Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Spring Arrives Tchaikovsky vs Rimsky-Korsakov

So long, winter. We hardly knew ye! Spring arrives this afternoon at 5:24 EDT.

Last night on “The Lost Chord,” I presented highlights from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Snow Maiden.” The work is an allegorical fairy tale of humans, quasi-mythological creatures, and the eternal forces of nature, with the story of a star-crossed love bringing about the end of a 15-year winter.

Rimsky’s opera, composed in 1880-81, was based on a play by Alexander Ostrovsky, which was first presented in 1873 with incidental music by Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) and Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) shared something of a complicated rivalry. In public, they were genial and even supportive of one another, while in private both grappled with suspicion and envy. By the mid-1880s, Tchaikovsky achieved such eminence that Rimsky found himself creatively paralyzed. For his part, Tchaikovsky swore his publisher to secrecy about his use of a recently-invented instrument, the celesta, to characterize the Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker,” so nervous was he that Rimsky would steal his thunder.

Tchaikovsky’s untimely death finally lifted some of the pressure. Rimsky exorcised his demons by setting Nikolai Gogol’s short story “Christmas Eve,” a work Tchaikovsky had already adapted as an opera twice: in 1874, as “Vakula the Smith,” and in 1885, as “Cherevichki” (“The Slippers”). Rimsky’s own operatic version of the tale appeared in 1895.

Rimsky was only 50 when he began work on “Christmas Eve,” but it proved to be the start of something of an Indian summer for the composer. 11 of his 15 operas followed. By the time of his death at the age of 64, he could be said to have been every bit as revered as Tchaikovsky.

Thanks to the orchestral suite Rimsky distilled from “The Snow Maiden,” at least some of his music is better-known, especially “Dance of the Tumblers,” which is a favorite for drive-time radio. The best-known bit from Tchaikovsky’s version, which honestly has never really caught on to the extent that Rimsky’s has, is also his “Dance of the Tumblers.”

Winter isn’t over until a ray of sunshine strikes the Snow Maiden. All hail Yarilo, Slavic god of vegetation, fertility, and springtime!

Tchaikovsky, “Dance of the Tumblers”

Rimsky-Korsakov, “Dance of the Tumblers”

Tchaikovsky, Complete incidental music to “The Snow Maiden”

Rimsky-Korsakov, Suite from the opera “The Snow Maiden”

March 20, 2023
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Lost Operas: Snow Maiden

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was the composer of no fewer than 15 operas. But how many of them are known in the West?

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have a chance to sample one of them, as we welcome spring with selections from “The Snow Maiden.”

Based on an allegorical fairy tale of humans, quasi-mythological creatures, and the eternal forces of nature, it’s the story of a star-crossed love that brings about the end of a 15-year winter. The orchestral suite – which climaxes with the “Dance of the Tumblers” – is fairly popular, but the opera itself is seldom done, at least outside of Russia.

The recording we’ll sample, on the Capriccio label, features the Bulgarian Radio Symphony conducted by Stoyan Angelov. It may not hold a candle to the best Rimsky opera recordings by conductors like Nikolai Golovanov, but it’s enough to give a taste of what American opera lovers are missing.

I hope you’ll join me for “The Thaw of the Wild,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

And lest anyone doubt my motives in celebrating a Russian composer since the invasion of Ukraine, Rimsky was no fan of authoritarianism, or imperialism, for that matter. If you’re interested to learn more, I wrote about it in this post about another one of his operas, last year:

March 19, 2023
Max Reger

His surname reads the same forward and backward; which is oddly appropriate for a composer whose music plenty of listeners have felt doesn’t seem to really go anywhere. But knowing what I do of Max Reger, I’m sure he couldn’t have cared less about other people’s opinions.

Perhaps the craziest exemplar of crazy German contrapuntalism, Reger could write music of such density that the individual voices could get lost in a tangle, deep inside a knot, somewhere in an impenetrable thicket.

He was mostly a composer of “abstract” music – mainly a lot of fugues and sets of variations – seeing himself as the heir of Beethoven and Brahms. But it is the Baroque masters Reger most closely resembles, in his own gargantuan, overcooked way, especially in his organ works, of which he composed many.

Aside from his sporadically delightful (though occasionally borderline) “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart” and a handful of organ works, most of his prolific output is known mainly by specialists. For some reason or another, Rudolf Serkin remained a high-profile torchbearer. Serkin recorded Reger’s Piano Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra and, later in life, the “Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Bach.”

