Nicolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
Music for Piano Duo
Scheherazade after ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ Symphonic Suite for Orchestra, op.15 (the composer’s piano duet version) (1888) [42:00]
Antar, Symphonic Suite (Symphony No. 2, op.9, transcribed for piano by Nadezhda Purgold, 1868) [32:03]
Neapolitan Song (after Denza), op.63 (the composer’s piano duet version) (c.1907) [3:11]
Caroline Clemmow, Anthony Goldstone (piano duo)
rec. St John the Baptist Church, Alkborough, North Lincolnshire, 2013 (Antar); Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 1990 (Scheherazade and Neapolitan Song)
DIVINE ART DDA 25118 [77:15]
What is the point of listening to a piano transcription
of a hugely popular orchestral work? I think the answer is quite simply
that it allows the listener to concentrate on the musical detail rather
than have the sound of the orchestra wash over them in a huge auditorium.
There is an intimacy in this present recording of these two major works
that is denied to any orchestral performance. At one time, transcriptions
were much more popular than today: think of Liszt’s cycle of the Beethoven
symphonies, for example. In an age when it was not possible to hear music
on the radio or gramophone or when one was limited to a handful of major
orchestral venues it was often the only way people could get to hear these
works.
There can be few readers of these pages who have not heard Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s
magical score Scheherazade. This symphonic suite, which the composer
called a ‘kaleidoscope of fairy tale pictures of Oriental character’,
was completed in 1888. The work was first heard in St Petersburg on 18 December
of the same year. The Suite was inspired by the Arabian Nights Entertainment
which posited a certain Sultan Shahriar who had become suspicious of all
women and had sworn to take a new wife each day and dispose of her after
their wedding night. Scheherazade, who was finally to become the Sultan’s
wife, managed to avoid this fate by relating fantastic stories to her husband,
who became so curious to hear how they ended that he allowed her respite
day by day until a thousand and one nights had passed and the threat of
death was finally lifted.
Rimsky-Korsakov had originally given ‘musical’ titles to each
of the four movements – Prelude, Ballade, Adagio and Finale, but abandoned
this in favour of the better-known descriptive titles that concert-goers
are so familiar with today – ‘The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship’;
‘The Story of the Kalendar Prince’; ‘The Young Prince
and the Young Princess’ and finally ‘The Festival of Baghdad-The
Sea-The Shipwreck’. The music is given a sense of continuity by the
use of two linking themes.
What is not so well-known is that Rimsky-Korsakov produced a four-handed
piano score of this work. The liner-notes suggest that he regarded this
task as being so important that he postponed work on an opera rather than
delegate it to a jobbing musician. The result is a hugely attractive version
of this favourite work. There are more than a 120 recordings of the orchestral
suite in the current catalogues, however this present recording appears
to be the only one of the piano transcription currently available. This
performance was originally recorded and released in 1990.
Oriental legends also suffuse Rimsky-Korsakov’s Second Symphony, op.9
‘Antar’. Antar saves a gazelle from a wicked monster. The gentle
creature runs away leaving the hero resting on a grassy slope. Finally he
drops off to sleep. On waking, Antar finds himself in a great palace which
is the home of the Queen of Palmyra, the fairy Guel-Nazar. The interesting
bit of the story is that this fairy is none other than the gazelle that
Antar had saved. She promises him the three greatest delights of the world.
At this point Antar awakens on the hillside.
Although this work is officially classified as a symphony, it is really
a symphonic suite. There are four movements: the first pictures the desert,
the rescue and the bestowing of the gifts. The remainder of the work is
a consideration of these gifts –The Joy of Vengeance, The Joy of Power
and the Joy of Love. The ‘suite’ concludes with Antar’s
death. Stylistically this work owes much to Berlioz, Liszt and even Wagner.
The 'Antar' transcription is by Nadezhda Purgold (the composer’s
wife). She also produced four-hand piano versions of Mussorgsky’s
Night on Bare Mountain and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet
which have been recorded by the Goldstone/Clemmow team.
I do not know Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar, Symphonic Suite well
in its orchestral guise, so I do not really appreciate the appropriateness
of the transcription. However, taken at face value this four-handed work
is interesting, absorbing and extremely colourful.
The final number on this fascinating CD is the Neapolitan Song, after Luigi
Denza (1846-1922), possibly better known as ‘Funiculì Funiculà’
which is played in the composer’s own four-hand version. It is most
often heard played by André Rieu these days, but there is a fine
orchestral version by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roger Norrington
on YouTube. The
present four-hand piano version is a sheer delight and would seem destined
to bring the house down when played as an encore. It is hard to imagine
that Rimsky-Korsakov was actually dissatisfied with his arrangement and
withdrew it at the last moment. I agree with Anthony Goldstone that the
composer’s ‘self-criticism seems unjust’. It makes a great
finish to a captivating CD.
Everything about this disc is ideal. The liner-notes, by Anthony Goldstone
are most helpful and present a strong case for the playing of these transcriptions.
The quality of the sound is clear and vibrant throughout allowing every
nuance and detail to be clearly heard. The playing by Goldstone and Clemmow
is superb: enthusiasm, subtlety and a concern for the works' inherent
exuberance are perfectly balanced.
John France
Masterwork Index: Scheherazade
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