Mussorgsky and his French Mussorgsky’s masterpiece is coupled here MUSSORGSKY • MESSIAEN • RAVEL compositional descendants with works by Ravel and Messiaen – an inspired choice, as both of these composers were One of the pinnacles of nineteenth-century indebted to the innovations of their Russian pianism, Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an predecessor. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) first Exhibition (1874) broke new frontiers in its writing heard the music of the ‘Five’ at the Paris Universal Pictures at an Exhibition Miroirs for the piano through its use of ringing bell-like Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900 and through Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) sonorities, dramatic juxtaposition of registers them discovered a way of composing concerned 1 Promenade I [1.26] y Noctuelles [4.58] and dynamics, its approach to resonance, with colour and texture as well as with new 2 Gnomus [2.19] u Oiseaux tristes [3.47] percussive octaves and rapid hand-alternations, approaches to harmony, melody and form. 3 Promenade II [0.54] i Une barque sur l’océan [6.38] and sheer grandeur of sound. Introducing While his orchestral song-cycle Shéhérazade 4 The Old Castle [4.30] o Alborada del gracioso [6.52] new ideas about virtuosity that owe much to (1903) epitomises his ‘Russian’ years, Miroirs 5 Promenade III [0.31] p La Vallée des cloches [5.32] orchestral thinking in the ways the full range (1905) acknowledges Mussorgsky in its use of 6 Tuileries [1.00] of the piano’s tone-colours are explored, this intervallic relationships linking each movement 7 Bydło [2.52] a Cantéyodjayâ [12.22] most gargantuan of works requires immense as well as in presenting a succession of ‘images’ 8 Promenade IV [0.40] Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) stamina through combining great finger akin to the sequence of paintings evoked in 9 Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks [1.11] dexterity with unbridled power. A member of Pictures at an Exhibition. Like Mussorgsky, 0 Samuel Goldberg und Schmuyle [2.28] Total timings: [73.18] the compositional group known as the ‘Mighty Ravel approaches the piano from the point of q Promenade V [1.27] Handful’ or the ‘Five’ along with his Russian view of a virtuoso orchestrator, while achieving w The Market Place at Limoges [1.22] compatriots Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Borodin a pianism that is both virtuosic and entirely e Catacombs: Con mortuis in lingua mortua [3.44] and Cui, Mussorgsky (1839-1881) also innovated idiomatic. Miroirs also embraces a more r The Hut on Hen’s Legs of the Baba-Yaga [3.13] musically, not only through his angular melodies discreet Russian reference: each of the five t The Great Gate of Kiev [5.32] inspired by Russian folk-music, ostinatos movements is dedicated to a member of ‘Les and stark harmonic dissonances, but also in Apaches’, a group of like-minded thinkers defining a radical new approach to large- brought together by Ravel who shared mutual scale structure that is both non-developmental enthusiasms for the music of the Russian and sectional. Defining the dawn of Modernism, ‘Five’: the poet Léon-Paul Fargue, the pianist PETER DONOHOE PIANO this work influenced generations of composers in Ricardo Viñes, the painter Paul Sordes, the the twentieth century, especially those in France. writer Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, and the www.signumrecords.com - 3 - composer Maurice Delage. Ravel’s deep pianistic characters. Far from being Impressionist movement’s accompaniment figures provide the intervals, the quartal harmony established admiration for Mussorgsky was later enshrined – a movement with which Ravel had little real melodic stimulus for ‘Une barque sur l’océan’ here became one of Ravel’s most distinctive in his orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, affiliation –the ‘Mirrors’ of the title suggests (‘A Boat on the Ocean’), a more extrovert movement stylistic features. completed in 1922. more Symbolist associations in that the brimming with shimmering arpeggiations, rapid individual pieces explore ambiguities between surging crescendos and effects of resonance Written for the pianist Yvonne Loriod, with whom Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) acknowledged supposed reality and ‘reflected’ simulation. exploiting the full register of the piano. Miroirs, Peter Donohoe studied in Paris, Cantéyodjayâ the importance of Mussorgsky on his Ravel was particularly fascinated by a line from like most of Ravel’s piano works, was conceived (1948) was first performed at the Concerts compositional development in his writings, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: ‘the eye sees not for his preferred Erard piano which had a du Domaine Musical in 1954. With this highly including Technique de mon langage musical itself, but by reflection, by some other things.’ lighter, shallower touch than either the Pleyel energetic piece Messiaen embarked on a period (1944) and his posthumously published Traité or Austro-German instruments. This facilitated of stylistic experimentation that followed de rythme, de colour et d’ornithologie (1995). The first movement ‘Noctuelles’ (‘Night Moths’) the performance of swirling figurations, completion of his gargantuan Turangalîla- While he particularly revered the opera Boris relates to a prose poem by Léon-Paul Fargue in glissandos and rapidly repeated notes, the Symphonie. An unusually non-descriptive work for Godunov, from which he derived several of which insects flutter like fairies in a magical latter being most notoriously exploited in the Messiaen, without religious references or bird- his distinctive modes and chords, allusions garden redolent of that later evoked by Ravel supremely virtuosic ‘Alborada del gracioso’ song, Cantéyodjayâ is about musical process to Pictures at an Exhibition infuse sections of in L’Enfant et les sortilèges. Highly chromatic, (‘Dawn Song of the Jester’). An evocation of the and is constructed as a mosaic-like collage in his great piano cycles of the 1940s, Visions de the piece shimmers with delicately rapid traditional Spanish song of dawn intended to which a jaunty rhythmic refrain is juxtaposed l’Amen and Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant-Jésus, arpeggiations, eventually interrupted by a wake lovers after a night of ecstasy, the song with a multiplicity of contrasting ideas, many in their evocations of bell-sonorities, use of tolling bell in a more doleful middle section. A itself occurs in the sultry central section, which of which are re-workings from Turangalîla. resonance and grandeur of expression as well line from the same poem alluding to nocturnal is framed by a vigorous and rhythmically While representing something new in Messiaen’s as in more intimate aspects of the pianism. birdsong also inspired the second piece ‘Oiseaux percussive Spanish dance. Ravel later output, this collage-principle owes much to Messiaen also deeply admired Ravel whose tristes’ (‘Melancholy Birds’). Here Ravel resumes orchestrated the piece. The final movement Mussorgsky’s Pictures as well as to Debussy’s music, like that of Mussorgsky, was central to the idea of tolling, bell-like repeated notes, ‘Vallée des cloches’ (‘Valley of Bells’) returns ballet Jeux where contrasted and related his teaching at the Paris Conservatoire. juxtaposed with evocations of imagined birdsong, to the haunting mood of longing that ideas follow each other as a chain of different (Messiaen’s analyses of Ravel’s piano music while raising the curtain on a new harmonic characterises the set as a whole, and features coloured beads. Although aspects of Sonata- have since been published.) vocabulary infused with parallelisms, ostinatos, the tolling of bells in a manner that anticipates and Rondo-form are embedded in the chords of fifths, fourths, added ninths, elevenths ‘Le Gibet’ in Gaspard de la nuit, while the work, the piece unfolds by repetition and Completed in 1905 and first performed by and thirteenths, along with piquant dissonances oscillating repeated-note figuration of the alternation more than true development. Like Ricardo Viñes in 1906, Miroirs comprises a set that elude any real sense of key in a mood opening anticipates ‘Ondine’. Exploring the the many pseudo-Sanskrit words sprinkled of five pieces evoking contrasting moods and of mournful longing. The intervals of the harmonic and melodic qualities of fourth throughout the score, the title is Messiaen’s

