Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 1847) “Ruy Blas” Overture

Mendelssohn’s genius declared itself early and before he was 15 years of age he had written as many symphonies as well as an opera. From 20 to 24 he travelled to see the world, becoming a great favourite in England. He was one of the first composers to write independent concert-overtures (e.g. “Fingal’s Cave”) which are like miniature symphonic poems.

One of the most brilliant and attractive of these concert-overtures is “Ruy Blas”, which was commissioned for a performance of Victor Hugo’s heart-rending drama, the receipts of which were to help widows of the Leipzig Opera House Orchestra. It appears that Mendelssohn disliked the play so much that he disparagingly referred to his composition as “The Overture to the Widows’ Fund” and he dashed off the piece in under three days. The music does not suffer in the least from Mendelssohn’s hostility towards the play and it is a jolly, slightly melodramatic, but agreeably tuneful piece.

Peter Il’yich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840 –1893) “Swan Lake” Ballet – Suite

At the age of 23 Tchaikovsky gave up his job as a civil servant and, despite poverty, devoted himself to music. He studied at the Conservatory of St. Petersburg under Anton Rubinstein and later was influenced by Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Despite his melodic gift, brilliant skills of orchestration and the ability to express strong emotion in musical terms, Tchaikovsky confessed that he was a poor symphonist: “All my life I have been much troubled by my inability to grasp and manipulate form in music. What I write has always a mountain of padding”. However, classical ballet, with its small, clearly defined units and emphasis on melody and strong rhythmic variety, was ideally suited to Tchaikovsky’s talents.

The first production of “Swan Lake” at the Bolshoi Theatre on 4th March 1877 did the music no service and was a huge failure. It was not until two years after Tchaikovsky’s death that a lavish revival set the work on its way to becoming the most popular of all ballets.

The Suite from the ballet comprises the following numbers:

1. Scene – On a moonlit lake a flight of swans appears led by Princess Odette who has been turned into a swan by a wicked magician.

2. Waltz – Prince Siegfried is celebrating his 21st birthday with his friends.

3. Dance of the Cygnets.

4. Hungarian Dance – Siegfried has invited Odette to a ball at the castle which includes dances from Spain, Italy and Hungary.

Gabriel FAURE (1845 – 1924) Pavane, Op. 50

After studying with Saint-Saens, Faure was a professional church organist for thirty years. At the age of sixty he became Director of the Paris Conservatory, a position he held for fifteen years. Faure’s delicate music, with its clear orchestration, is representative of human feeling at its most private and civilised. His style is a mixture of classical restraint and superficial beauty with an intense expression of romanticism through long melodic lines and luscious harmony. The pavane is a slow, majestic dance of Italian origin which was frequently played at weddings and solemn feasts. The dance became so popular in Spain, that it was long assumed to be of Spanish origin. Faure’s Pavane, one of his best known pieces, has been used as ballet music on several occasions. In 1901 it was furnished with an atmospheric choral part.

Jean SIBELIUS (1865 – 1957) Symphony No. 2 in D major – 1st and 4th movements

The music of Sibelius was undoubtedly influenced by Tchaikovsky and the Second symphony with its wonderful orchestration has a clear affinity with the Russian composer. Although a success when the composer conducted its first performance in Helsinki in 1902, its popularity was slow to spread abroad. Nowadays, however, it is probably the best loved of the composer’s seven symphonies.

I Allegretto – The first movement gradually integrates a number of disjointed thematic fragments into an organic whole. This led early commentators to credit Sibelius with “the introduction of an entirely new principle of symphonic form”, although, nearly 40 years previously, Borodin had employed the same method in his First Symphony. The various ideas come together at the moment of highest emotional tension, after which the music returns to the pastoral mood in which it began.

IV Finale – The resplendently heroic Fourth movement (its first subject punctuated by a stirring brass fanfare) may suggest Finland’s hopes for independence from Russian domination but Sibelius vehemently denied any such nationalist bias in the finale. What is more certain is that the elegiac repeated phrase on the woodwind over endlessly surging and sighing violas and cellos (interrupting the broad main theme on two occasions) was inspired by the suicide of his sister-in-law, which deeply affected Sibelius.

Ralph VAUGHAN-WILLIAMS (1872 – 1958) “The Wasps” Overture

Vaughan-Williams was one of the most successful of English composers, writing on a large scale in a harmonic style that he made completely his own. Aristophanes’ play “The Wasps” is a comedy that brilliantly satirises the legal system of the time, in particular the lucrative business of bringing law suits. (The play was written c. 425 B.C. - “Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose”.) The play includes one character who is so obsessed by litigation that he brings his own dog to trial for stealing cheese!

Vaughan -Williams wrote his incidental music for a production of the play in Cambridge in 1909, providing 18 separate vocal and instrumental numbers. The famous overture begins with the angry buzzing of the wasps (in reality the clamouring of the litigants) and uses three of the play’s choruses for its main melodic material. The glorious melody that functions as a second subject in the overture is a splendid example of the composer’s life-long interest in English folk music.

Leo DELIBES (1836 – 1891) “Coppelia” Ballet – Suite

Delibes studied at the Paris Conservatory and then at once appeared before the public as a composer of successful operettas, operas, and ballets. Of the ballets, “Sylvia” and “Coppelia” are favourite specimens.

“Coppelia” is the story of Swanilda, a peasant girl from Galicia. Swanilda loves Frantz, but he is intrigued by a beautiful young woman whom he glimpsed inside the house of Dr. Coppelius, an old scientist. The “beautiful young woman” later turns out to be an automaton - a life-sized doll. The ballet ends happily with Frantz becoming betrothed to his “living doll” after he decides she is preferable to the clockwork version.

Within a couple of months of the first performance of “Coppelia” in May 1870, the 16 year old ballerina who had created the role of Swanilda died of smallpox, St. Leon, the choreographer, had already died of exhaustion and shortly afterwards, Dauty, the original Dr. Coppelius, also died.

After such a catalogue of woe, it is cheering to note that Delibes wrote a marvellous score for “Coppelia”. There is never a dull bar, and the sparkling succession of tunes, delicately orchestrated with consistent flair and imagination, provide superb entertainment - even without the dancing!

Charles Louis Ambroise THOMAS (1811 – 1896) “Raymond” – Overture

Ambroise Thomas was the son of a musician, and an infant prodigy. At the Paris Conservatory he carried off high honours culminating in the Rome Prize at the age of 21. Returning to Paris he achieved success as a melodious but essentially light-weight composer. Emmanuel Chabrier unkindly remarked, “There are three kinds of music: good, bad and the music of Ambroise Thomas”. Of his works only “Mignon” and “Raymond”, and that only for its overture, are remembered today. The latter, a favourite with brass bands, starts daintily and ends with an appealing heart-on-the-sleeve theme which introduces a melodramatic opera based on the 17th century legend of the man in the iron mask.