Franz Liszt : Les Préludes (Symphonic Poem No.3)

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Franz Liszt was the son of a disappointed musician who served as land steward to the noble Esterházy family of Hungary. After he showed prodigious talent as a pianist at the age of nine, a group of Hungarian counts subscribed a six-years’ annuity to the boy’s family for him to study in Vienna. Liszt started giving successful piano recitals at the age of 12, became a salon idol as a young man, and later won recognition throughout Europe as the first of the great piano virtuosos. After the age of 40, however, he stopped playing publicly except on rare special occasions, and concentrated on conducting and composing. As a composer, Liszt is best known for his two piano concertos, some nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano, of which six exist in orchestral versions as well, and a dozen symphonic poems ( the third of which will be performed tonight).

Les Préludes (Symphonic Poem No.3) is the best known and most popular of Liszt’s symphonic poems. It is a colorful, dramatic work expressing Romantic musical ideas, but with an unexplicit “program” that permits the listener great freedom in interpreting the meaning. Originally written in 1848 as a prelude to a choral work. The Four Elements, it was revised several times in succeeding years, until it reached its final form in 1854 as an independent orchestral work.

Although Liszt used some of the thematic material of The Four Elements, he related the final version to the poem Les Préludes from Lamartine’s Méditations Poétiques (Poetic Meditations): …what is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose first solemn note is sounded only by death? “Liszt depicts man’s struggle for existence through various interconnected episodes: first, love (“The enchanted Daybreak”), then the harshness of the real world (“Storms Whose Killing Breath Dispel Lovely Illusion”), a pastoral interlude (“A Pleasant Rest Amidst Nature’s Moods”), a call to battle (“The Trumpets’ Loud Clangor… The Post of Danger…”) and finally, self-recognition. Shop here

Tchaikovsky - THE SLEEPING BEAUTY- BOLSHOI BALLET

This Sleeping Beauty was filmed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1989 and is a re-release of the Japan-produced "Bolshoi at the Bolshoi" series previously available on VHS. The films were shot without an audience, but are presented with overdubbed applause.

The Bolshoi dances Tchaikovsky's second and grandest ballet in the traditional staging completed in 1973 by then director Yuri Grigorovich, after Marius Petipa and with sets by Simon Virsaladze. At the time Grigorovich's staging was much closer to the original Petipa than the Kirov's own production (available on DVD with Kolpakova/Berezhnoi or Lezhnina/Ruzimatov). This production is still performed by the Bolshoi today.

The DVD features some of the foremost principal dancers of the day: Nina Semizorova as Princess Aurora, Nina Speranskaya as the Lilac Fairy, and Alexei Fadeyechev - easily one of the finest male dancers of the Moscow School from the 1980-90's and a danseur noble if ever there was one - as Prince D?sir?. Yuri Vetrov appears as Carabosse, while Maria Bylova and Alexander Vetrov dance the Blue Bird pas de deux. The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Alexander Kopylov.

As with all titles in this series, this disc is obviously a video transfer, leaving some of the movements blurred. The sound is offered in simple stereo.

The DVD release doesn't include any bonus material, but comes with a handsome three-language 20-page booklet, introducing and situating the work and the artists. An effort like this needs to saluted, however it will take a bit more accuracy than the Arthaus Musik writers are able to provide at this stage. For example, Kirov dancer, choreographer and artistic director Konstantin Sergeyev is not a son of Nikolai Sergeyev, as the booklet claims. Konstantin Sergeyev staged The Sleeping Beauty for the Kirov Ballet in 1952, but it is of course Nikolai, not Konstantin, who staged it for London's Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1939 and 1946. Yet, to see the outstanding dancers of the Bolshoi, ballet enthusiasts needn't hesitate. See more

TCHAIKOVSKY: THE SLEEPING BEAUTY SUITE

Peter IIyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky did not take up music seriously until he was 22 after studying law and entering the government civil service. But in 1863 he gave up his boring job as a clerk I the Czar’s Ministry of Justice to enter the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory. He later moved to Moscow where he became a music critic and teacher and continued to compose. A brief, unsuccessful marriage when he was 34 led to a nervous collapse. At about this time, he met Madame Nadejda von Meck who became Tchaikovsky’s patroness even though they had never met and probably never did meet. For unclear reasons, she abruptly withdrew her support. By this time, Tchaikovsky was already a world-famous composer. In 1893, he died suddenly after drinking unboiled water in cholera-infested St. Petersburg. Controversy has long raged over whether or not he did it deliberately, but most scholars now believe it was accidental.