- 4 - - 5 - own Franco-Sanskrit invention – a cipher for a memorial exhibition of Hartmann’s paintings, gnome running clumsily on crooked legs whose Following the fifth and final statement of the the Indian rhythms that abound in the music. which took place in the spring of 1874 at the faltering movements have much in common ‘Promenade’, a lighter mood returns with ‘The Of the several slower sections in the work, Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg. with Ravel’s later depiction of ‘Scarbo’ in Market Place at Limoges’. Another scherzo two are entitled ‘Alba’ in reference both to the Soon after, Mussorgsky decided to immortalise Gaspard de la nuit. While ‘The Old Castle’ movement, we return to France where Hartmann’s dawn love-song of the Troubadours and the love the memory of his late friend by composing a was inspired by Hartmann’s watercolour of a painting depicts the bustle of the market themes in Messiaen’s so-called ‘Tristan’ works multi-movement work for solo piano in which medieval Italian fortress in front of which a and women gossiping busily. The climax of of the 1940s; here the percussive clusters in each piece would be a musical representation minstrel is shown singing, the mood is one of the movement is interrupted by ‘Catacombs’, the bass are borrowed from the ‘Princess de of paintings from the exhibition. Pictures at quintessential dolorous Russian lamentation. one of the most extraordinary sections of the Bali’ movement from Jolivet’s Mana – a work an Exhibition was composed in a white heat of Distant locations – from a Russian perspective work where the momentum comes to a sudden Messiaen deeply admired. The energy and creativity during the summer of 1874. – also appear in the following two numbers: set halt in a sequence of static chords that propulsion of Cantéyodjayâ is enhanced by in Paris, ‘Tuileries’ is a capricious scherzo and resonate like great tolling bells. In this painting, moments of reflective stillness and include The work comprises a series of ten pieces depicts a group of children quarrelling at play, Hartmann shows himself contemplating the a compositionally virtuosic six-part canon interspersed with several interludes which while ‘Bydło’ portrays the lumbering of a heavy subterranean catacombs of Paris by the light that generates a whirlwind cadenza leading function as a theme and variations – the five Polish cart with massive wheels drawn by a of a lantern in what Mussorgsky must have to the reappearance of the refrain at the ‘Promenades’ and the mysterious contemplation team of oxen, and is characterised by sonorous interpreted as a prophesy of the artist’s own work’s conclusion. of death, ‘Con mortuis in lingua mortua’. In ostinato chords in the lower register of the death. ‘Con mortuis in lingua mortua’, an this way, Mussorgsky evokes his own movement piano. Relating to Hartmann’s innovative interlude that serves as a postscript to the Pictures at an Exhibition was inspired by a around the exhibition as well as his musical designs for Marius Petipa’s ballet Trilby, the movement, transforms the ‘Promenade’ theme series of paintings and drawings by Viktor commentaries upon the pictures themselves to curiously named ‘Ballet of the Unhatched into an ethereal memory as if Mussorgsky here Alexandrovich Hartmann who died suddenly represent the observer as well as that which is Chicks’ is another scherzo-type movement; light bids farewell to his departed friend. If this in 1873 at the age of only 39. An enthusiastic observed. The effect is one of a dual ‘reality’ as and staccato throughout, it explores the upper section appears to ascend into the peace of supporter of Mussorgsky and the ‘Five’, the listener is progressively absorbed into the registers of the piano. ‘Samuel Goldberg und heaven, ‘The Hut on Hen’s Legs of the Baba- Hartmann shared their aim of establishing ‘unreality’ of the often grotesque, surreal and Schmuyle’ is thought to be based on portraits of Yaga’ descends into a living hell akin to that of a uniquely Russian mode of expression that even nightmarish world of Hartmann’s images. two elderly Polish Jews, one rich and one poor, Mussorgsky’s orchestral tone poem Night on a looked to ancient Russian traditions, legends, each being represented by distinct themes that Bald Mountain. In the piano piece, the strident history and folksong as a means of revitalising After the opening ‘Promenade’ which presents a are first contrasted and then juxtaposed; the fortissimo tritones opening the movement depict the course of Russian music. Profoundly affected cyclic theme with asymmetrical rhythms in the use of augmented second intervals suggest the nightmare image of the witch of Russian by the loss of his friend, Mussorgsky assisted character of a Russian folk melody, ‘Gnomus’ Jewish modes. folklore, Baba-Yaga, and the surreal chiming the eminent critic Vladimir Stasov in mounting evokes Hartmann’s drawing of a devilish of her grotesque chicken-leg clock. The climax

