Bizet – L' Arlésienne

BIZET – L’ ARLÉSIENNE Fauré – Masques et Bergamasques Gounod – Faust Ballet Music HY BRID MU Orchestre de la Suisse Romande LTICHANNEL Kazuki Yamada Georges Bizet (1838-1875) Charles Gounod (1818-1893) THEATRE MUSIC IN THE always had to be connected to the content L’Arlésienne Faust Ballet Music CONCERT HALL of the drama it preceded, and to introduce the work’s protagonists through musical Suite No. 1 13. Les Nubiennes, valse (Allegretto) 2. 47 When we consider the intrinsic bond means. “It must moreover concern 14. Adagio 4. 34 between theatre and music, though opera itself with the entire play, while at the 1. Prélude 6. 50 15. Danse Antique (Allegretto) 1. 47 and ballet are what immediately come to same time preparing its beginning, and, 2. Minuetto 3. 06 16. Variations de Cléopâtre (Moderato mind, there is yet another art form that correspondingly, also serving as an 3. Adagietto 3. 58 maestoso) 1. 44 embodies this association, and which appropriate introduction to the play’s 4. Carillon 4. 48 17. Les Troyennes (Moderato) 2. 56 especially in the 19th century enjoyed initial entrances.” The entr’actes should, 18. Variations du Miroir (Allegretto) 2. 05 great popularity: incidental music. In a according to Scheibe, “address both the Suite No. 2 19. Danse de Phryné (Allegro vivo) 2. 46 period in which all theatres had either a close of the preceding act, and the start Arranged by Ernest Guiraud pianist or a smaller or larger orchestra in of the following one. I.e., these interludes Total playing time: 69. 56 their employ, stage plays were generally must connect both acts with one another, 5. Pastorale 5. 42 accompanied by music – much like in and, as it were, unnoticeably lead the 6. Intermezzo 4. 02 Orchestre de la Suisse Romande today’s films. And just as a substantial audience from one emotional context to 7. Menuet 4. 16 conducted by Kazuki Yamada part of the drama in opera unfolds in the another.” And for Scheibe, it was obvious 8. Farandole 3. 23 orchestra pit, the music employed in the that the music had to be subordinate to Recording venue Victoria Hall, Geneva, theatre likewise provided an additional the text; i.e., in creating his incidental Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Switzerland, February 2013 layer of meaning, rather than mere music, the composer had to follow the Masques et Bergamasques depictions of mood. Both the overture character and rhythm of the drama. Suite for orchestra Op. 112 and the entr’actes (music played between acts) had the role of preparing the In the course of the 19th century, 9. Ouverture 3. 45 audience for what was to take place on conceptions changed as to the nature and 10. Menuet 2. 50 stage. function of music. As a result, music lost 11. Gavotte 3. 36 its image as a subservient art, ultimately 12. Pastorale 4. 48 Already in 1739, the German-Danish coming to be regarded as autonomous, composer and music theoretician, Johann elevated, sublime and – in the terminology Adolph Scheibe, voiced his opposition of writer, composer and music critic E.T.A. to the widespread use, at the time, of Hoffmann – the most ‘romantic’ of all the randomly selected overtures to open arts. His contemporary, the influential stage plays. In his view, the overture novelist and poet Ludwig Tieck, was highly critical in respect of the function The Girl from Arles title of the play refers to her, this ‘girl from located behind the stage, played by Bizet of incidental music. In his view, music Arles’ never appears on stage), but learns himself at the premiere. should be used to conclude a stage play A good example of an extensive work that his beloved is already the mistress and, in so doing, to retell the drama and of incidental music from which today of another man. In a flurry of despair, While the play had been a failure with the its outcome without words. Tieck used normally only excerpts are heard, is Frédéri decides to marry any girl his public, Bizet was nevertheless aware of the Triumphal Symphony at the end of that which Georges Bizet composed mother chooses for him. On his wedding the quality of the music he had composed Beethoven’s incidental music to Goethe’s to accompany Alphonse Daudet’s play, day, Frédéri meets his rival and commits for it. Shortly following the premiere, he play, Egmont, to exemplify the task of L’Arlésienne. Originally, ‘L’Arlésienne’ suicide by jumping off a balcony. As a therefore arranged a suite comprised of a the composer of such a concluding piece: was in the form of a short story, published result of the incident, however, Janet is selection of the most beautiful orchestral “Here, he could retell the drama in daring by Daudet in 1866 in the journal, instantly cured of his handicap, with the portions of the incidental music. Bizet