Taras Bulba, Rhapsody for Orchestra Leoš Janáček
The Czech composer, Leoš Janácek, was born on July 3, 1854 in Hukvaldy, Moravia and died on August 12, 1928 in Ostrava. His music is heavily inflected with Slavic accents that represent both a continuation and an extension of the nationalistic traits of Czech music from the generations of Dvorák and Smetana. While Janácek’s operas (Jenufa, Kát’a Kabanová, The Cunning Little Vixen, and the Makropulos Affair) are his most important works, two of his orchestral works, Taras Bulba (1915-1918) and the Sinfonietta (1926) have found a place in the repertory of orchestras around the world. Taras Bulba was dedicated to “our army, the armed protector of our nation,” and received its first performance in Brno on October 9, 1921 with František Neumann leading the orchestra of the National Theater. Janaček made revisions to the score prior to its publication in 1927. The name Taras Bulba may be familiar to some in the audience because of the 1962 film that starred Yul Brynner in the title role, and Tony Curtis. The three-movement work is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets (1st doubling E-flat clarinet), 3 bassoons (third doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, organ, and strings.
Janácek often found himself attracted to literature from Russia, and his orchestral rhapsody, Taras Bulba, is one such example. The composer also was a staunch supporter of Russia as it played its role in the First World War. Given the history of the Czechs during the Second World War, the aftermath of the Prague Spring of 1968, and the rise of the Czech Republic within the sphere of European history and culture since the fall of the Soviet Union, we have to remind ourselves that political allegiances before our own time were different during Janácek’s lifetime.
Based upon an 1835 romantic story by Nikolai Gogol (expanded in 1842) that tells the tale of the Cossack (Ukranian) warrior, his battle against the Poles in 1628, and the tragic fate of his two sons, Andriy and Ostap. The title character seems to have been Gogol’s imaginative blending of historical characters. The crux of the conflict that forms the background of the story is the war between Western Catholicism (Poland, which historically controlled part of Ukraine) and Russian Orthodoxy. The first movement of Janácek’s rhapsody, “The Death of Andriy,” begins as a musical depiction of the love between Taras Bulba’s son, Andriy, and the daughter of a Polish nobleman. Solo passages for English horn, oboe, and violin beautifully portray their love story, but the music is interrupted by dissonant and ominous sounds. This leads to violent depictions of warfare, during which Andriy, having betrayed his father by taking the side of the Poles, is slain by Taras Bulba himself. The movement ends with a recollection of the love theme. The second movement is the shortest of the three and bears the title “The Death of Ostap,” The elder brother of the slain Andriy, Ostap is taken prisoner by the Polish army, is submitted to torture and condemned to execution in Warsaw. Taras Bulba disguises himself and sneaks in just at the moment of his son’s death, which the Poles celebrate by dancing a Mazurka. Ostap’s death is marked by a desperate “scream” in the E-flat clarinet, a musical device used by Richard Strauss at the death of Til Eulenspiegel in the symphonic poem of the same name. The final movement, “The Prophecy and Death of Taras Bulba,” represents the Cossacks march through Poland to avenge Ostap’s execution. Bulba is captured and burned at the stake. Before he dies, he heroically and defiantly utters his prophecy that a triumphant Tsar will emerge, establishing the eventual primacy of the Russian Orthodox faith. Fanfares, chimes, organ, and a noble theme reflect Taras Bulba’s confidence, expressed in his words: “There is no fire nor suffering in the whole world which can break the strength of the Russian people.”
Program Note by David B. Levy, © 2024
The Rite of Spring Igor Stravinsky
One of the towering figures of twentieth-century music, Igor Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia on June 17, 1882 and died in New York City on April 6, 1971. His best known works remain the three ballet scores based on Russian themes and scenarios—The Firebird (1910, rev. 1919, 1945), Petrushka (1910-11, rev. 1947), and The Rite of Spring (1913, rev. 1921). All three scores were composed for fellow ex-patriot Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, based in Paris. Stravinsky wrote works that encompass many genres and explore a wide variety of musical styles, all of which bear his own distinctive traits. The Rite of Spring was the result of a collaboration among the composer Stravinsky, the choreographer/dancer Vaslav Nijinksy, and the ethnologist/scenic and costume designer, Nicholas Roerich. Hovering above the three was the impresario and director of the Paris-based Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev. The ballet received its first performance on May 29, 1913 at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Pierre Monteux conducted and created a scandalous sensation because of its unorthodox choreography and music. It was performed as a concert piece for the first time on February 18, 1914 in St. Petersburg conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. The original score calls for piccolo, 3 flutes (3rd doubling second piccolo), alto flute, 4 oboes (4th doubling second English horn), English horn, 3 clarinets 3rd doubling second bass clarinet, soprano clarinet, bass clarinet, 4 bassoons (4th doubling second contrabassoon), contrabassoon, 8 horns (7th and 8th doubling Wagner tubas), 5 trumpets (including a trumpet in D and bass trumpet), 3 trombones, 2 tubas, timpani, large percussion section, piano, harp, and strings.