- 6 - - 7 - explodes into the final movement of the cycle, PETER DONOHOE Bridgewater Hall, a ‘marathon’ recital of ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’, a magnificent edifice in Scriabin’s complete piano sonatas at Milton the ancient Russian style that celebrates Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. Court, and numerous performances with The the might of Tsar Alexander II and the heroes He studied at Chetham’s School of Music for Orchestra of the Swan. of all Russia. Stupendous chords exalt the seven years, graduated in music at Leeds ‘Promenade’ theme to its full climactic potential University, and went on to study at the Royal Donohoe is also in high demand as a jury while chiming octaves and thundering bass Northern College of Music with Derek Wyndham member for international competitions. He has chords evoke the clanging of bells in a pianistic and then in Paris with Olivier Messiaen recently served on the juries at the International evocation of the clamorous Zvon-ringing featured and Yvonne Loriod. He is acclaimed as one Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in the Coronation scene of Mussorgsky’s opera of the foremost pianists of our time, for (2011 and 2015), Busoni International Competition Boris Godunov. Pictures at an Exhibition remains his musicianship, stylistic versatility and in Bolzano, Italy (2012), the Queen Elisabeth a startlingly modernist work and an icon of the commanding technique. Competition in Brussels (2016), Georges Enescu quintessentially Russian. Competition in Bucharest (2016), Hong Kong In recent seasons Donohoe has appeared International Piano Competition (2016), the Harbin © Caroline Rae with Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Competition (2017), the Artur Rubenstein Piano Philharmonic and Concert Orchestra, Cape Master Competition (2017), the Lev Vlassenko Caroline Rae is a pianist and twentieth-century music specialist at Town Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Piano Competiton and Festival (2017) and Cardiff University. She was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et Philharmonia, RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Ricardo Viñes International Competition in des lettres for her services to French music in 2018. Belarusian State Symphony Orchestra, and City Lleida, Spain, along with many national

