Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 14

Bussotti, a fictitious 17th-century master vio- linmaker from Cremona. The story unfolds in chronologically disconnected scenes, anchored at one end by a modern-day Montreal auction house and at the other, three centuries earlier, the creator’s workshop in Italy. In between, the violin changes owners several times and travers- es the globe with its complex musical powers intact. Charles Morritz (Samuel L. Jackson), an authen- ticator for a Canadian auction house, research- es the instrument’s history and uncovers the mystery of its red varnish. This search naturally leads back to the violinmaker Bussotti (Car- lo Cecchi) and his pregnant wife, Anna (Irene Grazioli). While Bussotti lovingly constructs the instrument for his coming child, Anna visits a fortune-teller, who divines an adventurous fu- ture—not for the family, but for the violin—in her Tarot cards. Girard and co-writer Don Mc- Keller, who previously collaborated on another widely heralded movie, 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould , unfold their story in an elaborate series of flashbacks and flash-forwards. The Red Violin reemerged in the 18th centu- ry at an Austrian monastery in the hands of a boy prodigy, Kasper Weiss (Christoph Koncz). Georges Poussin (Jean-Luc Bideau), a local mu- sician, adopts the orphaned youth after hearing his inspiring playing. The instrument passes through a band of Polish gypsies to a wealthy 19th-century English virtuoso, Frederick Pope (Jason Flemyng). An ultra-passionate celebrity, Pope uses the violin to project his infinite emo- tion in concert and with his mistress, Victoria Byrd (Greta Scacchi). After another major leap of time and location, the violin reappears in a Shanghai pawnshop during the Cultural Revolu- tion. A young woman, Xiang Pei (Sylvia Chang), risks her life to save this musical treasure. Later, the Chinese government recognizes its value and offers the violin at auction in Montreal. Understanding that his movie’s success wholly depended on a strong musical element, Girard enlisted the talents of two gifted American musicians: composer John Corigliano, who already had written the Oscar-nominated soundtrack to Altered States , and violinist Josh- ua Bell, who gave the Red Violin its voice. Cori- gliano devoted nearly two years to the movie, a more extended commitment than most com- posers make. “I truly felt that The Red Violin was also his film,” Girard remarked. Likewise, Bell exceeded the typical involvement of a musical interpreter. He also served as violin coach and stand-in for Flemyng in performance close-ups and made a cameo appearance in the Sheldo- nian theater sequence. Corigliano envisioned a concert piece based on themes from the soundtrack from the begin- ning. Unanticipated delays in filming complicat- ed the previously scheduled concert premiere. Honoring his commission from Sony Classical, the San Francisco Symphony, the Boston Sym- phony, and Joshua Bell, Corigliano expanded the principal musical ideas he already had com- posed: “a singable theme, hummed by the violin master’s wife Anna, which mutates into a solo violin melody. Underpinning this theme is an inexorable seven-chord chaconne, evoking the Tarot and the fate it signals, and several solo etudes drawn from Anna’s theme, for the two virtuosi of the Vienna and Oxford sequences.” The Red Violin: Chaconne for Violin and Orches- tra premiered as scheduled on November 25, 1997, in San Francisco. The movie debuted at the Toronto Film Festival on September 10, 1998. Sony Classical released the soundtrack (with the concert piece, Cha- conne ) featuring Joshua Bell and the Philharmo- nia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen the fol- lowing year. Corigliano’s soundtrack won both the 1999 Jutra Award and the 2000 Academy Award for Best Original Score, and its received a Grammy nomination for the Best Instrumen- tal Composition Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media. Corigliano subsequently created The Red Violin Caprices for solo violin in 1999. “These Caprices … take a spacious, troubadour-inspired theme and vary it both linearly and stylistically. These variations intentionally evoke Baroque, Gypsy, and arch-Romantic idioms as they examine the same materials (a dark, seven-chord chaconne as well as that principal theme) from differing aural viewpoints. The Caprices were created and ordered to reflect the structure of the film.” KAROL SZYMANOWSKI (1882–1937) Three Paganini Caprices , op. 40 Szymanowski “arranged” three selections from Nicolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices, op. 1, in 1917, an otherwise lean compositional period spent at his family estate, Tymoszowka, in Elisavetgrad, Ukraine. “I cannot compose now,” he admit- ted with a sigh. “I am writing a bit [his novel, The Ephebe ]—of course without any literary Russes earlier in the decade, Diaghilev present- ed the composer with a complete ballet scenario constructed around the commedia dell’arte hero Pulcinella, a team of celebrated artists includ- ing Pablo Picasso (scenery and costumes) and Leonide Massine (choreography), and several manuscripts containing music attributed to Pergolesi. The eight-tableaux scenario comes from a man- uscript dating from sometime around 1700. Four jealous young men plot the murder of Pulcinella, believing their sweethearts have fall- en for the dashing young hero. Each man plans to approach his beloved disguised as Pulcinella. Discovering the conspiracy, Pulcinella switches clothing with Furbo, who feigns death. Pulcinel- la appears dressed like a magician, revives Fur- bo, and arranges marriages for the four young couples. Pulcinella marries Pimpinella, and Fur- bo becomes the magician. Diaghilev left the selection and treatment of musical excerpts to Stravinsky. Instead of ap- proaching this music of antiquity as a source of fragments for modern pastiche, Stravinsky retained the melodic and harmonic frame- work of Pergolesi’s music (the authenticity of some excerpts has since been discredited) while adding his own mildly dissonant lines. The re- sulting score—Stravinsky’s first major work of neo-Classicism—proved an immediate success. Pulcinella enjoyed continued and widespread popularity over the next few decades. Stravinsky made four different arrangements of his ballet music for a variety of ensembles: a concert suite for chamber orchestra (1922), a five-movement suite for violin and piano (1925), the five-move- ment Suite italienne for cello and piano (1932; in collaboration with Gregor Piatigorsky), and a six-movement Suite italienne for violin and pi- ano (1933), created for his European tour with violinist Samuel Dushkin. Stravinsky’s 1933 Suite italienne for violin and piano contains the following six Pulcinella excerpts, listed with their musical sources in Pergolesi: Introduzione (Trio Sonata No. 1), Ser- enata (Act I aria from Il flaminio ), Tarantella (Trio Sonata No. 7), Gavotta con due Variazioni (Sonata No. 2 from the Eight Lessons for Harpsi- chord , Book 1), Scherzino (Overture to Lo frate ’nnamorato , Act III), and Minuetto e Finale (Canzona from Lo frate ’nnamorato , Act I and Trio Sonata No. 12). JOHN CORIGLIANO (b. 1938) The Red Violin Caprices Music, that timeless art, is capable of transcend- ing the failures and successes of those who make it. This theme underscores Canadian director François Girard’s riveting 1998 motion picture, The Red Violin , which traces the 300-year histo- ry of the mysterious “Red Violin” built by Nicolo John Corigliano (photo: J. Henry Fair) RAVINIA MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 3 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 100