Glinka Russlan and Ludmilla: overture 
Glinka Russlan and Ludmilla: overture
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Overture: Ruslan and Ludmilla
Glinka could be said to be the “Father of Russian Music”, in that, in various ways, he exerted a strong influence over all those who followed him, including the three other composers represented in today's concert.
It could also be said that he had a privileged musical upbringing, for his uncle, who lived near to his childhood home, had his own private orchestra with a repertoire which included the principal works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. But the young Glinka was never allowed to hear it since his overly possessive grandmother kept him in her room almost from the day he was born until her death in 1810. The only music to which he was exposed during his early formative years were the folk songs sung day in, day out by his nurse, and the raucous bells pealing, seemingly incessantly, from the town's churches. He was later sent to school in St. Petersburg, where he absorbed himself fully in the city's rich musical life, and when the time came for him to take a “proper” job, he resisted parental pressure to work in the diplomatic service preferring instead to remain in St. Petersburg and scrape a living as a pianist and singer. During this time Glinka was able to attend the famous Bolshoi Theatre (where his school’s music master, Caterino Cavos, was conductor) and there he first came into contact with the operas of Rossini. But while he was immensely attracted by Rossini’s music, his urge to compose operas himself stemmed as much from a reaction against the fashion for French and Italian opera then sweeping Russia.
Genuinely Russian opera did exist (the first opera by a Russian composer was written in 1777) but was treated with disdain by the Russian artistic elite. It was not until Glinka wrote Ruslan and Ludmilla (premièred on 27th November 1842 at the Bolshoi Theatre in St Petersburg under Cavos) that Russian opera really came into its own.
Glinka's early exposure to folk music and his knowledge of Russian folk tales played an integral part in the development of Ruslan and Ludmilla. It is based on an old Russian fairy tale in which the gallant knight Ruslan has to contend with a kindly wizard, a wicked fairy, an evil dwarf, a gigantic head whose terrifying breath creates a storm and magic spells galore as he tries to rescue his beloved Ludmilla who was kidnapped from their original wedding feast by two monsters. For this spectacular and hugely entertaining opera, Glinka composed a scintillating overture, during which the violins barely have chance to pause for breath. The two main themes on which the Overture is based, a virile, athletic tune played by the violins (representing Ruslan) and a more lyrical melody played by high cellos (representing Ludmilla), are both inspired by Russian folk music.
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Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30
Allegro ma non tanto
Intermezzo (Adagio)
Finale (AIla breve)
Born into an affluent Russian family, Sergei Rachmaninov saw his father squander the entire fortune, the family descend into near-poverty, his sister die of diphtheria and his parents split up, all in the space of barely one year (he was 10 at the time). Consequently he had troubles at school and was eventually packed off to Moscow where he lived with his piano teacher, an overbearing and demanding character whose homosexual advances to his pupils appeared not to include Rachmaninov (who, certainly in adulthood, could never have been described as one of nature's beauties). Rachmaninov managed to break free of his teacher's influence and, following the path set out by Glinka, he established his reputation as an opera composer with his graduation exercise, the opera Aleko. He also submitted to the examiners what was to become his first piano concerto. His burning ambition, however, was to produce the first major Russian symphony after Tchaikovsky but, when it came to the long-awaited première of that, the conductor was so drunk that the performance was a total disaster and Rachmaninov fell into a near-suicidal despair. Desperate to get him back on track as a composer, what was left of his family persuaded him to undergo a course of hypnotherapy and, effectively under hypnosis, he wrote his most successful work, the Second Piano Concerto. More disaster struck in 1918 when the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia forced Rachmaninov to seek exile in the USA, scene of some of his greatest triumphs as a performer, and he lived out his final days there desperately homesick, in a state of almost perpetual depression and virtually unable to compose.
One of those earlier American triumphs had been the première, in New York on 28th November 1909, of his Third Piano Concerto. The Americans had invited Rachmaninov in his capacity as a major concert pianist, but he was determined to show off to them his prowess as a composer and so, once he had accepted the invitation – is first ever to the USA - he set to work on a new piano concerto. He finished it in shortly before leaving Europe and learnt the piano part by heart on board the ship as he crossed the Atlantic, practising mostly on a dummy keyboard in his berth.
The Americans were enormously captivated by the sight of Rachmaninov at the piano. He was a huge bear of man, with vast hands and a grim, forbidding demeanour, and this, coupled with the underlying sense of deep passion and sadness which permeates his music, was largely at the root of his success during that 1909 tour; Americans were not noted for their serious and stern demeanour or their lack of flamboyant gestures. Typical of Rachmaninov is the deeply sorrowful melody given out initially by the orchestra which forms the basis for the set of variations which comprise the Concerto's second movement, while the third, which follows without a break, was clearly designed to display Rachmaninov's virtuosity with its dazzling pianistic displays ending with fistfuls of chords, which to this day never fail to excite an audience.
