Sunday Classics preview: From Borodin to Broadway (2)

Valery Gergiev conducts the "Polovtsian Dances" with the original vocal parts. (It's the Mariinsky Theater Chorus and Orchestra, I assume.)

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]

by Ken

To recap: In last night's preview we began our approach to Borodin's mammoth compositional project, the never-finished opera Prince Igor, so that we can look tomorrow at the predicament the aforementioned Prince Igor finds himself in: a man who can't grasp that what's happening to him is . . . well, history.

By now you may well be wondering who they are, these dancing Polovtsi. Fair enough. Polovtsi (singular = Polovets, plural = Polovtsi, combining form thus = Polovts-, as in "Polovtsian") is what the locals in what we now think of as Russia and Ukraine called the first wave of Asiatic invaders, who called themselves Kipchaks, with of course many variants. From Wikipedia:

Kipchaks were a Turkic tribal confederation. Originating in the Kimek Khanate, they conquered large parts of the Eurasian steppe during the Turkic expansion of the 11th to 12th centuries together with the Cumans, and were in turn conquered by the Mongol invasions of the early 13th century.

Under Mongol rule, the Kipchak Khanate ruled much of Eastern Europe for another 150 years before disintegrating due to internal quarrels, its last remnants as the Tatar Crimean Khanate surviving into the 18th century before being absorbed into the Russian Empire.

The Kipchaks (known in Russian and Ukrainian as Polovtsy) were a tribal confederation which originally settled at the River Irtysh, possibly connected to the Kimäks. They were joined by Cumans, who had originated east of the Yellow River, and in the course of the Turkic expansion they migrated into western Siberia and further into the Trans-Volga region, enventually occupying a vast territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea, establishing a state known as Desht-i Qipchaq. The Cumans expanded further westward, by the 11th century reaching Moldavia, Wallachia, and part of Transylvania.

In the late 11th and early 12th centuries, the Cumans and Kipchaks became involved in various conflicts with the Byzantines, Kievan Rus, the Hungarians (Cuman involvement only), and the Pechenegs (Cuman involvement only), allying themselves with one or the other side at different times. In 1089, they were defeated by Ladislaus I of Hungary, again by Knyaz Vladimir Monomakh of the Rus in the 12th century. They sacked Kiev in 1203.

They were finally crushed by the Mongols in 1241. . . .

I've boldfaced the references to the Polovtsi's encounters with the Kievan Rus, because a Kievan Rus is exactly what our Prince (or Knyaz) Igor is. More about this tomorrow.

Before we proceed with tonight's preview business, last night I promised a performance of the Polovtsian Dances "by an even cannier orchestral wizard" than Sir Thomas Beecham, whose rousing performance we heard then. Here it is. Tell me that the sultriness of the opening doesn't waft right into the realm of the erotic.

BORODIN: Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances (with chorus)
[For sung texts, see above.]
Royal Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski, cond. Decca, recorded June 1969


FOR MORE OF THE SHOWTUNE-IFICATION
OF THE POLOVTSIAN DANCES, CLICK HERE

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