Jared wrote:Painting 8: ‘The Marketplace at Limoges’:
My listen: The marketplace theme opens with the frantic yet orderly scampering of women, doing their daily rounds amongst the street vendors. At around 0.24, conversation can be heard by way of a rapid trill from the right hand; the sharp notes readily suggestive of cross words and disagreement which gives way to a more full scale argument at 0.48, with rapid, strident forceful notes, which quickly tails off into a return to the scurrying around the stalls. The slightly slower paced, more deliberate notes in the coda for me seem to suggest Mussorgsky taking a step back and offering us a broader panorama of the market-place, before he abruptly crashes into the Catacombs; the work having suddenly caught his eye on the gallery wall.
I really like that sense of the busy bustle of the marketplace. The chatter is very effectively done. I do not get a strong sense of argument but I do definitely get a sense of it or of strong discussion anyway, through the dissonant notes that are injected into the music. I thought that this was a very effective and evocative piece.
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To do is to be: Sartre
Do be do be do: Sinatra
I have to confess that I am not stimulated by the solo piano playing of Mussorgsky's Pictures At an Exhibition. Perhaps it is Andrei Vieru's playing here but I doubt it. I much prefer Ravel's gorgeous full orchestrations.
"To appreciate the greatness of the Masters is to keep faith in the greatness of humanity." - Wilhelm Furtwängler
I have to confess that I am not stimulated by the solo piano playing of Mussorgsky's Pictures At an Exhibition. Perhaps it is Andrei Vieru's playing here but I doubt it. I much prefer Ravel's gorgeous full orchestrations.
I tend to agree Sean. I find it hard to fully embrace the piano rendition when Ravel's mighty orchestration lies heavy on my shelf...
I must admit that I also found it so until I put some work into it based on Jared’s fine notes. I admit that the original piano version will never be an all time favourite of mine but if I am honest I have acquired a much better appreciation of it as a result of this thread, even if I am not a convert.
To be is to do: Socrates
To do is to be: Sartre
Do be do be do: Sinatra
fergus wrote:I must admit that I also found it so until I put some work into it based on Jared’s fine notes. I admit that the original piano version will never be an all time favourite of mine but if I am honest I have acquired a much better appreciation of it as a result of this thread, even if I am not a convert.
I really appreciate your encouragement Fergus... many thanks...
Two adjoined pieces of music are used to describe one picture of the underground Roman catacombs beneath the streets of central Paris, of which Stasov describes Hartmann as having depicted himself, along with his colleague Kenel and a guide, examining them by the light of a lantern.
The music for ‘The Catacombs’ is an extended, nearly static Largo consisting of a slow sequence of block chords, with elegiac lines adding a touch of melancholy. The notion of alternating between loud and soft chords here was to evoke the idea of grandeur, stillness and a resounding echo through the catacombs, as the observer descends ever deeper into them, lantern in hand, whilst reflecting upon the walls of skulls, piled on top of each other, on either side.
My listen: Firm, deliberate, deathly-dark, prolonged notes suggest the slow descent by torchlight, into the heart of the catacombs, followed by a pause as each step produces new sights, for their eyes to adjust to. Notes from the right hand from 1.16 suggest to me a sympathetic recognition of past human lives, as they are confronted by walls of skulls, piled on either side, with the stronger block chords portraying the raise of the pulse, as a new sight greets them.
Painting 9b: ‘Cum mortuis in lingua mortua / With the dead in a dead language’:
Key: B minor; Tempo: "Andante non troppo con lamento" [2.21]
The more flowing yet gloomy Andante re-introduces us to a wistfully atmospheric variation on the ‘promenade’ theme. Mussorgsky, deeply reflective on the death of his friend, sees this as being truly the walk of the dead; Hartmann while still alive, exploring the resting place of previous generations. On the manuscript for this section, he had written in Russian ‘With the dead in a dead language’ and along the right margin; “Well may it be in Latin! The creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me toward the skulls, invokes them; the skulls begin to glow softly from within”.
My listen: Whereas the music in the first part of ‘Catacombs’ deals primarily with the physical aspect of Hartmann descending the stairs, the soft, quick, repetitive trill of the higher keys here suggest the merger between viewer and subject, evoking more, the intangible, emotional atmosphere of the scene, whilst the left hand initially continues to indicate a downward motion of notes, into it’s depths. As the notes plateau out, we reach a new phase at 1.05, where the trepidation gives way a sound which is more mellow, tranquil and reflective, as they are filled with more solemn emotions, based on the scene before them.
Last edited by Jared on Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Historically, I used to flip between preferring the Ravel orchestration or the original piano solo. I love the Ravel orchestration, I think it's amazing what Ravel did with the raw material, but I sometimes used to find it a bit "obvious". That said, while I enjoy the subtlety that a good piano performance can bring, it could sometimes seem a little monochrome for the scale and variety of the work.
So what of now? Certainly my recent re-evaluation of the piano solo has left me a little cold. This could be because I'm so familiar with the music (I really do know nearly every note) or I may just not be in a solo piano place at the moment, but I find little to encourage repeated listening. In fact, playing through the solo piano work now, it almost feels like a transcription of an orchestral work, where the piano doesn't quite manage to conjure up the necessary breadth and colour, and where the music is laced with compromises to allow it to be playable by 2 hands.
Purely in the piano sense, I find the Promenades work very well, but the pictures themselves frequently don't. Perhaps this is why the work has inspired so many alternative orchestrations/instrumentations.
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