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Frederick DELIUS - Sleigh Ride
Delius was born at Bradford in 1862 and died at
Grez-sur-Loing, France in 1934 aged seventy-two. His
father was German, of Dutch descent, and his mother was
German.
The following, not exactly complimentary opinion on
Delius’ music, is taken from “The Record Guide”(1951) by
Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe-Taylor:
“Delius aimed to convey in sound a succession of
poetic feelings. To achieve such an aim without lapsing
into a trance-like vagueness or mere sentimentality,
requires strength of mind, which Delius undoubtedly
possessed, although he appears markedly deficient in
purely intellectual qualities. At its worst, his music
is exasperatingly fluid, unseizable; this rhapsodic
dreamer had no turn for quick music, and when obliged
for any reason or another to depart from his favourite,
gently lapping rhythm, he could rarely think of anything
but a heavy-footed six-eight”.
“Sleigh Ride” is not in six-eight and it is hardly
“heavy-footed”. It began life as a piano piece called
“Norwegian Sleigh Ride”, composed by Delius for a
Christmas Eve party in 1887 at which Edvard Grieg was
present. It is not known whether Grieg liked the piece
or not – but Delius must have done, for three years
later he arranged it for orchestra and gave it a new
title – “Winter Night”.
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH - Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op.
47
Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg in 1906. He
died in 1975.
After study at the conservatory of his native city, he
plunged into composition, producing in quick succession
a series of symphonies, operas, piano works, film music
etc. His music, from the first distinctly Russian in
flavour, is however founded on characteristic elements
taken from three very different composers: Mahler,
Hindemith and Rossini.
After being spoken of in such high terms as
“composer-laureate of the Soviet state” the
composer, in 1936, fell into some degree of disgrace
after his opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” proved
particularly obnoxious to the notable musical
connoisseur, Joseph Stalin.
Shostakovich described his Fifth Symphony as “a
Soviet artist’s response to just criticism…..The theme
of the symphony is the making of Man with all his joys
and sorrows. I saw Man with all his experiences in the
centre of the composition, which is lyrical in form from
beginning to end”.
The first movement, Moderato, opens with a dramatic
statement by the cellos and basses which soon subsides –
but the underlying unease does not disappear during the
long, lyrical paragraphs of the exposition. With the
beginning of the development section the pace quickens
and the atmosphere becomes even more frenzied. The
movement climaxes in a grotesque, Mahlerian march.
The second movement, Allegretto, comes as a relief of
tension from the preceding movement. But there is still
a disturbing quality about this wry Scherzo, which is
predominantly heavy and shrill, and is followed by a
Trio with the burlesque of the solo violin and its
accompanying primitive harmonies.
The slow movement is a quiet, meditative Largo – one of
the most beautiful movements Shostakovich ever penned.
Significantly, all the brass instruments, including the
horns, are dropped. The violins are divided unusually
into three groups.
The last movement. Allegro non troppo, bursts forth with
a stirring theme in march rhythm which presses on
relentlessly to a powerful climax in which the brass
dominate.
There are opposing views about the conclusion of the
symphony:
(i) “After the tragically tense impulses of the
earlier movements the symphony is resolved in optimism
and the joy of living”
(ii) “This hollow close is not a resolution but
only emphasizes the emptiness and despair which pervade
the whole symphony”.
The Soviet authorities, who expected their composers to
produce works which were positive in tone, may have
taken the first view, for their criticism of
Shostakovich stopped for some time at least. But later
in life the composer himself would seem to have favoured
the second opinion, when he said:
“I think it is clear to everyone what happens in the
Fifth Symphony. It’s as if someone was beating you with
a stick and saying, “Your business is rejoicing. Your
business is rejoicing” and you rise, shakily, and go off
muttering, “My business is rejoicing”.
Fortunately, Shostakovich’s music is generally far
easier to understand in performance than it is to
analyse.
Gioacchino ROSSINI - “Semiramide” Overture
Rossini, one of the most successful operatic
composers of his time, was born at Pesaro in 1792, five
months after his parents’ marriage. His father was an
inspector of slaughter-houses who also played the
trumpet. Later he taught the horn at the Bologna
Accademia. Rossini’s mother was a singer, and as a boy
Gioacchino made his appearance with his father in the
pit orchestra, and from time to time as a singer with
his mother on stage, going on to work as a keyboard
player in the opera orchestra.
In childhood he had already started to show ability as a
composer and his experience in the opera-house bore
natural fruit in a remarkable and meteoric career that
began in 1810 with the production of “La Cambiale di
Matrimonio” in Venice in 1819.
Between 1810 and 1829 Rossini wrote thirty-eight operas.
The hectic life of a dramatic composer (“The Barber
of Seville” was completed within three weeks) may
have overtaxed his strength. Tired, or lazy, he took
early retirement at thirty-seven years of age and moved
to Paris where he enjoyed a reputation as an arbiter of
musical taste, a wit and a gourmet. He composed only a
few religious pieces and miniatures before his death in
1868.
The libretto of “Semiramide” (1823) was adapted
from Voltaire. Semiramis, Queen of Babylon (the subject
of more than thirty previous operas) murders her husband
King Ninus and falls in love with the youthful commander
of her army, who turns out to be her own son. In the end
she saves his life from an attempted assassination,
“interposing her body and receiving the death wound”.
Unlike some of Rossini’s overtures, that to
“Semiramide” introduces music from the opera. The
Allegro vivace introduction opens softly over a long
drum roll but it is worked up to a fortissimo climax
before it leads to an Andantino in which there is some
fine writing for a horn quartet. The brilliant Allegro
which follows is said to derive from a popular song. It
is difficult to feel that the joyous music really gives
any indication of the tragic Babylonian drama to come.
The overture ends with a long, exciting and typically
Rossinian crescendo.
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