Apart from his orchestral works. Tchaikovsky was also a skilled ballet music composer. He used his experience to turning ballet music, which was up until that time nothing more than a sequence of pretty but unconnected tunes, into an organized work like a symphony or opera, outlining the story’s emotional development as well as accompanying the dancer’s steps. He wrote three of the finest ballet-scores in the repertoire: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty.

Ravel: Boléro; Rapsodie espagnole; Debussy: Images

Charles Munch was the opposite of the "intellectual" school of French conductors, as typified today by Pierre Boulez. He was a completely spontaneous artist, which is what made him the great Berlioz conductor of our time, and literally anything could happen when he got up onto the podium. It follows then, that his Ravel is not going to be the sort of hyper-precise, calculated sort of interpretation that many fans of the composer expect, but it will be exciting as hell. These three pieces are shrewdly chosen; they are the composer's most extrovert works, and Munch pulls out all of the stops in his performances of them. A classic recording, and a great memento of a unique artist. --David Hurwitz Listen to samples

Revel : Bolero

The Berlin Philharmonic never has had much opportunity to play Ravel, which is a pity because under Pierre Boulez they do it extremely well. Under their current music director, Claudio Abbado, the orchestra more often than not sounds positively comatose. How gratifying then, that with a dynamic conductor and music that's fun to play, they rouse themselves to sound like the world-class ensemble they really can be when they're not resting on their laurels. Boléro is really smashing, with a knockout final cadence, and the solo players in all of these works cover themselves with glory. This is a great Ravel disc. --David Hurwitz Listen to samples

Bolero

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Although raised in Paris, Maurice Ravel made much of his partly Basque ancestry and the influence of Spanish music on his development. At 14 he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he was greatly influenced by Erik Satie. With a series of works, Ravel became, next to Debussy, the most popular French composer in the years just before World War I. In 1928, Ravel’s Bolero, written for the dancer Ida Rubinstein, quickly became one of the most popular orchestral scores of the era; six different recordings appeared within a year, it was played frequently on radio, and its title was used for a 1932 Hollywood movie. Audiences of our generation might remember this piece of music from the Movie ‘Ten’

Ravel conceived the work as a technical exercise in a gradual, steadily building crescendo, repeating one rhythmic melody by passing it continuously from solo instruments to instruments in groups and then, finally, to the full orchestra. He insisted it was a simple work, not a virtuosic one. He also took issue with those conductors (including Toscanini) who played it faster than the fifteen-minute duration specified by him in the score.

"CAVALLERIA" Will Never Sound Better Than This!,

Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" has been recorded multitudes of times over the last fifty years ---- and to my ears, this 1965 effort is the best recorded performance of all of them. Herbert von Karajan has fashioned a reading of this much-heard opera that makes you feel that you are hearing it for the very first time. Orchestral color and "verismo" atmosphere abounds here as in no other "Cav" recording, and there are instruments in the orchestra that seem much more prominent than we are used to hearing in this particular opera ----- and the orchestral crescendos are more powerful than I have ever encountered them. Carlo Bergonzi, perhaps not the most creative and innovative artist, sings a Turridu with flow, beauty, and taste. Fiorenza Cossotto ----- probably the greatest Italian mezzo since Gulietta Simionato and Fedora Barbieri ---sings a smoldering and compelling Santuzza with a voice ideally suited to the violent emotions of the role. Giangiacomo Guelfi is a vocally solid and strong Alfio. Plainly, with von Karajan at the helm, and with the caliber of these great artists, "Cavalleria Rusticana" comes across on this recording with all of the violence and passion which Mascagni certainly must have intended. This one's a real winner ----- and it's companion performance of "Pagliacci", also conducted by von Karajan and starring Carlo Bergonzi as Canio ------- is every bit as great.Buy them both! --lesismore26 Listen to samples