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

#

Sunday Classics preview: From Borodin to Broadway (1)

Alfie Boe, then about to appear in an English National Opera production of the Borodin-based Wright and Forrest musical Kismet, sings "Stranger in Paradise" on a June 2007 edition of ITV's Parkinson "chat show," hosted by Michael Parkinson.

by Ken

We're headed, let me say at the outset, for Borodin's one and only (and at that seriously unfinished) opera, Prince Igor, and I'm not sure that our previews have all that much to do with where we're going. But it still seems the obvious way to approach this unusual composer.

For their 1953 Broadway musical Kismet, the theatrical song-writing team of Robert Wright and George {"Chet") Forrest "liberated" all the tunes from Borodin. I assume everyone knows the source of the show's most famous tune. If not, or for that matter if so, here it is:

BORODIN: Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances

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


TO TREAD MORE OF THE PATH FROM
BORODIN TO BROADWAY, CLICK HERE

#

[9/10/2011] Sunday Classics preview: From Borodin to Broadway (2) (continued)

The young George Forrest and Robert Wright

Tonight we're going to hear two more numbers fromKismet which are specifically Polovtsian Dances-derived. So first let's do a quick refresher, with the Overture and an orchestra-only performance of the dances.

BORODIN: Prince Igor:
Overture
Polovtsian Dances
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts Symphonique de Paris, René Leibowitz, cond. Reader's Digest/Chesky, recorded June 1960

Oh, and maybe one quick refresher of the Kismet Overture.

WRIGHT AND FORREST: Kismet: Overture
Mantovani Orchestra, Mantovani, cond. Decca, 1963 studio recording


NOW (FINALLY) FOR OUR KISMET SONGS . . .

(1) "Not Since Nineveh"

Without delving too deeply into the plot of Kismet, we can say that is an intended show-stopper sung by the favored wife of the comic villain Wazir, Lulame, in which she functions more or less as a de facto Baghdad Chamber of Commerce rep.

Let's start with a performance (from the Capitol LP of Kismet excerpts we sampled last night overfeaturing Gordon MacRae,as both the rascally impecunious poet Hajj and the dashing young Caliph who sings "Strangers in Paradise" with Hajj's daughter, Marsinah), spiffily sung but with no sense at all of time or place or atmosphere. The show's subtitle is "A Musical Arabian Night," which could no doubt be suggested musically in all sorts of ways. I don't hear any of them here. (Again, my apologies for the LP surface noise audible on all the Kismet excerpts.)

Bunny Bishop and Richard Levitt, vocals; Roger Wagner Chorale, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Van Alexander, cond. Capitol/EMI, 1964 studio recording

A performance like that might well stop a show, but it would be a show that's just about vocal pyrotechnics. Here's a big step up, from the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center recording, for which Anne Jeffreys as Lulame got leading-lady billing rather than the more expected Marsinah. (Last night we heard the Marsinah, Lee Venora, and tenor Richard Banke as the Caliph give a quite gorgeous performance of "Strangers in Paradise.") Note that Henry Calvin, our Wazir, was -- like the star of the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production, Alfred Drake -- a veteran of the original 1953 production, from which we'll hear him again in a moment.

Anne Jeffreys and Henry Calvin, vocals; chorus and orchestra of the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production, Franz Allers, cond. RCA, recorded June 1965

There's more to be had here, though. Let's listen to the original Lulame, Joan Diener. I'm guessing she stopped the show pretty regularly with it.

Joan Diener and Henry Calvin, vocals; Original Broadway Cast recording, Louis Adrian, cond. Columba/Sony, recorded Dec. 6, 1953

The thing about Diener is that she had two essentially unrelated voices, from the two vocal registers that in Broadway terms have often been known as "belt" and "legit." And when Decca engaged Regina Resnik to sing Lulame in its all-star Phase-4 disc of Kismet excerpts with Mantovani and His Orchestra, it must have occurred to someone that Resnik was a recently converted dramatic mezzo-soprano with a solid decade of high-level professional singing as a soprano. (But what is that she's singing -- "Babbalin"?)

Regina Resnik and Ian Wallace, vocals; Mike Sammes Singers, Mantovani Orchestra, Mantovani, cond. Decca, 1963 studio recording

A bonus "Not Since Nineveh" (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

(2) "He's in Love"

Wright and Forrest were understandably touchy about their reputation resting so heavily on musicals that "borrowed" other composers' music, but insisted that it's actually harder than writing your own, because you have to understand the music you're reusing from the inside. I think the driving energy of "He's in Love" is an excellent example -- the energy serves a totally different purpose but I think remarkably retains the driving surge of the original.

Hal Hackett, vocal; Original Broadway Cast recording, Louis Adrian, cond. Columba/Sony, recorded Dec. 6, 1953
Ian Wallace, vocal; Mike Sammes Singers, Mantovani Orchestra, Mantovani, cond. Decca, 1963 studio recording
Albert Toigo, vocal; chorus and orchestra of the 1965 Music Theater of Lincoln Center production, Franz Allers, cond. RCA, recorded June 1965


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

In Prince Igor, Borodin attempted something highly unusual: not a "historical opera," really, but an opera about history, in which we see the gallant Igor struggle against what he doesn't understand is history happening to him.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

#

[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.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

#