SUPPORT YOUR SYMPHONY

Aziz Shokhakimov conducts Tales of 1,001 Nights, a program featuring works by Ippolitov-Ivanov, Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov (November 17–19). Photo by Mischa Blank.

MIKHAIL IPPOLITOV-IVANOV 
Turkish Fragments, Op. 62 
BORN: November 19, 1859, Gatchina, Russia 
DIED: January 28, 1935, Moscow, Russia 
WORK COMPOSED: 1930 

What to Listen For: 

• The large orchestration allowed the composer to use vivid colors to bring the Turkish melodies to life. The use of percussion instruments is especially imaginative.   

The town of Gatchina, just outside Saint Petersburg, Russia, where Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov was born, is home to an expansive royal palace that remains an important historical site of the Russian Imperial Family. The composer’s father was a mechanic and, like many in the town, worked for the palace. Ippolitov-Ivanov learned music by singing in the choir at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral before enrolling at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied with the influential Rimsky-Korsakov. He spent much of his career teaching and conducting in Tblisi, Georgia, where he developed an interest in the music of the region’s many ethnic minorities. 

Though Ippolitov-Ivanov is often thought of as a nationalist composer whose music appealed to the Soviet regime, his style and musical language was established long before Stalin officially sanctioned his music. He maintained a distance from political discourse throughout his life, focusing instead on themes that inspired him personally: folk songs and picturesque scenes that reflected the diverse cultures around him. Turkish Fragments was written in 1930, after he returned to Georgia from a stint teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. He had been sent back to the country to oversee musical activities in what had become the Georgian Republic, following Stalin’s invasion and subsequent annexation to the Soviet Union. During this time, Ippolitov-Ivanov developed a keen interest in the music of neighboring Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.  

Turkish Fragments consists of four miniature sketches. The first, Caravan, begins quietly with the distant-sounding percussion playing a charming march. The melody enters, growing louder as the caravan progresses on its path. Chromatic filigree within the woodwinds adds lively color. At Rest begins in a mood of lush tranquility. A drum roll disrupts the peace and a lively, rhythmic dance takes over. The serene melody returns to end the movement, with subtle interjections from the colorful percussion and brass. The third, Night, features the English Horn with another Turkish folk melody. The percussion, so present in the rest of the piece, is absent here, reflecting the stillness of night. The final Festival is an upbeat dance full of momentum with a lyrical and mournful slower section at its heart. The energetic dance soon returns, with horns and xylophone leading the ensemble to a triumphant finish.   
 

MAURICE RAVEL 
Shéhérazade 
BORN: March 7, 1875, Ciboure, France 
DIED: December 28, 1937, Paris 
WORK COMPOSED: 1903 
WORLD PREMIERE: May 17, 1904, in Paris 

What to Listen For:  

• Ravel initially intended “Asie” (“Asia”) to fall at the end of the cycle, but ultimately decided to put it first, creating a work that gradually decreases in intensity and texture with each song.   

Maurice Ravel was a teenager when the Great Exhibition of 1889 came to Paris. This world’s fair, for which the Eiffel Tower was built, took over the city and brought new sights and sounds to Europe. It was here that Debussy famously heard a Javanese gamelan for the first time, an experience that greatly influenced his own compositions and thus the future of French music. This exposure to non-western culture opened the floodgates for a European fascination with the otherness of the East and the allure of exoticism — the popularity of Scheherazade as an artistic muse was prevalent. 

One of Ravel’s first orchestral achievements was an overture to an opera based on tales from the Arabian Nights, written in 1898. The opera was never completed and the overture, which received a mediocre reception, was never published. But Ravel remained enamored of the subject matter and admired Rimksy-Korsakov’s innovative work from a decade before. His true inspiration came four years later from a fellow Parisian, the poet Tristan Klingsor, who ran in the same circle of writers, musicians and painters as Ravel. This group of eccentrics called themselves Les Apaches and, between the turn of the century and the beginning of World War I, would meet weekly to share their work and discuss current events. Klingsor — who was born Léon Leclère and created his pseudonym using two Wagnerian characters, one a hero, the other a villain — had just published a book of symbolist poems titled Schéhérazade and read them during a regular meeting. Ravel was immediately moved to set three of the poems to music.  

