Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

of the exotic most attractive. Better known for his stage compositions—operettas, opéras- comiques , operas ( Lakmé ), and ballets ( Cop- pélia )—Delibes also composed 34 mélodies for one or two voices with piano, which he published in two volumes (Paris, c.1884–85). Four of those songs set verses by Musset: Les filles de Cadix , Bonjour, Suzon! , Sérénade à Ninon , and Chanson de Barberine . Delibes composed in the chansonette style, a light, congenial, and sometimes comical song form less influenced by German lieder than the romance . For Les filles de Cadix , he select- ed the first two stanzas of Musset’s poem be- ginning with the text “Nous venions de voir le taureau,” which was first published posthu- mously in Le Magasin du librairie (March 10, 1859) under the title “Chanson.” Delibes gave Les filles de Cadix (1874) a coquettish musical setting inspired by the local beauties dancing a sultry bolero to the sound of castanets near the bullring in Cádiz, Spain, and the sexually charged exchange between a finely dressed gentleman and the sassy brunette he unsuc- cessfully tried to seduce. PABLO SARASATE (1844–1908) Habanera from Carmen Fantasy (adapted by James M. Stephenson) Scored for flute, bassoon, trumpet, castanets, triangle, tambourine, strings, and solo violin Sarasate was a Spanish violin virtuoso and composer. The son of a military bandmaster, Pablo began his music studies at age 5 and gave his first public performance on the vio- lin at age 8. With financial backing from Queen Isabella, he was sent to Paris in 1856 to continue studies at the conservatory. He won first prize in violin and solfège the following year and a first prize in harmony in 1859. One of the great violin virtuosos of his day, Sara- sate made his first European tour in 1859. Lat- er tours took him to England and North and South America. His Carmen Fantasy , an arrangement of mu- sic from George Bizet’s opera, was composed Pablo Sarasate in Paris in 1883 and dedicated to Joseph Hellmesberger, violinist and director of the Vienna Conservatory. The opera Carmen , written 1875 in Paris, is set in the Spanish city of Seville. Its plot centers on the gypsy Carmen and the Spanish corporal Don José. Sarasate chose five pieces from the opera and arranged them into the pastiche-like fantasy. The accompaniment remains virtually un- changed but the melodic part in the violin is highly embellished. This adaptation by James M. Stephenson focuses on the first-act haba- nera , or Spanish song, “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (“Love is a rebellious bird”). FERDINAND HÉROLD (1791–1833) “Jours de mon enfance” from Le Pré aux Clercs Scored for flute and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings, and solo violin and soprano The Middle Ages witnessed the rise of public gardens, a phenomenon that quickly spread from Italy to Austria, France, and the Low Countries. The first public garden in Paris opened in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quar- ter, a flood-prone meadow (“pré” in French) on the left bank of the Seine that for centu- ries was dominated by the Benedictine abbey bearing the saint’s name. The Pré aux Clercs (Meadow of the Clerks, or Scholars) provided beautiful open space where upper-class Pa- risians and university students could walk, romance, and commune with nature. Over the centuries, the Pré aux Clercs also became the site of insurrection and murder. On May 13, 1558, an estimated 6,000 Hugue- nots—French Protestant followers of John Calvin—occupied the open meadow, singing Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze’s new metrical Psalm settings in defiance of perse- cution. This singing continued several nights in a row, as the crowd grew in size and attract- ed dignitaries such as the King Antoine and Queen Jeanne III of Navarre. Tensions between the Catholic majority and the growing Huguenot minority eventually erupted in violence, as a bloodthirsty mob killed between 10,000 and 30,000 Protestants throughout France. Ignited on August 24, 1572—the Feast of St. Bartholomew, the Apos- tle—the murderous rampage became known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Gi- acomo Meyerbeer memorialized this tragic period in his opera Les Huguenots (1836). By the end of the 16th century, the Pré aux Clercs had become the unofficial field for duels in Paris, due to its location on the edge of the city. Urban legend maintains that dead bodies from the duels were floated downstream to Chaillot for burial. French novelist Prosper Mérimée picked up the complicated history of Pré aux Clercs in his Chronique du temps de Charles IX (1572), which became a literary source for a three-act opera-comique by Ferdi- nand Hérold entitled Le Pré aux Clercs (1832) as well as Meyerbeer’s five-act grand opera. Ten years after the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Marguerite de Valois is held captive at the Palais du Louvre with her lady-in-wait- ing, the youthful Countess Isabelle Montal. Marguerite’s husband, the king of Navarre, sends the Baron de Mergy to liberate Mar- guerite and Isabelle, whom Mergy secretly loves. Isabelle remembers her youth and dreams of her devotion to Mergy (“Jours de mon enfance”). The King summons Margue- rite back to Navarre but decrees that Isabelle must remain behind and marry Comte de Comminges. Naturally, a duel between Mergy and Comminges ensues. Mergy prevails and returns to Navarre to marry Isabelle. FRYDERYK FRANCISZEK CHOPIN (1810–49) Nocturne in E-flat major, op. 9, no. 2 (adapted by Joshua Bell and Ben Wallace) Scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, two horns, strings, and solo violin Chopin was a rare artist who devoted him- self as performer and composer almost ex- clusively to the piano. Although he gave no more than 30 public concerts during his life- time, he won the admiration and respect of musicians such as Liszt, Berlioz, Bellini, and Meyerbeer. His piano playing was less overtly virtuosic than some of his contemporaries, with intimate expression better suited to the aristocratic salons that he frequented in Paris. He was particularly flattered by comparisons with the playing of the Irish pianist John Field (1782–1837). Chopin modestly accepted such praise: “Complete artists … set my name next to Field’s; and indeed, if I were a bigger fool than I am, I might imagine I had reached the peak of my career.” A further affinity with the works of Field emerged in some of Chopin’s compositions, particularly the nocturnes. Field is generally Ferdinand Hérold by Auguste-Charles Lemoine, after Louis Dupré (1850) credited with having developed the nocturne for solo piano and for establishing the stan- dardized form and style employed by later composers, including Chopin. The nocturne’s overall structure most often comes in three parts: an opening section, a contrasting cen- tral section, and a return of the music of the first section. The musical texture is character- ized by a lyrical melodic line, similar in con- tour to the cantabile arias of the Italian opera, and an accompaniment of widely arpeggiated chords. The general mood of the nocturne is meditative; there is a more melancholy atmo- sphere in Chopin’s nocturnes. Most of the 21 nocturnes date from Chopin’s years in Paris (1831–49); only three remained unpublished in his lifetime. The earliest to ap- pear in print—Three Nocturnes, op. 9 (publ. 1832)—show the strongest relationship to Field’s lyrical pieces. This connection appeared most clearly in the familiar second nocturne in E-flat major. More individualistic qualities infiltrated the outer pieces, such as a quantity of melodic elaboration and motivic integra- tion rarely present in the Irishman’s writing. HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803–69) Overture to Béatrice et Bénédict Scored for flute and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, cornet, three trombones, timpani, and strings Edouard Bénazet, impresario and casino manager at the fashionable resort at Baden- Baden, commissioned a new opera from Berlioz in 1858 to inaugurate his new theater. The proposed libretto about the Thirty Years’ War never inspired the Frenchman. Instead, he suggested a comic opera based on Shake- speare’s Much Ado about Nothing . Berlioz adapted the drama himself by focusing at- tention on the lovers Beatrice and Benedict, condensing the drama into two acts, and translating much of Shakespeare directly as spoken dialogue. Berlioz plunged himself into composition with unsurpassed zeal: “The music for my Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin by Ary Scheffer RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 63