OSJ Proms at the Ashmolean

Wednesday 8 June 2011 at 7.30 PM

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Programme Notes

Sergei Prokofiev: Peter and The Wolf

Camille Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals

Ottorino Respighi: The Birds

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Peter and The Wolf

In 1936 Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by Natalya Sats and the

Central Children's Theatre in Moscow to write a new musical sym-

phony for children. The intent was to cultivate "musical tastes in chil-

dren from the first years of school".*citation needed+ Intrigued by the

invitation, Prokofiev completed Peter and the Wolf in just four days.

*1+ The debut on 2 May 1936 was, in the composer's words, inauspi-

cious at best: "...*attendance+ was poor and failed to attract much

attention".*2+

Each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical

theme, or leitmotif:

Bird: flute Duck: oboe Cat: clarinet Grandfather: bassoon Wolf: French horns Hunters: woodwind theme, with gunshots on timpani and bass drum Peter: string instruments Peter, a young boy, lives at his grandfather's home in a forest clear-

ing. One day Peter goes out into the clearing, leaving the garden gate

open, and the duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to go

swimming in a pond nearby. The duck starts arguing with a little bird

("What kind of bird are you if you can't fly?" – "What kind of bird are

you if you can't swim?"). Peter's pet cat stalks them quietly, and the

bird —warned by Peter— flies to safety in a tall tree while the duck

swims to safety in the middle of the pond.

Peter's grandfather scolds Peter for being outside in the meadow

("Suppose a wolf came out of the forest?"), and, when Peter defies

him, saying that "Boys like me are not afraid of wolves", his grandfa-

ther takes him back into the house and locks the gate. Soon after-

wards "a big, grey wolf" does indeed come out of the forest. The cat

quickly climbs into a tree, but the duck, who has excitedly jumped

out of the pond, is chased, overtaken and swallowed by the wolf.

Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree.

He asks the bird to fly around the wolf's head to distract it, while he

lowers a noose and catches the wolf by its tail. The wolf struggles to

get free, but Peter ties the rope to the tree and the noose only gets

tighter.

Some hunters, who have been tracking the wolf, come out of the

forest ready to shoot, but Peter gets them to help him take the wolf

to a zoo in a victory parade (the piece was first performed for an au-

dience of pioneers during May Day celebrations) that includes him-

self, the bird, the hunters leading the wolf, the cat and grumpy

grumbling Grandfather ("What if Peter hadn't caught the wolf? What

then?") In the story's ending, the listener is told that "if you listen

very carefully, you'd hear the duck quacking inside the wolf's belly,

because the wolf in his hurry had swallowed her alive."

Camille Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals

Camille Saint-Saëns, the composer of the "Carnival of the Animals"

was born in Paris, France, in l835. Saint-Saens grew up as a frail

child, ill with tuberculosis. But he was also a child prodigy who per-

formed works by Handel, Bach, and Mozart in public at an early age.

Saint-Saens was a gifted pianist, organist, and writer. He composed

his first symphony at the age of 18 and the second at 24. He reached

his peak in the l860s, when he achieved an international reputation.

The late nineteenth century was a period of prosperity for most of

Europe. Cities grew and thrived and regions united into nations. Ar-

tistic creativity flourished in this environment. Saint-Saens loved his

work. He said that he lived "in music like a fish in water." Composing

music for him was a natural activity, like "an apple tree producing

apples." Although Saint-Saen's popularity diminished in France at the

turn of the twentieth century, he continued to be regarded in Great

Britain and the United States as the greatest living French composer.

He died in l921.

"Carnival of the Animals" was not published in Saint-Saen's lifetime

(except for the cello solo "The Swan"), but was released according to

his will in l921. Saint-Saens regarded "Carnival" as a "private joke,

written for his family and close friends". He composed it in a few

days while on vacation. Saint-Saens would have been very annoyed

to learn that this would become his most popular work. "The Carni-

val of the Animals" is a playful piece of music. It is a musical Noah's

ark in which various species romp in the minds of listeners.

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Gli uccelli (The Birds)

I. Preludio (Prelude) II. La colomba (The Dove) III. La gallina (The Hen) IV. L'usignuolo (The Nightingale) V. Il cuccù (The Cuckoo) “The Italian genius is for melody and clarity,” said Respighi. “Today

there is noticeable a return to the less sophisticated music of the

past--in harmony to the church modes and in form to the suites of

dances.”

As both musicologist and composer, Respighi assembled three suites

of Ancient Airs and Dances, based on Renaissance and Baroque lute

music. The first two had already appeared by 1927, when he wrote

The Birds, a collection of Baroque ornithological inspirations.

The opening Prelude, based on an Arietta by Bernardo Pasquini

(1637-1710), contains hints of the other movements. “The Dove”

comes from Jacques de Gallot, a lutenist and composer who died in

1685. It features lovely solos for oboe, flute and violin. “The Hen,”

originally a keyboard piece by Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764),

sets the first violins to clucking and the solo clarinet portraying a

rooster. According to the score,“The Nightingale” is “by an anony-

mous Englishman of the 17th century.” Actually a blind recorder vir-

tuoso and carilloneur from Utrecht named Jacob von Eyck (c.1590-

1657) wrote it. In Respighi's incarnation, muted strings accompany

winds and horns, with interventions by celesta. “The Cuckoo” derives

from a Toccata by Pasquini. The bird's two-note song is set off by

strings,piano and winds, and the opening Prelude returns.

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