising five sections, second act, tracing the fairytale of the is taken mainly from the first act of the ballet, adventures of a cobbler who, having fallen although the last two movements come from out with his customers and apprentices, the ‘Fairytale of Cinderella’ which constitutes sets out on a journey. By way of a prelude the second part of the third act. Soft march- there is a ‘Dance of the Devils’ in front of the like figuration on the percussion ushers in gates of Hell. In fact, this scene comes from the brash Prelude which is followed by the quite late in the act; the succeeding second ‘Dance with the Hare’ from the ‘Fairytale of to sixth dances encompass the cobbler’s Puss in Boots’, characterised by irregular various earlier adventures. Among them is rhythms and a rather heroic melody for horn an encounter with a Bumble-bee pursuing a followed by trumpet. Here the unfortunate Butterfly; the cobbler chases the bee away Hare rushes out of the wood only to be and the Butterfly accompanies the cobbler. A killed by Puss with the help of his owner, a sequence of three dances sees the cobbler 7 coming across a Princess who is held captive these vicissitudes, he continued to compose by a terrible Giant. The helpful Butterfly and his last decade was one of remarkable flutters around the Giant until he is tired, at productivity. which point the cobbler kills him and frees The Rhapsody-Concerto was commissioned the Princess. An interlude is provided by the by Jascha Veissi. Originally Ukrainian, Veissi two-part dance for the Ladies-in-waiting and enjoyed a high-profile career in Europe and the Country Maidens, the first characterised the United States as a soloist, playing with by graceful, minuet-like phrases, the second many of the most prominent American by a robust rondo. The last two movements orchestras, a chamber musician – between deal with the cobbler’s meeting with Death 1939 and 1941 he was the viola player of the himself. At an enchanted castle the cobbler Kolisch Quartet – and also an orchestral viola plays cards with Death, for whom there is a player. Martinů was often the beneficiary of vigorous dance, and loses; Death wants to connections he had made earlier in his career. carry him off, but the resourceful cobbler He had met Veissi in Paris in the late 1920s, packs him in his bag. The finale is a kind of and in 1951 the now well-established player apotheosis, the cobbler having reached the commissioned a concerto from him. Martinů Gates of Heaven; angels prevail on him to free composed the work in short order between Death who, in the heart-warming final pages, 15 March and 18 May 1952. Veissi – who was ushers him into Heaven. also its dedicatee – gave the premiere of the work on 19 February 1953 with the Cleveland Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra Orchestra, to whom Martinů had dedicated Martinů was a prolific composer of concertos his Second Symphony in 1943, conducted by at nearly every stage in his career.