[9/9/2011] Sunday Classics preview: From Borodin to Broadway (1) (continued)

Seiji Ozawa conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in the "Polovtsian Dances" from Borodin's Prince Igor.


We'll talk more about the strange history of Prince Igor -- over which Borodin (1833-1887), by profession a highly respected chemist, toiled for oodles of years in his spare time (when he did all his composing; he also wrote the libretto for Igor) without really coming close to finishing. The story goes that he had played the unwritten-down Overture often enough at gatherings of his friends that after his death his composer friend Alexander Glazunov was able to write it down from memory. By now it should begin to sound famliar.

BORODIN: Prince Igor: Overture

Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded June 20-21, 1957

And by now so too should the Overture to Kismet begin to sound familiar.

TECHNICAL NOTE RE. ALL THE KISMET RECORDINGS we're going to hear tonight and tomorrow night: They're all from my LPs, and while I toiled to remove as many pops and clicks as I could, you'll still hear LP surface noise. But I'm not crazy enough about Kismet to invest in CDs (even where available).

WRIGHT AND FORREST: Kismet: Overture

Although the Polovtsian Dances were only one of many Borodin sources tapped for the tunes of Kismet, with the dances under our belt, the show's overture should already sound familiar. Actually, we're going to hear two overtures. This first one, made up principally of Polovtsian material, was used for the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production.

1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center recording, Franz Allers, cond. RCA, recorded June 1965

Whereas here is the original overture:

Orchestra, Van Alexander, cond. Capitol, 1964 studio recording

To return to what Wright and Forrest made of this particular Polovtsian Dance. It's easy enough to strip "Stranger in Paradise" down to a solo number, but properly speaking it's a duet. It's the first meeting, in a Baghdad of the imagination, of the lovely young daughter of the scheming poet Hajj -- another of the roles created by Broadway's great baritone Alfred Drake -- and a handsome young Caliph who's disguised as a gardener.

WRIGHT AND FORREST: Kismet: "Stranger in Paradise"

We start with two recordings of interest, though of quite different kinds of interest. I think most listeners will prefer this version from the Original Broadway Cast recording, especially for the work of the young Richard Kiley as the Caliph. Already we can hear that Kiley is really more a baritone than (like most later Caliphs) a tenor, and while we've got a couple of really terrific tenors coming up, fine as they are, there's a certain basic vocal impact they can't make. Doretta, the original Marsinah, isn't exactly chopped liver either.

Doretta Morrow and Richard Kiley, vocals; Original Broadway Cast recording, Louis Adrian, cond. Columbia/Sony, recorded Dec. 6, 1953

Our second "Stranger" is notable for some handsome straight-out singing. There's no doubt that Gordon MacRae was a baritone, and a very good one. In this not terribly flavorful (and not very full) Capitol representation of Kismet he sang Caliph in addition to Hajj. He's paired here with a clearly big-time soprano in Dorothy Kirsten, but she sounds kind of long in the tooth for the blossoming young maiden, and I can't say that on either part the performance soars.

Dorothy Kirsten and Gordon MacRae, vocals; orchestra, Van Alexander, cond. Capitol, 1964 studio recording

Now we've got two recordings of genuine "wow" caliber, I think. As noted above we have two really fine tenors, and they're paired with two genuinely outstanding but different sopranos, Decca's Adele Leigh is fuller-voiced and more vixenish, RCA's Lee Venora tenderer and more vulnerable. Put me down for "both. "(A word of warning about the "acoustic" of the Decca Phase-4 Kismet recording, with its swimmy (and presumably fake) echo. I tend to think of Phase-4 recordings as acoustically dry, which makes me even more suspicious about the echo. The recording was made in London's Kingsway Hall, and I don't recall ever hearing a recording made in Kingsway that's notable for any kind of echo, let alone this kind.)

Adele Leigh and Kenneth McKellar, vocals; Mantovani Orchestra, Mantovani, cond. Decca, 1963 studio recording
Lee Venora and Richard Banke, vocals; 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production, Franz Allers, cond. RCA, recorded June 1965

Finally we're going to take one last pass at the Polovtsian Dances -- for tonight, at least, but this time with the original choral parts in the dances that have them. You'll note that the tune we know as "Stranger in Paradise" was in fact originally sung in the opera (a lot of the Borodin tunes pressed into service for the show weren't), though what was sung was rather different.

BORODIN: Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances (with chorus)

This is music tailor-made for the fertile re-creative imagination of Sir Thomas Beecham. (On CD it has been coupled quite happily with Sir Thomas's properly legendary recording of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.) But tomorrow night we're going to hear the dances played by an even cannier orchestral wizard.

SLAVEWOMEN: Fly on the wings of the wind
to our native land, dear song of ours --
there, where we have sung you at liberty,
where we felt so free in singing you.
There under the hot sky
the air is full of bliss,
there to the sound of the sea
the mountains doze in the clouds.
There the sun shines so brightly,
bathing the native mountains in light.
Splendid roses blossom in the valleys,
and nightingales sing in the green forests,
and sweet grapes grow.
You are free there, song --
fly home!

POLOVTSI: Sing songs of praise to the Khan! Sing!
Praise the power and valor of the Khan!
Praise the glorious Khan!
He is glorious, our Khan!
In the brilliance of his glory,
the Khan is equal to the sun!
There is non equal to the Khan in glory!
None!
The Khan, female slaves praise the Khan,
their Khan!

[Translation from the Sony Prince Igor booklet -- I can't find a translator credit.]

Beecham Choral Society, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham, cond. EMI, recorded Nov. 10, 1956


A BORODIN BONUS

The Fiedler-Boston Pops recordings of the Prince Igor Overture and the Polovtsian Dances come from an exceptionally pleasant RCA Living Stereo CD of charismatic Russian music rather unfortunately called Russian Caviar (the title of the principal LP from which the CD is drawn). I listened to the whole thing while I was extracting the Prince Igor music, and was struck by the remarkable beauty of Fiedler's performance of the little Borodin symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia, so I made an audio file of that, with no particular use in mind. As you may know, I don't like letting perfectly good audio files go to waste, so here it is.

BORODIN: In the Steppes of Central Asia

Boston Pops Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded June 20-21, 1957


IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW --

We're going to stick with the Borodin-to-Broadway connection a bit more, in particular the Polovtsian Dances, before we move on Sunday to Borodin's frustrating but fascinating masterpiece, the opera Prince Igor.


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