RSNO, 07/12/2019
Tchaikovsky : The Snow Maiden - Dance of the Tumblers
Tchaikovsky : The Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)
Prokofiev : Cinderella (excerpts)
Tchaikovsky (arr. Mauceri) : The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Alan Cumming, narrator)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
John Mauceri
I find it difficult to get into a Christmas mood this early in the month, but tonight's concert was as good a start as any, a little trip through some fairy tales gloriously illustrated by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev.
The evening got off to a boisterous start with the Dance of the Tumblers, from Tchaikovsky's incidental music to Ostrovsky's play The Snow Maiden (not to be confused with Rimsky-Korsakov's opera of the same name, and based on the same source). Then came a couple of extracts from The Sleeping Beauty; not the normal suite, as Mauceri explained, but the original versions of the music that was adapted for use in Disney's 1959 animated film, which more or less boiled down to the Prelude and a truncated version of the Garland Waltz. I do think Mauceri could have given us all of the Garland Waltz, including its introduction, because the segue into it was rather jarring, and as he acknowledged himself, the first half of the concert was on the short side, but it was what it was, and hardly lacked appeal. However, I thought everything sounded much better for the Prokofiev, the Prelude, Great Waltz and Midnight from Cinderella. Here the orchestra had a lustre to its tone, and a sweep to its playing, that had not quite appeared in the Tchaikovsky, and there was a real sense of magic to this music that had not quite been apparent before.
The principal item of the evening was a narration of the original story on which Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is based, with an accompaniment of Tchaikovsky music selected and arranged by Mauceri. The Nutcracker original is a tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann, published in 1816. As one might expect from Hoffmann, this story is considerably more complicated than the ballet's plot, which was derived from a very watered-down version Alexandre Dumas (of Three Musketeers fame) had turned into a play. Effectively, in the Tchaikovsky, only the first act actually has a plot, the second is basically one giant party. Although I've seen productions which have attempted to draw closer to Hoffmann, one way or another, while it's quite possible in the first act, it gets very tricky in the second, to try to fit Hoffmann's tale to the music as it is presented to us.
In consequence, what Mauceri has done is take some of Nutcracker's music, but also some other pieces of Tchaikovsky, extracts from The Tempest, from Hamlet, a couple of the Orchestral Suites, and more from The Snow Maiden, to provide a musical backing to a narrated version of the full story. It's not a faithful translation of the story, it has been adapted somewhat, but nothing is lacking, and the result was very entertaining. Mauceri's selection of music turned out to be inspired, with moods genuinely matching whatever was going on in the narration at the time, and enough of the familiar Nutcracker score to keep us grounded. The first half of the narration deals with the origins of the nutcracker curse, how it came to be and what was attempted to cure it, and that is where the character dances of the second act came in, as a little sort of travelogue.
Alan Cumming delivered the text tongue firmly lodged in cheek (and the adaptation allowed for a good deal of humour), and a perfectly pitched sense of wonder. Although he was amplified, he did have to speak over the orchestra quite a bit, and there were moments when I had trouble making out what he said, but on the whole the balance was well judged and I never felt that I was missing anything crucial. I don't know how this arrangement went down with the children in the audience (and there were quite a few), but it was a refreshing change from the routine.
[Next : 10th December]
Tchaikovsky : The Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)
Prokofiev : Cinderella (excerpts)
Tchaikovsky (arr. Mauceri) : The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Alan Cumming, narrator)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
John Mauceri
I find it difficult to get into a Christmas mood this early in the month, but tonight's concert was as good a start as any, a little trip through some fairy tales gloriously illustrated by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev.
The evening got off to a boisterous start with the Dance of the Tumblers, from Tchaikovsky's incidental music to Ostrovsky's play The Snow Maiden (not to be confused with Rimsky-Korsakov's opera of the same name, and based on the same source). Then came a couple of extracts from The Sleeping Beauty; not the normal suite, as Mauceri explained, but the original versions of the music that was adapted for use in Disney's 1959 animated film, which more or less boiled down to the Prelude and a truncated version of the Garland Waltz. I do think Mauceri could have given us all of the Garland Waltz, including its introduction, because the segue into it was rather jarring, and as he acknowledged himself, the first half of the concert was on the short side, but it was what it was, and hardly lacked appeal. However, I thought everything sounded much better for the Prokofiev, the Prelude, Great Waltz and Midnight from Cinderella. Here the orchestra had a lustre to its tone, and a sweep to its playing, that had not quite appeared in the Tchaikovsky, and there was a real sense of magic to this music that had not quite been apparent before.
The principal item of the evening was a narration of the original story on which Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is based, with an accompaniment of Tchaikovsky music selected and arranged by Mauceri. The Nutcracker original is a tale by E.T.A. Hoffmann, published in 1816. As one might expect from Hoffmann, this story is considerably more complicated than the ballet's plot, which was derived from a very watered-down version Alexandre Dumas (of Three Musketeers fame) had turned into a play. Effectively, in the Tchaikovsky, only the first act actually has a plot, the second is basically one giant party. Although I've seen productions which have attempted to draw closer to Hoffmann, one way or another, while it's quite possible in the first act, it gets very tricky in the second, to try to fit Hoffmann's tale to the music as it is presented to us.
In consequence, what Mauceri has done is take some of Nutcracker's music, but also some other pieces of Tchaikovsky, extracts from The Tempest, from Hamlet, a couple of the Orchestral Suites, and more from The Snow Maiden, to provide a musical backing to a narrated version of the full story. It's not a faithful translation of the story, it has been adapted somewhat, but nothing is lacking, and the result was very entertaining. Mauceri's selection of music turned out to be inspired, with moods genuinely matching whatever was going on in the narration at the time, and enough of the familiar Nutcracker score to keep us grounded. The first half of the narration deals with the origins of the nutcracker curse, how it came to be and what was attempted to cure it, and that is where the character dances of the second act came in, as a little sort of travelogue.
Alan Cumming delivered the text tongue firmly lodged in cheek (and the adaptation allowed for a good deal of humour), and a perfectly pitched sense of wonder. Although he was amplified, he did have to speak over the orchestra quite a bit, and there were moments when I had trouble making out what he said, but on the whole the balance was well judged and I never felt that I was missing anything crucial. I don't know how this arrangement went down with the children in the audience (and there were quite a few), but it was a refreshing change from the routine.
[Next : 10th December]