Introduction
A century on from the Russian Revolution, it’s fascinating to examine its
impact on the country’s four outstanding composers of that time.
- Sergei Rachmaninov left the country aged 44 in 1917 to spend the rest of his life harmoniously in the US.
- Igor Stravinsky aged 35 when the Revolution struck and who had moved to Switzerland in 1915, likewise stayed outside Russia not returning until 1962, living for another nine years.
- Sergei Prokofiev was 26 in Oct 1917 and fled to America where on arrival in 1918 he was welcomed to New York as a celebrity, returning to the Soviet Union for good 18 years later.
- Of the four, only Dmitri Shostakovich who was just 11 years old in 1917 remained in Russia.
This essay looks at compositions from Shostakovich and Prokofiev, the
two whose best works were composed under the Soviet regime.
I
present short cameos of five pieces, beginning with three epics:-
Prokofiev’s
Romeo and Juliet, Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony and his 11th
Symphony;
and as a contrast:-
Shostakovich’s
jazz suites ending with (as a seasonal gift to readers) Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé
Suite.
Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet
From
1932, Prokofiev's visits to Russia became more frequent, and in 1936 he
returned permanently. The
pieces he composed during this transitional period include his best works, like
the Romeo and Juliet ballet. Theatre
colleagues had suggested Shakespeare’s play to him since “in
1934 the drive towards reinstating western as well as Russian classics was in
full swing.[i]”
The following
summer Prokofiev worked on the ballet at the Bolshoi’s country retreat. Nevertheless, when he played the completed
score conservatives doubted whether it was danceable. Another issue emerging at auditions was the proposed
happy ending. Eventually, Prokofiev relented
and reverted to Shakespeare’s script.
The
Soviet premiere did not take place until January 1940. One theory is that the delay may have been due to
fear in the arts community in the aftermath of the Pravda editorials
criticising Shostakovich and other "degenerate modernists."
It was
only then that the music’s fame soared, eventually forming the basis of three
popular suites - the concert-hall version.
The
suites comprise of 20 pieces, lasting for 70 exhilarating minutes. The ballet consists of 52 pieces of music,
lasting for over two hours. The term
Magnum Opus fits, quantitatively and qualitatively.
I love
Prokofiev’s innovation, particularly the addition of tenor saxophone to the standard
orchestral instrumentation. It adds a
unique sound to the orchestra. It is
used both in solo and as part of the ensemble.
Prokofiev also used the cornet, viola d’amore and mandolins, which add
an Italianate flavour to the music.
One can
visualise nimble ballerinas in The Street
Awakens and in Juliet the Young Girl. Sections like Gavotte provide sweet contrast to the menace of the
ballet’s best known piece, The Dance of
the Knights[ii].
Prokofiev,
you’re hired.
The Leningrad Symphony -
Shostakovich
When
a live symphonic performance thrills and excites, connecting emotionally and
intellectually, I have to buy a recording.
The same compulsion can occur with a production on TV or radio.
Five years ago, however, an award-winning
novel inspired the same outcome.
The
Conductor written by Sarah Quigley was so realistic in its
depiction of the suffering of St Petersburg’s citizens and of its Radio
Orchestra during the Nazi siege that I had to purchase the music. This harrowing tale drove the German-based
New Zealander to imagine the setting for Shostakovich’s
seventh Symphony.
The composer’s publicly-lauded opera Lady Macbeth of
Mtensk had been latterly condemned in 1936 by Stalinism in Pravda as “muddle
instead of music.”
Five years later, Shostakovich
began work on this mammoth symphony just after the start of the Nazi siege of
Leningrad. Hitler had declared that the
city “must be erased from the face of the
earth.”
Shostakovich, used to standing up to Soviet tyranny
(depicted more recently by a Booker prize-winning novelist[iii]) had other ideas:-
“Neither
savage raids, German planes nor the grim atmosphere of the beleaguered city
could hinder the flow. I worked with an
inhuman intensity I have never before reached.”
The siege lasted 900 days and 1.5 million people
died. What an epochal context for
musical composition. Shostakovich had
been evacuated having completed the first three movements and finished the work
in Moscow.
The day after Russia
eventually shelled the Germans into silence, the city heard this symphony for
the first time – and wept.[iv]
This defiant symphony stands proud in many ways. It is his longest, lasting almost 80 minutes. Its allegretto invasion march (repeated
twelve times) references Lehar[v]’s operetta “The Merry Widow.” The composer
asked for an orchestra of eight horns, six trombones, two harps, a piano, three
side drums and a full complement of percussion instruments.
As Bathurst says, the novel (and for me the symphony
also) convey “the extraordinary
life-saving properties of music, and hope.”
Listening to this work is like being a witness
to history wherein music is integral.
Shostakovich’s 11th
Symphony
Shostakovich wrote this epic work in 1957 (four years
after Stalin’s death) “to mark the fortieth anniversary of the October
Revolution.[vi]” It commemorates the events that led up to the
first Russian Revolution, particularly the 1905 Bloody Sunday.
Saint Petersburg’s Mariinsky Orchestra gave a bravura
performance in the Ulster Hall on 11 October.[vii] The Belfast audience responded with an emphatic
standing ovation that was almost as boisterous as the military might of the
music.
To witness this superlative musical interpretation in our
city during the centenary of the October Revolution was flattering, an integral
part of the occasion. Another factor was
that two years ago my wife and I travelled to Russia and attended the Mariinsky
Theatre where they performed a lavish production of the ballet Giselle.