The first song, “Asie,” is purely descriptive. The narrator repeatedly sings “Je voudrais voir,” (“I would like to see”), while imagining the landscapes and people of a faraway land. Klingsor believed Ravel chose this poem out of a “love of difficulty,” thinking the poem’s lack of drama would leave the composer with little inspiration. Yet Ravel’s genius for orchestral color and subtlety delights the senses and paints a picture that seems to hover in the air, a musical postcard of a time and place that lived in the poet’s imagination.  

The second movement, “La flûte enchantée” (“The Enchanted Flute”), embodies love and longing in the sound of a boy playing the flute outside his beloved’s window while her master sleeps. The servant girl listens as each note reaches her like a secretive kiss on her cheek. As the soloist sings this line, the orchestra is silent except for the flute, which intertwines with the voice in a tender moment of intimacy.  

In the final song, “L'indifférent” (“The Indifferent One”), an onlooker gazes with desire upon an androgenous young stranger passing by their doorway in a foreign land. The narrator wants them to enter, but the stranger walks on, vaguely oblivious to the effect of the fleeting encounter. The orchestral texture remains muted and languorous throughout, as if in a dream. Sounds appear gauzy and indistinct, reflecting a sense of suspended reality and blurred boundaries.  
 

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV 
Scheherazade, Op. 35 
BORN: March 18, 1844, Tikhvin, Russia 
DIED: June 21, 1908, Liubensk, Russia 
WORK COMPOSED: 1888 
WORLD PREMIERE: November 3, 1888, in Saint Petersburg 

What to Listen For:  

• The brilliant orchestration and the many evocative solos sprinkled throughout the work. 

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born into a wealthy family with a long history of naval service. Though he showed signs of musical aptitude as a child, it was assumed that he would follow in his family’s footsteps and join the navy. By the age of 12, he was enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Naval College and later spent three years at sea, travelling to the distant countries of England and North America. To pass the many hours of down time while aboard the ship, he studied composition by working on a symphony and reading scores he had purchased at each port city. 

Rimsky-Korsakov was one of five Russian composers known as “The Mighty Handful.” Together, they were interested in developing a Russian school of composition that would set them apart from the firmly established musical norms of Germany and Austria. Rather than adhere to Western methods, these composers incorporated Russian folksongs and folklore into their music. Rimsky-Korsakov was especially drawn to the subject of fairytales, and composed numerous operas and programmatic orchestral works based on them. Scheherazade weaves together the composer’s love of tales and the sea to paint an enthralling work that sparkles with brilliant orchestration and dynamic storytelling.  

Inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of stories of Indian, Persian and Arabic origin, Rimsky-Korsakov framed each movement with the story of the cruel Sultan Shahryar. The sultan is convinced that all women are unfaithful. In order to appease his insecurities, he decides to take a new bride every night and have her executed the next day, avoiding the possibility of infidelity altogether. This continues until Scheherazade, the legendary storyteller, marries the sultan and saves herself each night by telling a tale that never ends, forcing her husband to wait another night to relieve his curiosity.   

The opening measures depict the two main characters: the sultan is heard first in the low growling brass before Scheherazade enters, represented by the solo violin. The accompanying harp chords evoke the ancient tradition of bards, transporting the listener to a magical realm. Rimsky-Korsakov described each movement as a “musical kaleidoscope,” preferring to leave any specific story up to the imagination.  

The first movement takes place at sea, with swelling waves that rock Sinbad’s ship back and forth. Scheherazade introduces the next movement followed by the bassoon playing a rhapsodic solo. The oboe weaves its way in before a trumpet fanfare interrupts with a drama-filled adventure in the spirit of the mischievous Prince Kalendar. The third movement is filled with tenderness and love. Scheherazade enters in the middle, her own voice blending with the prince and princess, perhaps signaling the sultan’s change of heart towards his bride. After a brief violin cadenza, the finale begins with a riveting dance before returning to the ocean, now wild and frenetic. The storm eventually recedes, and Scheherazade returns to serenade the slumbering sultan and conclude her evening’s tale.  

Catherine Case © 2022