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Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel) Pictures at an Exhibition
Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel) Pictures at an Exhibition
Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition
In June 1874 Mussorgsky attended a memorial exhibition for his friend, the architect and stage-designer Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann, who had died the previous year. Some 400 of Hartmann’s drawings, designs, watercolours and travel sketches were displayed and Mussorgsky hit on the idea of depicting them in music along with a recurring “Promenade” theme as the viewer moves from one room of the exhibition to another. Fired with enthusiasm, Mussorgsky immediately set to work on the project, completing 10 musical pictures before succumbing to the effects of, as G K Chesterton famously put it, “the abuse of the divine gift of fermented liquor”. He spent his final years in the St Nicholas Military Hospital in St Petersburg where he died having undertaken no further work on the Hartmann project.
After Mussorgsky's death, the hospital authorities collected together all the hundreds of manuscript fragments which had littered his room and passed them to Rimsky-Korsakov. He had heard Mussorgsky play these on the piano before his final decline, and was able to place them in order and have them published as the piano suite, Pictures at an Exhibition, in 1886. There is every indication that Mussorgsky had intended to orchestrate these, and several attempts were made to orchestrate the original piano suite in the years immediately after their publication. However it was the Russian-born conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, who eventually brought about what, for most, is the definitive orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition when he paid Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) 10,000 French francs to undertake the task. This orchestral version was premièred in Paris on 19th October 1922.
Promenade - announced by solo trumpet before being taken up by the different sections of the orchestra. The first exhibit is;
The Gnome - Hartmann's design for an ornamental set of nutcrackers in the shape of a grotesque gnome-like doll.
Promenade - As if reflecting on the rather disturbing gnome doll, this second appearance of the recurring theme is altogether more reflective.
The Old Castle - One of Hartmann’s travel sketches depicts an old castle in front of which he has drawn a medieval singer.
Promenade - A much more cheerful frame of mind now, but the gentle walk around the exhibition is suddenly interrupted by the sight of;
In the Tuileries - A charming picture of children playing in the pretty “Tuileries” gardens in the centre of Paris.
Bydlo - The name given to a Polish ox-cart with enormous wheels.
Promenade - The fourth appearance of the theme is suddenly interrupted by;
Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells - In 1871 Hartmann designed the costumes for a production by the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. One design was of eggs dancing around on two little legs.
Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle - Mussorgsky himself loaned these two pencil drawings to the exhibition. One is of an old Jew, dressed in furs, leisurely in his movements and slow of speech, while the other is of a poor, ragged man obviously hungry and continually whining.
The Market Place at Limoges – This depicts the gossiping, gesticulating women in the market place.
Catacombs: A Roman Sepulchre – The exhibition catalogue described this picture as; “The interior of Paris catacombs with figures of Hartmann, the architect Kenel and the guide holding a lamp.”
With the Dead in a Dead Language – The Promenade theme reappears in a more solemn guise. Mussorgsky wrote above this movement in the original score, “The creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me towards skulls.”
Babi-Yaga's Hut on Chicken's Legs – Hartman had sketched a clock shaped like a hut on legs. Mussorgsky, however, composed a demonic ride inspired by the famous witch from Russian folklore, Babi-Yaga.
The Great Gate of Kiev - Hartmann's architectural design for a massive arch to be cited on the road leading into the city of Kiev.
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Tchaikovsky Overture 1812
Tchaikovsky Overture 1812
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
1812 – A Festive Overture (Op.49)
On 20th August 1882 a magnificent new cathedral was due to be consecrated in the heart of Moscow. It had taken 50 years to build but survived barely 25 – it was blown up by the Bolsheviks shortly after their 1917 revolution – nevertheless it was, at the time, a proud statement of Russian nationalism and grandeur. As part of the celebrations which were to take place during the huge All Russian Exhibition of Arts and Crafts being staged in the city to mark the Silver Jubilee of Tsar Alexander II a music festival was organised, having as its theme the events of 1812 when the Russian people heroically drove Napoleon’s occupying army out of Moscow. Tchaikovsky was asked to contribute. He was given the choice of writing a cantata to be performed inside the cathedral or a festive orchestral work for performance outside. He made a great show of reluctance and then decided to do both, in the process coming up with one of the most extraordinary compositions in the history of music.
Tsar Alexander II was assassinated before the event could take place, so the planned festivities were put off until the following May, coinciding with the coronation of his son as Tsar Alexander III. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 did its job to perfection, combining religious fervour with patriotic pride, solemn contemplation with excessive festivities, but he never expected it to be more than a one-off performance: “I shan’t be surprised or offended if you find that it is unsuitable for symphony concerts”, he wrote to one concert-promoter.
In its original guise 1812 began with a hushed prayer sung by a choir inside the cathedral, the melody of which was then taken up by the violas and cellos placed on the steps outside the great west door, before the huge orchestra and various military bands laid out in the square outside the cathedral burst in, adding the clamour of the cathedral’s bells and assorted artillery effects for good measure; which is the bit most usually heard - as in today’s performance - in the concert hall.
After the initial prayerful opening (the theme is an ancient Russian hymn – “Save us, O Lord”) the music vividly portrays the battle between the forces of France (represented by the Marseillaise – which Napoleon described as “a summons to rebellion”) and Russia (represented by the Tsarist anthem “God Save the Tsar”- which eventually reigns supreme). We won’t hear here in Hong Kong the canons placed strategically on the city walls firing to depict the heat of battle or, at the moment of Russian victory, the peal of bells newly hung in the cathedral tower ringing out. We can only imagine the effect all this had on the Moscow crowds that evening in May 1883.
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