of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has competitions both within the UK and abroad. © Sussie Ahlburg undertaken a UK tour with the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as giving Recent discs include Stravinsky: Music for a disc of Scriabin Piano Sonatas (SOMM concerts in many South American and Solo Piano and Piano and Orchestra with the Records) which was called ‘magnificent’ by European countries, China, Hong Kong, South Hong Kong Philharmonic (SOMM Records); a the Sunday Times; a recording of Witold Korea, Russia, and USA. Other engagements recording of Shostakovich’s Piano Concertos and Maliszewski’s Piano Concerto in B flat minor include performances of all three MacMillian Sonatas with the Orchestra of the Swan, and a with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra piano concertos with the BBC Scottish disc of Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues conducted by Martin Yates (Dutton Vocalion); Symphony Orchestra, a series of concerts for (both Signum Records), which was described and three discs of Prokofiev piano sonatas the Ravel and Rachmaninov Festival at as ‘thoughtful and poignant’ by The Guardian; for SOMM Records, the third of which was

- 8 - - 9 - released at the end of April 2016. The He made his twenty-second appearance at the first Prokofiev disc was described by BBC Proms in 2012 and has appeared at many Gramophone as ‘devastatingly effective’, declaring other festivals including six consecutive visits Donohoe to be ‘in his element’, and a review in to the Edinburgh Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron Classical Notes identified Donohoe’s ‘remarkably in France, and at the Ruhr and Schleswig sensitive approach to even the most virtuosic Holstein Festivals in Germany. In the United of repertoire’. His second Prokofiev disc States, his appearances have included the was given 5 stars by BBC Music Magazine, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago, and the third disc was highly praised by The Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit Symphony Recorded in Cedars Hall, Wells Cathedral School, Somerset from 13th to 16th April 2018 Times, Birmingham Post, and Jessica Duchen. Orchestras. Peter Donohoe also performs Producer & Editor – Nicholas Parker Other recordings include Cyril Scott’s Piano numerous recitals internationally and continues Recording Engineers – Mike Hatch & James Waterhouse Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra and working with his long standing duo partner Piano preparation – Chris Farthing Martin Yates (Dutton Vocalion), and Malcolm Martin Roscoe, as well as more recent Cover Image – © Shutterstock Arnold’s Fantasy on a Theme of John Field collaborations with artists such as Raphael Design and Artwork – Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Wallfisch, Elizabeth Watts and Noriko Ogawa. P 2019 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd and Martin Yates (also Dutton), for which BBC © 2019 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd Music Magazine described him as an ‘excellent Donohoe has worked with many of the world’s Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action soloist’, and Gramophone stated that it greatest conductors: Christoph Eschenbach, by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored ‘compelled from start to finish’. Neeme Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Andrew in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. Davis and Yevgeny Svetlanov. More recently he SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. Donohoe has performed with all the major has appeared as soloist with the next generation +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] www.signumrecords.com London orchestras, as well as orchestras of excellent conductors: Gustavo Dudamel, Robin from across the world: the Royal Concertgebouw, Ticciati and Daniel Harding. Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Orchestre Philharmonique de Peter Donohoe is an honorary doctor of music Radio France, Vienna Symphony and Czech at seven UK universities, and was awarded a Philharmonic Orchestras. He has also played CBE for services to classical music in the with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Sir Simon 2010 New Year’s Honours List. Rattle’s opening concerts as Music Director.

- 10 - - 11 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues Shostakovich: Piano Concertos & Sonatas Peter Donohoe piano Peter Donohoe piano SIGCD396 Orchestra of the Swan David Curtis conductor SIGCD493

“These two discs present musical invention at its most purely “Donohoe delivers a highly charged and compelling account exhilarating... Donohoe’s commitment is superb.” of the angry modernist First Sonata. But it’s the weighty and The Sunday Times complex Second that emerges as the true masterpiece in a mesmerising performance that makes one wonder why it doesn’t feature far more often in recital programmes.” BBC Music Magazine

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