The first piece of the evening was Gluck's dramatic ballet-pantomine Don Juan or Le Festin de Pierre, based on theatre script by Moliere, originally in 31 movements but condensed into the present 15 in 3 acts by Gasparo Angiolini, the foremost dancer of the Viennese court at the time, making the action much tighter. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna in October 1761. According to the programme notes, the first Act featured the fatal duel between Don Juan and the hapless Commander; the second, the appearance of the ghost of the Commander in one of Don Juan's numerous parties while the third depicted Don Juan in hell. What added considerably to our enjoyment of the piece was the very brief and humorous oral introduction to what the relevant movement would be about by the founder conductor Minkowski just before it was played, done by him with his almost intimate French-accented English. Here's roughly what he said about these 15 movements:
1. With his servant Don Juan leads a group of musician under the balcony of the Commander's house facing a promenade on one side of the a public square in Madrid.
2. The musicians enters the door of the Commander's house opened for them by his niece and played their serenade with nothing but guitars.
3. The Commander and Don Juan engages in a sword fight whose sound can be heard in the street, the musician flee and the fight continue in the street and the commander is wounded, rushes to the side of his house, tries to support himself with his sword but falls.
4. Don Juan is having another party dancing whilst his servants are preparing the banquet.
5. A very Spanish chaconne
6. Don Juan dances with the Commander's niece
7. Another Dance and Don Juan's servant announces that dinner is ready.
8. There's a knock at the door. Don Juan's servant takes a candle and goes to the door. He sees the Commander's statue moving towards Don Juan's table and his niece, Don's servant and friends all run away leaving Don Juan alone with the Commander's ghost.
9. Don Juan invites the Commander to dine with him. The statue sits down and as Don Juan is serving the Commander, the latter stands up and invites Don Juan to dine at his mausoleum. Don Juan agrees and the statue leaves the stage.
10. Don Juan takes the statue to the door. His friends come back, frightened.
11. Don Juan appears, triumphant.
12. When his friends see Don Juan, they flee. His servant tries to do the same but is stopped by Don Juan.
13. Don Juan is preparing to go to the mausoleum and ask his servant for his hat and his sword. His servant brings them and Don Juan asks him to accompany him but he refuses. Don Juan insists but his servant resists and he beats him. Don Juan goes alone, his servant curses him for wanting to expose him to such danger.
14. Don Juan arrives at the mausoleum but doesn't know what to do at that silent and dreadful place and fear begins to take over. The statue of the Commander appears and Don Juan summons up his courage and vanity to overcome his fear. The Commander reads Don Juan's concience, shows him the sky, claps him in his arms and puts his hand on Don Juan's heart but Don Juan despises such gesture. The statue tries again to protect Don Juan from death but Don Juna shrugs and looks at the statue in mockery and the statue makes him hear the groans of the souls who died in impiety but Don Juan is unmoved. The Commander loses his temper, seizes Don Juan's arm and stamps his foot, showing him the Earth ready to drag his body to hell but Don Juan remains unmoved. He is pushed into the depths of hell.
15. Don Juan defends himself against the demons dancing around with a torch and pursing him in the underworld. Don Juan regrets being so stubborn, tries to run away but is stopped by the Furies who excite the snakes on their heads with their torches. Don Juan is desperate, looks at the Furies to which he abandons himself, He is chained up by the Daemons who hurl him into hell and is consumed by flames.
After a nice glass of sparkling French white wine during intermission, the concert resumed with the work of another French baroque master, whose music seems now undergoing a sort of revival. We had Rameau, a renowned musical theorist who wrote many operas, ballets and other orchestral music, who boldly experimented with different kinds of harmonies, whereby each chord, each change of key and each melody would have its place in the overall work. We had Rameau's "Une symphonie imaginaire", arranged by Minskowski from various "operatic symphonies" by Rameau, the forerunner of programme music. Some say that Rameau's best works are his operas and ballets. In this work, we had a hodge podge of short excerpts from almost a dozen or so of his operas and concertos. In the order in which they were played they are:
1. Ouverture from Zaïs, Pastorale héorique 1748
2. Scène funebre from Act II scene 2 of the tragédie en musique, Casto et Pollux, 1737
3. Air tendre, the second Entrée: Music scene 5 of the tragédie en musique Les Fêtes d'Hébé, 1739,
4. Tambourins I & II from the proloque of the Tragédie en musique ,Dardanus, 1739
5. Air tendre pour les Muses from Act I ofTragédie en musique , Le Temple de la Gloire 1745
6. Contredancse en Rondeau from Act I scene 4 of tragédie en musique, Les Boréades, 1763
7. Air gracieux from the ballet La Naissance d'Orsiris, 1754
8. Gavottes I & II for the Hours and the Zephyrs from Act IV scene 4 of Les Boréades, 1763
9. Orage from Act I scene 6 of a comic ballet (Ballet bouffon) Platée, 1745
10. Prélude of Act V, scene 1 of Les Boréades, 1763
11. La Poule, Concerto No. 6 from his Six Concerts en sextuor
12. Musette en Rondeau (Dance of Terpsichore) from Les Fêtes d'Hébé, 1763
13. Ritorunelle from Act III of the tragédie en musique Hippolyte et Aricie 1733 (1742 version)
14. Rigaudons I & II from the Prologue: the gods' agreement , a pastorale héroique Naïs 1749
15. Danse des Sauvages, Rondeau from Fourth Entée: The Amerian Indian of the opéra-ballet Les Indes galantes 1735/1736
16. Entrée de Polymnie from Act IV scene 4 of Les Boréades, 1763
17 Chaconne, Fourth Entée: The Amerian Indian of Les Indes galantes.
As evident from the programme, it's really is a very thoughtful and fairly comprehensive introduction to work of this very innovative and energetic French composer spanning almost a quarter of century and ranging over such genres as musical tragedies, comic opera, opera-ballet and concertos .One could see last night that the musicians really put their heart and soul into the music, something which makes the baroque style music come alive for us. I am particularly touched by the enthusiasm of the rather plump Marc Minkowski,sweating all over with his energetic conducting gestures. a patch of wet black visible from the back of his shirt, He gave us three encores (!) for the well-deserved prolonged aplauses. The last encore featured the first movement of Schubert's Symphony No. 5. That's what music is and should be all about: sharing of the musician's passion with those less fortunate than they are by exposing us to the soul in the music of the relevant composer, expressed in the musical idiom of their époque. I left a very satisfied man. The power of their music is still reverberating in my mind even as I am writing.
Welcome back to the 21st century south China!
回覆刪除[版主回覆03/04/2013 16:49:03]But there's hardly any good music!