The St
Petersburg theatre tickets, incidentally, were much more expensive than the
Belfast Festival prices to hear Shostakovich’s 11th.
More importantly, what made this symphony so enjoyable
was that the last time I had seen maestro Valery Gergiev conduct in front of my
eyes was when he brought the Mariinsky Chorus to Omagh (my hometown) less than
a year after the 1998 bomb. They
performed the sacred Orthodox Vespers[viii] by Rachmaninov in the
Church of the Sacred Heart. A poignant
gesture, symbolic of music’s healing power.
I enjoyed this symphony not just for its power and
beauty; but for its capacity to transport me two decades back to another
similar experience with the same maestro making a heroic gesture in the face of
evil.
Music like this has the knack of
connecting one to life’s big events, whether happy or tragic. I suspect that applies mutually, as much to
the composer and conductor as to listeners privileged to hear it live.
But more than that. When I read about Russian aggression today in
a former Soviet Republic,[ix] Shostakovich’s war
symphonies retain a chilling contemporary relevance.
Shostakovich jazz suites 1
and 2
Shostakovich was prolific and versatile in his
composition. He wrote war symphonies,
preludes and fugues, opera, film music, string quartets, and jazz.
In
the same decade - the 1930’s - Nazism was condemning black American jazz as
“degenerate music.[x]” Despite this same word being Pravda’s chosen
adjective for denouncing Shostakovich, the Soviet authorities demanded that
more be done “to reflect this emerging genre.”
Hence Prokofiev’s Shakespearean ballet and Shostakovich’s jazz.
The first of the two jazz suites was written in 1934, lasts about eight minutes
comprising of a waltz, a polka and a foxtrot.
It was scored for 3 saxophones, 2 trumpets, trombone, wood block, snare
drum, cymbals, xylophone, banjo, Hawaiian guitar, piano, violin and double
bass. Legitimate instruments that could grace any jazz big band.
The atmosphere is lighter than his
epic symphonies, more like ballroom dance tunes than jazz of the era. I do, however, detect a subtle Django
Reinhardt[xi]
finger-picking influence and a definite Latin rhythm in the foxtrot.
The longer second suite was composed in 1938, lasts about
24 minutes and is likewise cheerfully tuneful which would play well in ballroom
dancing. The version I know[xii] describes it as a “suite
for variety orchestra.”
Shostokovich’s atmospheric jazz somehow conjures images in my
mind of filmed versions of Hercule Poirot mysteries.
Prokofiev’s
Lieutenant Kijé Suite
In 1933/4 Prokofiev composed a suite for the Soviet film
Lieutenant Kijé. Smaller in scale and
less tumultuous than the Shakespearean ballet, it is a beautifully melodious
and playful composition from start to finish 23 minutes later.
It is its fourth suite which steals the imagination, a
universal favourite during the imminent festive season. The Troika depicts a
fast sleigh ride on the traditional 3-horse Russian sled. Bells jingle, horses dash through proper
snow, glamour glistens – it could only be romantic Russia.
Troika is an indispensible part of Christmas in the same
way as Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. The appeal for me is that when music
captures the essence of Yuletide, it lives permanently in the fondest part of
our memories.
So much so that several life-affirming composer/musicians
in the creative era of “Prog-Rock” were influenced by composers like
Prokofiev.
Greg Lake[xiii] (Emerson Lake and
Palmer) used the Troika at a slower pace as the basis of his song “I believe in
Father Christmas.” Lake’s tune was a
subtle reaction to the commercialisation of the season.
Not just a one-off, but ELP issued “Works” a double album
in 1977 whose track The Enemy God” incorporates an excerpt from the second movement of Prokofiev’s
Scythian Suite.[xiv]
Personal enjoyment of Prokofiev’s music is one thing; but
when composers in other musical genres adopt and adapt individual movements,
that feeling is vindicated and enhanced.
©Michael McSorley 2017
[i]
LSO Live Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet complete ballet Valery Gergiev. London
Symphony Orchestra. Notes David Nice
[ii] Used
by the BBC as theme music for “The Apprentice” hosted by Sir Alan Sugar
[iii]
Julian Barnes “The Noise of Time” 2015 tells the story of Shostakovich’s life
dealing with 3 periods of Soviet oppression; a novel described as a masterpiece
by Alex Preston, Observer New Review 17 January 2016
[iv]
Bella Bathurst Observer New Review Oct 2012 “The Symphony that silenced the
Nazis.” The Conductor Sarah Quigley 2012
[v]
Franz Lehár 1870-1948, born in Hungary, Roman Catholic, employed Jewish librettists
for operas.
[vi]
Andrew Huth concert programme notes, BIAF Oct 11 2017
[vii] https://belfastinternationalartsfestival.com/event/mariinsky-orchestra/
[viii]
Rachmaninov Vespers, written in 1915
[ix]
Observer 12 November 2017 Special Report
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/12/ukraine-on-the-front-line-of-europes-forgotten-war
[x]
BBC 4 documentary Howard Goodall “The Story of Music” spring 2013
[xi]
Django Reinhardt, Romani French composer & jazz guitarist 1910-53, “gypsy
jazz.” Collaboration with violinist Stephane Grappelli, the 1934 Hot Club de France
Quintet
[xii]
Shostakovich The Jazz Album Concertgebouw Orchestra, 1995 conductor Riccardo
Chailly
[xiii]
Greg Lake 1947-Dec 2016
[xiv]
Scythian Suite Prokofiev 1915. “Works” also includes ELP’s interpretation of Aaron
Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.”
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