25.11. FRIDAY SERIES 6 Helsinki Music Centre at 19.00

Frank Strobel, conductor

THE NEW BABYLON ( 1929)

Production company: Sovkino Directed & written by: & Cinematography: Paris shots: Yevgeny Mikhailov Art direction: Yevgeny Yenej Assistant directors: Sergei Bartenev, Sergei Gerasimov, Mikhail Yegorov, Nadezhda Kosheverova, Nikolai Klado Music for cinema orchestra: Dmitri Sostakovich

Restored edition 2004. 2091 m /20 fps 93 min

CAST INCLUDES: Yelena Kuzmina (Louise Poirier, shop-assistant), Pyotr Sobolyevsky (Jean, soldier), David Gutman (owner of shop), Sofiya Magarill (actress), Arnold Arnold (the Commune’s Central Committee member), Sergey Gerasimov (Lutreau, journalist), Andrei Kostrichkin (main shop-assistant), Sergei Gusev (Poirier, an old man, Louise’s father), Yanina Zhejmo (Thérèse, seamstress), Natalya Rashevksaya, A. Glushkova (washer- women), Yevgeny Chervyyakov, N. Roshefor (National Guard officers), Oleg Zhakov (National Guard soldier), Anna Zarzhitskaya (florist, young girl on the barricades), Boris Feodosyev (officer),Boris Poslavsky (officer with a flower in his buttonhole), Vsevolod Pudovkin (Police Intendent), Lyudmila Semyonova (can-can dancer with monocle), Tamara Makarova (can-can dancer), Boris Azarov (soldier), Emil Gal (bourgeois), Ida Penso (woman at ball), Aleksandr Orlov (King Meneley in the play), Roman Rubinstein (singer in the play). FILMPHILHARMONIC EDITION Film by courtesy of ZDF / / FILMPHILHARMONIC EDITION Music by courtesy of Sikorski Musikverlage.

There will be no interval. The concert ends at about 20:40.

2 THE NEW BABYLON Babylon shop and involved in the , and the young country lad The memory of the Paris Commune Jean, a soldier in the forces seeking to was dear to the Soviet Union; it was, oppress it. Louise and Jean fall in love after all, its predecessor. In 1871, the despite being on opposite sides. people of Paris rose up in protest when A few weeks before the premiere, the Franco-Prussian War ended in de- the directors invited 23-year-old Dmitri feat for France and Paris was occupied Shostakovich (1906–1975) to join their under the terms of the peace trea- team. Proud of his professional accom- ty. A revolutionary government – the plishments, Shostakovich, in a mere ‘Commune’ – ruled Paris from March to nine days, composed a rough piano May and formed a National Guard to score in grotesquely parodying tones combat the Prussians. The Commune and set about orchestrating it for the had its centre on Montmartre; the gov- premiere. Over the next two weeks, ernment forces were at Versailles. In the directors nevertheless made radical the end the Commune was crushed cuts to their film, reducing it from two and 25,000 Communards, among hours to one-and-a-half. Shostakovich, them many women and children, were suffering from a severe bout of flu, executed in “Bloody Week”. The Sacré- fought valiantly to trim his score to fit Coeur basilica was built as a monu- the shorter version, but the first perfor- ment to the events of 1871. mances were fiascos and his debut film The young avant-gardists Grigori score was left to gather dust for half a Kozintsev (1905–1973) and Leonid century. Trauberg (1901–1990) were commis- Not until after Shostakovich’s death sioned to make a film about the Paris did the score of The New Babylon see Commune. Initially, they declined, but the light of day again, when they soon spotted aspects of the top- concert tours began to be arranged. A ic that were in line with their previous version of The New Babylon was heard films. They decided to avoid the clichés in the Finnish capital, too, at the 1985 of the Russian epoch films, read Marx’s Helsinki Festival, when the conduc- The Civil War in France and Hippolyte tor was Omri Hadari. The critical edi- Lissagaray’s account of life behind the tion published under the direction of barricades, but also the novels of Émile Shostakovich’s wife Irina in 2004 re- Zola, especially The Ladies’ Paradise, vealed an even fuller score, and concert and it was this that provided the spark screenings of the film have relied on for the New Babylon shop. In February this ever since. One of the most orig- 1928 they went to Paris for three weeks, inal film scores of all times has thus taking with them the photographer now been enjoyed by several genera- Yevgeny Mikhailov, and incorporated tions of appreciative international au- the shots he took there in their film. diences. Among the leading characters are Louise, an assistant in the New Antti Alanen