“He who hesitates is lost,” goes the old saying. The composer Anatol Liadov, who was supposed to have composed the music for a new ballet based on the legend of the Firebird that Sergei Diaghilev planned to produce in his second Paris season, ought to have paid attention to the adage’s warning. Fortunately for the young Igor Stravinsky, Liadov did not, and the great opportunity for which Stravinsky had been hoping was now at hand. Diaghilev already had been sufficiently impressed with the talent of the precocious student of Rimsky-Korsakov to commission orchestrations of two piano pieces by Chopin from him in 1909. But a chance to collaborate as a full partner with the likes of choreographer-dancer Mikhail Fokine was almost too good to be true. The success of Stravinsky’s score to The Firebird, first performed at the Paris Opéra on June 25, 1910 under the baton of Gabriel Pierné, was legendary. This ballet remains to this day the most popular of all Stravinsky’s scores. Over the next two years (1911 and 1913) Stravinsky was to follow the success of The Firebird with Petruchka and the epic Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps).
Of these three ballet scores, none was to have the impact of the Rite of Spring. Translated more literally from the Russian, its title might better be called “Sacred Spring.” Because its premiere took place in Paris under a French title, it is also called Le sacre du printemps. Popular wisdom would have it, fed in part by Stravinsky and Diaghilev’s genius at self-promotion, that the work’s exotically orchestrated and rhythmically dynamic score, taken on its own, incited a riot at its premiere. It was in fact primarily the choreography that provoked the audience. Nevertheless, all of the elements that make up the Rite of Spring was aimed toward its ability to shock. The work’s subtitle, “Portraits of Pagan Russia,” and its loosely-woven plot create together a vivid and exotic theatrical work whose elemental qualities, especially its focus on rhythmic energy, continue to thrill audiences. The harmonic and melodic elements are derived from rhythmically-altered versions of over thirty melodic fragments derived largely from Lithuanian folksongs, and whose character is informed by pitch material is infused with octatonic, whole tone, and pentatonic scales.
The ballet itself comprises two large sections. Part I, “Adoration of the Earth,” includes seven discrete sections that are, in Robert Winter’s useful image, “spliced” together like scenes from a movie. The “Introduction” begins with a wailing solo bassoon played at the top of the instrument’s range, and whose effect is that of a mystical incantation. It is followed by a colorful passage in the woodwinds that imitate, in Stravinsky’s words, “a swarm of spring pipes.” The curtain opens on a powerful “Augers of Spring/Dance of the Adolescents,” depicting a kind of mating ritual. The “primitive” feeling of this music is produced by an insistent four-note ostinato (repeating) figure whose simplicity is complicated by heavy accents in unexpected places. This scene leads to a fast-paced “Ritual of Abduction” that ends suddenly with trills in the flutes. “Spring Rounds” ensues as the young girls of the tribe dance in solemn procession. This passage builds to a fever pitch that finally unleashes its energy. An exciting “Ritual of Rival Tribes” is interrupted by the “Procession of the Sage,” whose arrival leads to his blessing of the newly-awakened earth after the long, cold, Russian winter. The sanctification process leads to ecstatic rejoicing in the “Dance of the Earth” that concludes Part I in abrupt fashion.
Part II, “The Sacrifice,” comprises five scenes, beginning with the “Mystic Circles of the Young Adolescent Girls,” from whom a sacrificial virgin is to be chosen. Eleven powerful loud strokes indicate that one has been selected and leads to the “Glorification of the Chosen One,” the rightness of which in turn is confirmed in the “Evocation of the Ancestors.” The girl is turned over to the elders of the tribe in the hypnotic “Ritual Action of the Ancestors.” The work concludes with the “Sacrificial Dance” in which the chosen virgin dances herself to death in one of the rhythmically and metrically complex passages of the entire score. Stravinsky continued to revise the score after 1920 after finding errors in the first edition, and in some cases rewriting and re-notating many passages. This editorial process continued even after the composer’s death. But none of this has changed the Rite of Spring’s place as one of the seminal works of the twentieth century and its capacity to excite audiences throughout the world.
State of Darkness
The Joyce Theater website offers the following commentary:
Originally commissioned by the American Dance Festival in 1988, “State of Darkness” challenges Stravinsky’s cacophonous “Le Sacre du Printemps” (The Rite of Spring) with an intense 35-minute solo performance of relentless fervency, technical precision, and fearless abandon. [Molissa] Fenley reimagined the commanding score as the sonic landscape for a solo journey, rather than the usual ensemble interpretations.
Adapting her creative process to our emergent world of social distance, Fenley restaged her solo individually with seven dancers: 2020 Juilliard grad Jared Brown; Lloyd Knight of Martha Graham Dance Company; Sara Mearns of the New York City Ballet; Shamel Pitts, former Batsheva Dance Company member; Annique Roberts of Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE; Cassandra Trenary of American Ballet Theatre; and Michael Trusnovec of Paul Taylor American Dance Company. State of Darkness features original lighting design by David Moodey, and costume design by Marc Happel. (https://www.joyce.org/pQ3N3Iv/state-of-darkness)
Tonight’s performance with the CSO will be danced by CassandraTrenary.
Program Note by David B. Levy © 2019/2024