Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
Les Noces (1923) [24:14]
Mass (1948) [17:30]
Cantata (1952) [23:57]
Carolyn Sampson* (soprano), Susan Parry (alto), Vsevolod Grivnov (tenor), Maxim Mikhailov (bass), Jan Kobow (tenor)
RIAS Kammerchor, musikFabrik/Daniel Reuss
rec. 2005, Teldec Studio; Jesus-Christus Kirche, Berlin
HARMONIA MUNDI HMG501913 [66:27]
Les Noces (The Wedding),
though it was first performed in 1924, really belongs with Stravinsky’s
great pre-war ballets of which it is the fourth, last and, in my view,
arguably the greatest. It is a danced cantata on the subject of a Russian
peasant wedding which draws on actual Russian wedding songs but set
in a context which ritualises the social aspects of the wedding: the
bride laments the loss of her virginity, ‘not necessarily because
of real sorrow ... but because ritualistically she must weep’,
said Stravinsky. Similarly, the mothers of bride and groom lament the
loss of their children and a chorus of friends calls on God, the Virgin
Mary and the saints. After the ceremony, which is not represented, there
is the fun of the guests at the party followed by the bedding of the
bride and groom. There are soloists and chorus, but the soloists are
not identified with individual characters.
Stravinsky started the work in 1914, not long after finishing the Rite
of Spring, and despite the war and other concerns finished the
basic composition in 1917. There followed a long struggle to orchestrate
it. There was a nearly complete draft that year for an orchestra which
included a harpsichord and a cimbalom, and another abortive version
in 1919. The 1917 one is particularly beautiful; it was recorded by
Craft long ago and more recently by Eötvös. But Stravinsky eventually
settled on the remarkable combination of four pianos and percussion.
This gave the scope to evoke the jangling sound of a real Russian band
and also the bell sounds which are so important at the end but in a
stylised manner.
The music is mostly fast, rhythmic and irregular with great power and
also subtlety. A particular feature is the frequent change between two
basic tempi, without speeding up or slowing down. The deliberate harshness
of these contrasts underlines the real poignancy of the life-change
which a wedding marks, while at the same time conveying a fierce joy,
which is both moving and exhilarating. The work demands both speed and
absolute precision in its performance. Here Daniel Reuss really comes
into his own; his highly disciplined forces produce a thrilling performance.
His choice of solo voices is absolutely right, with Carolyn Sampson
marvellously incisive at the opening.
In the early 1940s Stravinsky, by then living in Los Angeles, came across
some Mozart masses in a shop. He said: ‘As I played through these
rococo-operatic sweets-of-sin I knew I had to write a Mass
of my own, but a real one’. By this he meant one which could be
used liturgically, which meant using the Roman Catholic text rather
than the Orthodox one of his own church. The Orthodox do not permit
the use of instruments in church music. The mass is accompanied by wind
instruments and is deliberately cold and austere. It has the grave beauty
which we know from several of his other works, Apollo or the violin
concerto for example. I should mention that Stravinsky did specify children’s
voices, so a performance such as that by the Westminster Cathedral Choir
on Hyperion is more authentic. This is nevertheless a fine performance
in its own terms of a work which is all too rarely performed or recorded.
Also rare is the Cantata. In it Stravinsky
drew on early English poems from an anthology which W. H. Auden, his
librettist for The Rake’s Progress a little earlier,
had shown him. I also fancy that he might have heard Britten’s
Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, of 1943. At any rate,
like Britten he chose to set the Lyke-wake Dirge and his setting
is completely different. In his work it is set for female chorus and
is used to frame three other movements, which feature the soloists and
a small instrumental ensemble. The mood is intense and withdrawn. It
is perhaps a work he wrote to satisfy himself, as he did with Zvezdoliki
(The King of the Stars) decades earlier. The central movement,
a setting of the old carol Tomorrow shall be my dancing day
– also set by Holst – is hermetic and obsessive. In fact,
in this work and in this movement in particular Stravinsky is starting
to use the canonic method associated with the serialists. Later he was
to adopt that method, but the Cantata is tonal. The penultimate
movement, Westron Wind, is quite different: it is an anguished
and direct setting of a short love poem for the two soloists together
and is one of those pieces one cannot hear without one’s heart
turning over. Carolyn Sampson is again fine and Jan Kobow’s singing
of the demanding central carol is an extraordinary feat of sustained
singing with scarcely a break in over ten minutes.
There are other recordings of these works, but not as many as one might
expect given their quality. This is a really valuable reissue, and it
is a shame that Reuss didn't record more choral Stravinsky as he has such a flair
for it. The recording is clear and
the sleeve-note interesting and helpful but Harmonia Mundi get a black
mark for not including the texts.
Stephen Barber
