St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Stravinsky. Berio


PERFORMERS:
Yekaterina Sergeyeva (mezzo-soprano)
Alexander Timchenko (tenor)
Dmitry Voropaev (tenor)
Sergei Romanov (baritone)
Yuri Vlasov (bass)

The Mariinsky Chamber Orchestra:
Nikolai Mokhov (flute)
Viktor Ukhalin (oboe, cor anglais)
Nikita Vaganov (clarinet)
Vitaly Papyrin (clarinet, clarinet-piccolo)
Rodion Tolmachev (bassoon)
Alexander Afanasiev (french horn)
Pyotr Rodin (french horn)
Nikita Istomin (trumpet)
Alexei Lobikov (trombone)
Stanislav Izmailov (violin)
Yelizaveta Goldenberg (violin)
Yuri Afonkin (viola)
Dmitry Ganenko (cello)
Sergei Trafimovich (double-basse)
Sofia Kiprskaya (harp)
Fyodor Khandrikov (percussion)
Arseny Shuplyakov (percussion)
Grigory Zhuravlev (percussion)
Vladimir Maslov (percussion)
Olga Okhromenko (harpsichord)
Conductor: Ivan Stolbov


PROGRAMME:
Igor Stravinsky
The Fable of the Fox, the Cock, the Tomcat and the Ram, concert performance
L’Histoire du soldat, concert version for narrator and orchestra
The Narrator: Alexander Podmeshalsky

Luciano Berio
Сanzoni popolari (Folk Songs) for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra


L’Histoire du soldat (1918) is an original genre-style mix created by Stravinsky in collaboration with the librettist Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz. The plot is based on Russian folk tales (which also featured several motifs of the legend of Faust), but the creators strove to give it true world significance and present it as a parable. This parable, however, was not entirely devoid of topical and autobiographical character; the composer admitted that, like the hero of his work, he was “left with nothing, in a foreign land, at the very height of the war.”
The circumstances of the war years affected not just the themes of L’Histoire but its performers as well. The piece, which was conceived as a production for a small travelling company, was to be chamber in terms of its nature; just four characters and a unique orchestra of “a handful of instruments” including the main orchestral sections plus percussion. Seeing the orchestra as an ensemble of soloists, Stravinsky personified the timbres: the violin – the object of victory in the battle – embodies the soldier’s soul while the drum embodies the Devil. The environment that is alien to the Russian soldier is represented by “foreign” dances (the tango, waltz and ragtime) and Spanish and German genres (marcha pasodoble and chorale). L’Histoire includes numerous sound associations with the concerts of renowned New Orleans jazz bands, recordings of which Stravinsky so greatly admired.

Stravinsky’s The Fable of the Vixen, the Cock, the Cat and the Ram (1916) with the secondary title “The Fox Burlesque Tale Sung and Played” is a one-act joke in the Russian popular folk style in which Stravinsky once again turned to the traditions of jesters’ “laughter” theatre. The plot of Russian folk tales from the folkloric anthology by Afanasiev in which the instructive story of human weaknesses becomes allegorical in nature, a bestiary, provided the composer with a mass of witty musical innovations. Thus one of the finest comic masterpieces of the 20th century was created.
Nadezhda Kulygina

Luciano Berio (1925–2003) went down in history as an avant-garde composer and the man who wrote one of the most significant symphonies of the latter half of the 20th century. Beyond the realms of contemporary music festivals he is better known as the composer of eleven Folk Songs for mezzo-soprano and six instruments (a second version being produced for chamber orchestra). Avant-gardists rarely write about the moon and nightingales, but in his Folk Songs Berio decided to speak about eternal themes everyone could understand. The songs were written in 1964 for Berio’s first wife Cathy Berberian who had come from the USA to Milan to embark on a career in opera, met her own destiny there and gave up all thoughts of opera.
Strictly speaking, Folk Songs is a cycle of folkloric arrangements in which the melodies appear without any distortions, embraced by delicate accompaniments and refined timbre adornment. It is also a journey through time and space, as Berio had selected songs from different countries and different eras, including ones in languages that had all but died out. The melodies Black Is the Colour and I Wonder as I Wander were written by the Kentucky singer and composer John Jacob Niles. In the former song a lover tells of his beloved before embracing a Christmas carol.
Loosin Yelav is an Armenian song that speaks of the rising moon, while the playful French song Rossignolet du bois speaks of how the heart of a beautiful woman is won. The Sicilian A la femminisca is written as if from the wives of slaves awaiting their husbands on shore. The melodies La donna ideale and Ballo were composed by Berio himself as far back as 1947 when he was still a student at the Conservatorio in Milan (the lyrics to the first as in Genoese dialect).
In the Sardinian song Motettu de tristura one can hear the mournful lament of the nightingale. Malurous qu’o uno fenno and Lo Fïolairé are sung in Occitan. The composer used the words of Joseph Canteloube but produced his own arrangement. The final love song Qalalıyam is Azerbaijan. Berberian heard this song on an old Soviet record and performed it live. Later Luciano Berio recorded and arranged it. Thanks to the precision with which Berberian was able to reproduce the sounds of languages she did not know, a specialist in the Urals and Altai languages subsequently narrated the text to her. The song speaks of how two young lovers agree to meet at night. “You go that way, I go this and we’ll both throw enemies from the path” one couplet resounds. The lovers gather to meet in the garden of roses. The final couplet is performed in Russian.

Age category 6+

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