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.