Thursday September 24, 2009

Colorado Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Scott O’Neil, conductor;
Claude Debussy: Nocturnes
Maurice Ravel: La Valse (4/17-18/09)
Alos, Charley anticipates the opening concert of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado tomorrow.
Johann Sebastian Bach: “Gigue” from Solo Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Cynthia Miller Freivogel, violin
Georg Philipp Telemann: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D major
Frank Nowell, harpsichord; Cynthia Miller Freivogel, violin
KVOD Performance Studio 7/14/06 MS

Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Nocturnes
I. Nuages (Clouds)
II. Fêtes (Festivals)
III. Sirènes (Sirens)

Debussy's first large-scale orchestral work, the three Nocturnes for orchestra, occupied him on and off for a decade. Sometime in 1890, he began setting the Scenes at Twilight of Henri di Regnier. Two years later, discussing the works he intended to use during a projected American tour, he mentioned that ``Three Scenes at Twilight are almost finished, that is to say that the orchestration is entirely laid out and it is simply a question of writing out the score.''
The American tour fell through and the Three Scenes were shelved until 1894, when Debussy told the violinist Eugène Ysaye about a new work of his called Three Nocturnes. It was the same Three Scenes of four years before, but with solo violin instead of voice. Some have suggested that Debussy was inspired by James McNeill Whistler's painting Nocturnes. Indeed, Debussy described his own Nocturnes as ``an experiment with the different combinations that can be obtained from one color--like a study in grey in painting.''
By 1900 the solo violin was dropped and the first two of the three Nocturnes were played by the Lamoureux Orchestra on December 9. On October 27, 1901, all three Nocturnes were played by the same orchestra. Debussy was praised by one reviewer as ``one of the most original artists of the day,'' who was ``guided by a refined and unerring taste'' and who ``seems to have attained complete lucidity of thought and accuracy of expression.''
``The title Nocturnes,'' wrote Debussy, ``is to be interpreted here in a general, and more particularly, in a decorative sense. It is not meant to designate the usual form of the nocturne, but rather, all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests.''
Debussy then described each movement: ``Nuages (Clouds) renders the immutable aspect of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds, fading away in grey tones lightly tinged with white.
``Fêtes (Festivals) gives us the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. There is also the episode of the procession (a dazzling, fantastic vision) which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains persistently the same: the festival with its blending of music and luminous dust participating in the cosmic rhythm.
``Sirènes (Sirens) depicts the sea and its countless rhythms and presently, among the waves silvered by the moonlight, is heard the mysterious song of the Sirens as they laugh and pass on.''
The score calls for 3 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 harps, cymbals, snare drum and strings.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): La Valse
``It is not subtle--what I am undertaking at the moment,'' Ravel wrote to a friend in 1908. ``It is a Grande Valse, a sort of homage to the memory of the great Strauss. You know my intense sympathy for this admirable rhythm and that I hold la joie de vivre as expressed by the dance in esteem.'' The original sketches for Ravel's homage to the younger Johann Strauss were titled simply Vienna.
The impetus to finish the piece came from Sergei Diaghilev, the director of the Russian Ballet, who asked Ravel to compose another ballet for him. Ravel had already written Daphnis and Chloe for the Russian impresario.
By 1919 Vienna had become La Valse, subtitled ``A Choreographic Poem.'' Ravel provided stage directions in the score: ``Drifting clouds give glimpses, through rifts, of couples waltzing. The clouds gradually scatter, and an immense hall can be seen, filled with a whirling crowd. The light of chandeliers bursts forth. An Imperial Court about 1855.''
Recalling the piece later, Ravel wrote: ``I had intended this work to be a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, with which was associated in my imagination an impression of a fantastic and fatal kind of dervish's dance.''
However, Diaghilev found La Valse impossible to choreograph, much less finance. Ravel took this as a criticism of his music. Five years later, impresario and composer met in Monte Carlo. When Ravel refused Diaghilev's handshake, Diaghilev challenged Ravel to a duel. Fortunately, mutual friends intervened and the duel was cancelled. The two men never met again.
Since Diaghilev refused to perform La Valse as a ballet, Ravel introduced the work as a concert piece in Paris in 1920. La Valse remained in the concert hall until 1928, when Ida Rubinstein, herself a former member of Diaghilev's company, produced the music as a ballet. That same year, Bronislava Nijinska choreographed it.
La Valse is dedicated to Misia Sert, the wife of the Spanish Painter Jose Maria Sert. It was she, besides Diaghilev, who originally suggested the idea to Ravel.
``This work seems to introduce us to the very mystery of Genesis itself,'' wrote Jean Cotté. ``In it is unveiled the formation of the formless, the birth of a shape torn, little by little, out of chaos by some creator of genius....The imaginary unreal becomes the source of the most clearly perceived reality.''
The score calls for piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, 2 harps and strings.