PERFORMERS:
Larisa Diadkova
Yevgeny Akimov
Sergei Aleksashkin
Alexander Gerasimov
Alexander Gergalov
Andrei Ilyushnikov
Grigory Karasev
Mikhail Kit
Nikolai Putilin
Andrei Zorin
Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra
Conductor: Andrei Petrenko
Musical Preparations: Marina Mishuk, Irina Soboleva
PROGRAMME:
Modest Musorgsky
Joshua for soloists, chorus and orchestra (to an Old Testament text adapted by Modest Musorgsky)
Chorus from music for the tragedy Oedipus Rex
The Defeat of the Sennacherib for chorus and orchestra (to a text by George Byron)
Scenes from the operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina
Modest Petrovich Musorgsky was drawn to choral music from his very first steps as a composer. Even his earliest works are notable for his understanding of specific choral sounds and his desire to produce an innovative interpretation of the choral ensemble. Musorgsky turned to major forms with piano or orchestra (several versions of Russian folk songs for a cappella chorus are the exception here). It was only in these conditions that the composer could bring his grandiose plans to fruition. In all of Musorgsky’s choral works one can hear essentially one and the same theme: the tsar (a leader, a hero) and the people – depicted in different ways, though always dramatically or tragically.
The scene of the sacrifice at the Temple of Eumenides is the only surviving fragment of the music for the play Oedipus Rex (1858–1861). As in all subsequent works for chorus, the composer wrote the liturgical text himself, moreover changing Sophocles’ original plot (Oedipus at Colonus) to such an extent that he had to remove the dramatist’s name from the work’s title. The chorus from Oedipus was one of few works by Musorgsky to be universally praised by the Mighty Five. There are several versions of the work by the composer (piano and orchestral scores) as well as an orchestration by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – the one most generally performed. In Rimsky-Korsakov’s version, Musorgsky’s music comes even closer to Western European oratorio-style works (in particular, Mozart’s Requiem). In its original version, the chorus was first performed on 6 April 1861 at the Mariinsky Theatre at a concert conducted by Konstantin Lyadov.
The cantata Joshua for mixed chorus, two soloists and piano was composed by Musorgsky in 1877 and was based on the music of The War Song of the Libyans from the unfinished opera Salammbô (1863–1866). The source of the libretto was the Biblical Book of Joshua (specifically Chapter X with the vivid description of the Sun standing still) in a free poetic adaptation by Musorgsky; the composer also used genuine Hebrew refrains that he himself set to music. Joshua is almost theatrical music as it presents such a vivid and powerful Joshua, the people of Israel he commands (the outer sections of the chorus) and the lamenting “wives of Amurru and Canaan” (the central passage). Musorgsky achieved staggering effects that sound fresh even today in the choral and piano parts, and when these are combined one simply forgets that there is no orchestra. Rimsky-Korsakov introduced some amendments to the music of the chorus in his orchestration (including the deletion of Joshua’s initial command “Stop, Sun!” and subsequent material for the character being given to the chorus).
The Defeat of Sennacherib (The Defeat of Sennacherim in the first version) was one of Musorgsky’s most famous works during his lifetime; the chorus was performed on numerous occasions and met with positive reviews from the critics. Twice – in 1867 and 1874 – the composer turned to this idea, producing two independent orchestral versions. In the second version, with the composer’s agreement, the orchestration was partially undertaken by Rimsky-Korsakov, who later went on to produce his own complete orchestral version of the chorus. The basis of the composer’s own first version (Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestration of which is performed at concerts today) lies on the sharp contrast of the bellicose march of the Assyrians and the prayerful chorale of the Hebrews, in terms of style reminiscent of Russian church song. The dramatic spotlight in the second version falls on the dazzling episode of the miracle, filled with mystical sounds: the flight of Azrael, the Angel of Death, and the deaths of the enemy troops.
The chorus is an incredibly important element in Musorgsky’s operas. The composer made use of all forms of choral music – ranging from individual choral responses and choral recitatives to grandiose choral scenes, such as the famed scene near Kromy; in his dedication of the second version of Boris Godunov, Musorgsky wrote “I see the people as a great personality embodying a ‘common idea.’” Each chorus in Boris Godunov resembles an instant recorded in music of the mental and moral advancement of this collective character: the constrained lament “For whom art thou leaving us” and the praise in the Prologue, a prayer that becomes a wrathful demand, the chorus “Give us bread!” in the finale of the first version of the opera (1868–1869) and the revelry of the folk element in the ecstatic chorus in the finale of the second version (1871–1872).
In opera, the people always form the chorus. In this sense, the “folk musical drama” Khovanshchina (1872–1880) may be considered a choral opera in accordance with the composer’s designation of the genre, as the people occupy such an important part in the plot and the significance of the chorus is great indeed. “So far, the people cannot see with their own eyes what is being done to them; so far, they themselves don’t want this or that to be done to them – in the same place! ” the composer wrote to Vladimir Stasov while working on the opera. There is no such body of people in Khovanshchina, and neither is there a “single idea”; that is their tragedy. In Khovanshchina the people are residents of Moscow, settlers, streltsy guards and schismatics. At no point in the opera do they combine to form a single chorus (or even two or three choral groups) – this is the most visible evidence of the people’s tragic division. In the settlers’ chorus “Woe to thee, native Mother Russia” (Act I), illiterate people who do not understand the events that are occurring speak of a deep folk wisdom and one can hear a forewarning of Russia’s tragic destiny in these words. The brief chorus “Father, Father, come out to us!” at the end of Act III sounds like a lament for the streltsy, not yet defeated but already broken. In Khovanshchina there is not a single pure genre choral scene; even the celebratory chorus of servant maids “A swan is swimming, swimming” directly precedes Khovansky’s sudden murder in line with the composer’s plan, giving rise to an incredibly dramatic contrast. In the “Rumour song”, initially seemingly not serious, the genre veil is quickly drawn back revealing the tragic subtext – the impending fate of the streltsy. (Here, too, an incursive technique is used: the Scrivener appears with the dreadful news of the merciless attack on the streltsy free settlement by Peter’s forces and horsemen.) These and other choral scenes in the opera (“Praise to the swan” honouring Khovansky, the lamentation of the wives of the streltsy, the prayers of the streltsy in the grandiose scene of their cancelled execution and the schismatics’ chorus of “Through victory, through defeat”) always provide vivid accents in the drama of Khovanshchina and are often the culminations of scenes and even entire acts. It is natural that a chorus also crowns the opera – the schismatic chorus of self-immolation, earnest, bleakly beautiful and unbroken in spirit...
Vladimir Goryachikh
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