tones, predict the future and accompany l’Événement. Three years later, Daudet result that the mother loses one son and orchestrated the suite for a standard the poet in a most worthy manner.” included it in the collection, ‘Lettres gets the other back. orchestra, plus a part for alto saxophone. de mon Moulin,’ stories inspired by the The premiere of this L‘Arlésienne Suite Through, among other things, this landscape, culture and people of Provence. The stifling atmosphere of the play, whose took place in Paris on 10 November 1872, paradigmatic shift with regard to the It was the impresario, Léon Carvalho, who, characters are locked into an oppressive under the baton of Jules Pasdeloup. function and status of music, incidental in 1872, asked Daudet to adapt the story world and mental state, inspired music fell increasingly out of favour. as stage play in three acts, in which form Bizet to compose 27 in the main short For the suite’s first movement, Bizet used Today, only a few works from the genre ‘L’Arlésienne’ was premiered on 1 October movements (in addition to an overture the overture to the incidental music. Like are encountered on concert programmes, 1872 at the Théâtre du Vaudeville (today and entr’actes, the music also includes the overture to his opera, Carmen, it frequently in abbreviated or adapted form, the Gaumont-Opéra cinema) on Paris’ choral and dance pieces and numerous consists of three sections, whose original with their melodrama passages (music Boulevard des Capucines, with incidental passages of melodrama), which not only function was to introduce the play’s which originally accompanied certain music by Bizet. The play failed to become contribute a great deal of couleur locale, locale and its two protagonists. The first important sections of text for the purpose a popular success, and closed after only 21 but great emotional intensity, as well. The section sets the tone with a march based of intensifying their expressive power), performances. orchestral resources at Bizet’s disposal on a popular Provençal Christmas tune: normally being left out, as they tend were however limited. The orchestra of the ‘Marche des Rois’ (or ‘March of the to sound empty without their original ‘L’Arlésienne’ tells the story of two 26 featured the following instruments: 2 Kings’), which, under the title, ‘Marche dramaturgic contexts. brothers, Frédéri and Janet, who, because flutes, an oboe (English horn), a clarinet, de Turenne’ (or ‘Turenne March’), is of his intellectual handicap, is referred to 2 bassoons, an alto saxophone, 2 horns, attributed to the baroque composer, as ‘the innocent.’ Frédéri is desperately in timpani and a tambourin provençal, 7 Jean-Baptiste Lully. The melody in turn love with a girl from the nearby town of violins, a viola, 5 cellos, 2 string basses serves as the theme for a short series of Arles (interestingly enough, although the and a piano. Further, a harmonium was variations. The overture’s second section features the serene saxophone melody in the incidental music, precedes the gentilhomme (Molière), Pelléas et already used for a song, and which he associated in the play with ‘the Innocent.’ play’s second act. To it, Guiraud added Mélisande (Maeterlinck), Le voile du again used in Masques et bergamasques, The third section presents the music a middle section employing the music bonheur (Clemenceau) and his own but now in orchestral garb: which, in the incidental music, depicts from the textless choral section at the Masques et bergamasques (or Masks and Frédéri’s passion for the girl from Arles. end of the original incidental music. The Bergamasks). The latter work, the result Votre âme est un paysage choisi The overture is followed by a Minuet second movement is an intermezzo. The of a commission from Prince Albert I of Que vont charmant masques et which, in the play, serves as a connection Minuet is not from the incidental music Monaco for which Camille Saint-Saëns bergamasques between the second and third acts. The to L’Arlésienne at all, but from Bizet’s had recommended Fauré, is not a stage Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi movement’s trio section ends with a opera, La jolie fille de Perth (or The Fair play, but in fact a hybrid. Fauré’s aim Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques. written-out diminuendo, in which the Maid of Perth) dating from 1866, with the with Masques et bergamasques was to strings stop playing, one for one. The vocal parts being replaced by solos for revive the genre of the divertissement Your soul is a chosen landscape minuet section then returns, but now harp, flute and saxophone, respectively. comique, a theatrical entertainment with Where charming masqueraders and played pianissimo.

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