To me, Reger comes closest to being palatable – and even charming – when restricted to a single, non-keyboard instrument, as in his sonatas for solo violin and suites for solo cello.

Also, it sounds like he may have actually had some fun composing his “Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin.” Böcklin, you may recall, was the Swiss artist who painted “The Isle of the Dead,” which inspired the third of these. Surprisingly, the tone poems are late works. Did anyone see them coming? I guess after a lifetime of getting all tangled up, Reger just wanted to walk around with loose shoelaces for a change.

Despite the fact that in most of his photos he looks like he’s got a mouth full of sauerkraut, Reger actually proved himself to have a sharp sense of humor. His most famous retort to a critic came in the form of a letter written in 1906. It reads: “I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me.”

Reger, you rascal. Why couldn’t you get more of that into your music?

On the occasion of his sesquicentenary, happy 150th, Max Reger!

“Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart”

“Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H”

Rudolf Serkin plays the “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Bach”

Serkin plays the Piano Concerto

Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin in G Major, Op. 91, No. 6

Mov’t I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW4Jk3zmbzg
Mov’t II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKfGFwQZgeg
Mov’t III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u_sWKiLc60
Mov’t IV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoaTz5mVuXg

Suite for Unaccompanied Cello in G Major, Op. 131c, No. 1

“Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin,” with the paintings that inspired them (let the playlist run)

PHOTOS: The many moods of Max Reger (1873-1916)

March 19, 2023
Silk Road Film Scores Yeoh & More

This week on “Picture Perfect,” with Michelle Yeoh’s Academy Award win for her lead performance in “Everything, Everywhere All at Once,” I thought we’d revisit her earlier international success, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” as part of a musical journey along the Silk Road to China.

We’ll begin with “The Adventures of Marco Polo” (1938), starring Gary Cooper, of all people, as the medieval merchant-explorer. The score was the first by Hugo Friedhofer – despite his über-German name, born in San Francisco. Freidhofer had been laboring as an orchestrator for bigger-named composers, such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner. He would go on to win an Academy Award for his music for the 1946 film “The Best Years of Our Lives.”

Then we’ll hear selections from two big-screen presentations of the exploits of Genghis Khan. “Genghis Khan” (1965), in the best Old Hollywood tradition, has quite the multi-national cast: Omar Sharif, Stephen Boyd, James Mason, Robert Morley, Francoise Morleac, Telly Savalas, Eli Wallach, Woody Strode, and hordes of extras. The music is by Yugoslavian composer Dusan Radic.

It’s interesting to compare it with “Mongol” (2007). Though the latter film was a joint production of Russia, Germany, and Kazakhstan, it was actually shot in China. The music is by Finnish composer Tuomas Kantelinen, supplemented by contributions by the Mongolian rock band Altan Urag. We’ll stick with the orchestral stuff.

The score is striking for its use of khöömii throat-singers, female soloists lamenting and ululating over the orchestra, as well as the unique art of “urtiin duu,” traditional Mongolian long-singing. “Mongol” received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Finally, we’ll hear selections from Ang Lee’s martial artsy opus “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), with music by Tan Dun. Let’s just say, Yeoh, as Yu Shu Lien, and Chow Yun-fat, as Li Mu Bai, are extraordinarily light on their feet. The film was the winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Score. It was also nominated for Best Picture.

Yo-Yo Ma performs the cello solos. One of the tracks is titled “Silk Road.” In 1998, Ma founded his Silk Road Ensemble.

Slip into some sensible shoes. We’ll travel 7000 miles along the Silk Road this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 18, 2023
Roy’s Sci-Fi: St. Patrick’s Day Hiatus

Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner will not be seen tonight, in order that we may better commune with St. Patrick.

However, if you get all sentimental after a few glasses of stout, you can always call up this classic episode from 2021, about “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.” This is the one in which the viewers and I enjoy a private joke and get wasted at Roy’s expense (which is revealed only at the end of the show).

Sorry, I haven’t grown back the beard. I still look 20 years younger. But I’ll do my best to catch up with a night of hard living.

Later this weekend, be sure to join Roy and special guest, author and Starlog Magazine writer David Hirsch, as they discuss Professor Bernard Quatermass and his half-century of rescuing mankind from sinister alien forces, during the course of the various “Quatermass” adventures, on radio, television, and film.

The show will be livestreamed on Facebook, YouTube, etc., at a special time, THIS SUNDAY EVENING AT 7:00 EDT.

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

For now, remember to donnybrook responsibly. Roy and I will reconvene next Friday evening at 7:30 (provided somebody posts bail).

Sláinte!

March 17, 2023

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