Program Notes
Modest Mussorgsky Born: March 21, 1839, Karevo, Pskov District Died: March 28, 1881, St. Petersburg
m
Dance of the Persian Maidens, from Khovanshchina
odest Mussorgsky worked on and off for eight years (1872-1880) on his opera Khovanshchina, but at his death in March 1881, the work was still far from complete. The story, fashioned by the composer and his friend Vladimir Stassov, concerned a particularly turbulent period in Russian history, 16821689. It saw the clash between the old regime and the radical new one of Peter the Great, the conflict between Eastern and Western ideas, orthodoxy and iconoclasm. The dawn of a new age is portrayed symbolically in the opera’s most famous excerpt, the Prelude to Khovanshchina, which translates as “The Khovanskys,” who supported the old regime of Prince Khovansky. Mussorgsky himself titled the Prelude Dawn over the Moskva River. In the words of conductor Valery Gergiev, the opera is “a massive canvas of many conflicting tragedies, fears, ambitions and hopes for Russia.”
at the same time... Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante premieres in its final form in 1954, the year: • Color TVs go on sale to the public—for roughly $10,000 in today’s dollars • The U.S. Senate censures Joseph McCarthy, signaling the decline of McCarthyism • J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the first volume of his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy
feb 9, 10, 11
Mussorgsky left only a vocal score for Khovanshchina. The task of orchestrating and completing the work for performance was undertaken by Rimsky-Korsakov, who had edited most of Mussorgsky’s other orchestral works as well. Rimsky-Korsakov “corrected” Mussorgsky’s supposedly crude harmonies and smoothed out some dissonant, primitive-sounding passages that gave the music its bold originality. It is in this version that the Prelude (indeed, the entire opera) is usually heard today, but other orchestrations exist by Stravinsky/Ravel and by Shostakovich. The first performance of the opera was given on February 21, 1886, in St. Petersburg by an amateur company; the first professional production, also in St. Petersburg, waited until November 7, 1911.
a sensuous dance episode
The Dance of the Persian Maidens comes from the fourth of the opera’s five acts. As the curtain rises, we see Prince Khovansky in the banquet hall of his palace. A messenger arrives to inform him that his life is in danger, but the Prince angrily dismisses the threat and orders the messenger beaten. The Prince is in a turbulent state of mind. He calls for his Persian dancing girls to come entertain him. This they do during a sevenminute episode that to some listeners brings to mind the Polovtsian Dances in Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, written almost concurrently with Mussorgsky’s opera. However, Borodin’s dances are provided as a public spectacle, while Mussorgsky’s are for a private audience. Furthermore, the styles are quiet different. Instead of the barbaric splendor found in the Polovtsian Dances, we find a gentler, more sinuous and sensuous tone to Mussorgsky’s music, something more akin to the ministrations of a Scheherazade, perhaps. This was to be Prince Khovansky’s last pleasure, for moments later he is struck down by an assassin’s knife. Instrumentation: 3 flutes (2 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, field drum, tambourine, triangle, cymbals, harp and strings
In 1893, when Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony is first performed: • The words to America the Beautiful are penned by Wellesley professor Katharine Lee Bates • Norwegian artist Edvard Munch paints his best-known work, The Scream • New Orleans hosts the longest-ever boxing match— 110 rounds in more than seven hours
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2012
All materials copyright © 2012 by the Minnesota Orchestra.
MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA
31
Minnesota Orchestra