3 (1906–1975): MUSIC FOR THE FILM THE NEW BABYLON, OP. 18

The choice of Dmitri Shostakovich to chestral suite including just over half compose a score for the filmThe New the film music was made by Gennady Babylon in late 1928 could not have Rozhdestvensky. been more in keeping with the times. The New Babylon dates from the fi- Though only 22 years old, Shostakovich nal days of the silent film, when music was, on the strength of his first sym- often accompanied the film through- phony (1925), already the most prom- out and defined its meanings to a ising and most talked-about emerging greater extent than in the sound film. composer in the young Soviet Union. Directors generally used existing mu- Never before had he composed for sic, which a pianist or small ensemble the cinema, but he was totally familiar would try to adjust to the events as with it, having begun five years before naturally as possible; its job was mainly as a cinema pianist accompanying si- to accompany or underline the events lent films in order to help provide an on screen. Shostakovich and the two income for his impoverished family. directors wanted to adopt a more sub- In summer 1928 he had, furthermore, tle approach, and Kozintsev later re- completed a satirical opera called The ported: “We immediately came to an Nose, in which he had successfully ex- agreement with the composer that perimented with matching the music the music would be linked to the in- to events on stage. And from there it ner meaning and not to the external was no distance to the silver screen. action.” The film producers did not leave The music closely follows the visual Shostakovich very much time. The pi- narrative and is often precisely syn- ano score had to be ready at the be- chronised with the sudden cuts in the ginning of February 1929 and the final events and moods. On the other hand, orchestral score one month later – and the film also leaves room for more that meant some 90 minutes of mu- sweeping, more symphonic expression. sic. His music was not, however, played To give an example: the predominantly at the premiere in Leningrad on March scherzo-like irony of the first two reels 18, 1929; it was not heard until the first is followed by a melancholy third in the screening. nature of a “slow movement”, and then The script writers and directors again by a fourth with an increasingly Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg intense drive. were thrilled with the music, but the The New Babylon was the first of well audience was not, and Shostakovich’s over 30 film scores composed by Dmitri score was heard at only a few showings. Shostakovich. The later ones differed The score was lost for many years be- wildly; a few of them had high artis- fore being found and restored. An or- tic aspirations, but even more of them

4 were produced by the servile lackey of premiere at the Salle Pleyel in Paris of the Soviet regime. Shostakovich com- Philippe Schoeller’s newly-written score posed The New Babylon at a time when for Abel Gance’s 1919 film J’Accuse; he had not yet met the disapproval of Frank Strobel conducted the Orchestre the aesthetic censors and it represents Philharmonique de Radio France. his film music at its most best and Engagements this season include most authentic. an appearance with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducting the Kimmo Korhonen reconstructed filmIvan the Terrible by at the Berlin Film Abridged programme notes Festival, performances of Matrix by the translated by Susan Sinisalo NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Hannover and a visit to the Grafenegg Festival with the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1997 to 1998, Frank Strobel FRANK STROBEL was Chief Conductor of the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg. He has Frank Strobel has had an impressive been Artistic Director of the European career in film music. Not only does he FilmPhilharmonic Institute in Berlin conduct; he is also an experienced ar- since 2000. ranger, producer and studio musician and has both transcribed and conduct- ed music for silent movie classics. He is also a specialist in arranging and per- forming new scores. Born in Munich in 1966, Strobel grew up in his parents’ cinema and gained skills as a projectionist at an early age. In 2004 he reconstructed and pub- lished Prokofiev’s original score for Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky, and in 2010 he conducted the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of the restored edition of Metropolis at the Berlin Film Festival. He has also conducted the music for the score of ’s Der Rosenkavalier at Dresden’s Semperoper and that of Matrix in London and Australia. 2014 brought the commemoration of the outbreak of World War I with the world

5 THE FINNISH temporary composers. Among its guest artists will be soprano Karita Mattila RADIO SYMPHONY and mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, ORCHESTRA conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Teodor Currentzis and Gustavo Gimeno, and The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra pianist Daniil Trifonov. (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish The FRSO has recorded works Broadcasting Company (Yle). Its mis- by Mahler, Ligeti, Sibelius, Hakola, sion is to produce and promote Finnish Lindberg, Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, musical culture and its Chief Conductor Kokkonen and others, and the de- as of autumn 2013 has been Hannu but disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Lintu. The FRSO has two Honorary Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and some prestigious distinctions, such as Sakari Oramo. the BBC Music Magazine Award, the The Radio Orchestra of ten play- Académie Charles Cros Award and a ers founded in 1927 grew to sympho- MIDEM Classical Award. The disc of ny orchestra strength in the 1960s. Sibelius’s Lemminkäinen and Pohjola’s Hannu Lintu was preceded as Chief Daughter was Gramophone magazine’s Conductor by Toivo Haapanen, Nils- Critic’s Choice in December 2015 and Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko brought the FRSO and Hannu Lintu a Kamu, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Finnish Emma award in the Classical Saraste and Sakari Oramo. Album category. Music by Sibelius, In addition to the great Classical- Prokofiev and Fagerlund will be among Romantic masterpieces, the latest con- the repertoire recorded during the temporary music is a major item in the 2016/2017 season. repertoire of the FRSO, which each The FRSO regularly tours to all parts year premieres a number of Yle com- of the world. During the 2016/2017 missions. Another of the orchestra’s season its schedule will include a tour tasks is to record all Finnish orchestral in Finland, taking in concerts conduct- music for the Yle archive. ed by Hannu Lintu in Suomussalmi, uring the 2016/2017 season the Kajaani, Mikkeli and Kuopio. FRSO will premiere five Finnish works The home channel of the FRSO is Yle commissioned by Yle and feature Radio 1, which broadcasts all its con- such pioneers of Finnish Modernism certs, usually live, both in Finland and as Väinö Raitio and Uuno Klami. The abroad. Its concerts can also be heard programme will also include orches- and watched with excellent live stream tral works by Stravinsky, symphonies quality on the FRSO website (www.yle. by Mahler and Bruckner, Haydn’s The fi/rso), and the majority of them are tel- Seasons oratorio and concertos by con- evised live on the Yle Teema channel.

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