Éléonore Darmon et Éric Astoul jouent Tchaikovsky “Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher” op. 42: make music part of your life series

Éléonore Darmon et Éric Astoul jouent Tchaikovsky “Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher” op. 42 

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TCHAIKOVSKI : Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher op. 42
Méditation, Scherzo, Mélodie
avec Éléonore Darmon, violon
et Éric Astoul, piano

Concert du 9 novembre 2013 au Festival SenLiszt
Fondation Cziffra, Chapelle Royale Saint-Frambourg, Senlis, France

Captation vidéo : Vincent Bérczi.
Avec l’aimable autorisation de la Fondation Cziffra

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http://www.astoul.com
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Souvenir d’un lieu cher

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Souvenir d’un lieu cher (Memory of a dear place; Russian: Воспоминание о дорогом месте), Op. 42, for violin and piano, was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between March and May 1878. It consists of three movements:

• Méditation (D minor)
• Scherzo (C minor)
• Mélodie (E-flat major; Tchaikovsky also described it as a “chant sans paroles”).

The Méditation was written between 23 and 25 March 1878, in Clarens, Switzerland, where Tchaikovsky wrote his Violin Concerto. It was originally intended as the slow movement of the concerto, but he realised it was too slight for a concerto, so he discarded it and wrote a Canzonetta instead. On 16 May, back in Russia, he started on a work in three parts for violin and piano (the only time he ever originally wrote for that combination of instruments, although the Valse-Scherzo also exists in a violin and piano arrangement). On 22 May he told his brother Modest that it was going well. On 25 May he left for a two-week vacation on the Ukrainian country estate Brailovo (sometimes seen in English as “Brailov“), which belonged to his benefactress Nadezhda von Meck, where he finished the work by 31 May. For the first movement, he used the discarded Méditation, recasting it for violin and piano. The two additional movements, Scherzo and Mélodie, completed the Souvenir d’un lieu cher. While at Brailovo, he also completed the Six Romances, Op. 38, and sketched his entire setting of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.^[1]

Tchaikovsky had the original manuscript sent as a token of gratitude to Nadezhda von Meck, but he always intended to publish the work, so he asked her to arrange for a copy to be made, which was done by Władysław Pachulski, a member of von Meck’s household and later her son-in-law. This copy was sent to the publisher, P. Jurgenson. Tchaikovsky dedicated the work to “B*******”, which is understood to refer to Brailovo itself. It was published in May 1879, as Op. 42.

In 1880, the Méditation was published separately, and has since become well known as an independent piece. The Scherzo and Mélodie were published separately in 1884. In 1896 Jurgenson published the complete work in an arrangement by Alexander Glazunov for violin and orchestra, and in this form it has perhaps become better known than in its original form for violin and piano. There is also an arrangement for violin and strings by Alexandru Lascae.^[2]

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Antonín Dvořák Serenade For Strings in E major Op.22

Antonín Dvořák Serenade For Strings in E major Op.22
English Chamber Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim Conductor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

Antonín Dvořák‘s Serenade for Strings in E major (Czech: Smyčcová serenáda E dur), Op. 22, was composed in just two weeks in May 1875. It remains one of the composer’s more popular orchestral works to this day.

Composition and Premiere

1875 was a fruitful year for Dvořák’s composing. This was the same year that he wrote his Symphony No. 5, String Quintet No. 2, Piano Trio No. 1, the opera Vanda, and the Moravian Duets. These were happy times in his life. His marriage was young, and his first son had been born. For the first time in his life, he was starting to be recognized as a composer, and was able to live stably without fear of poverty. He received a generous stipend from a commission in Vienna, which allowed him to compose his Fifth Symphony and several chamber works as well as theSerenade.

Allegedly, Dvořák wrote the Serenade in just 12 days, from 3–14 May. The piece was premiered in Prague on 10 December 1876 by Adolf Čech and the combined orchestras of the Czech and German theatres. It was published in 1877 in the composer’s piano duet arrangement by Emanuel Starý in Prague. The score was printed two years later by Bote and Bock, Berlin.

Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings consists of five movements:

1. Moderato
2. Tempo di Valse
3. Scherzo: Vivace
4. Larghetto
5. Finale: Allegro vivace

With the exception of the Finale, which is in modified sonata form, the movements follow a rough A-B-A form. It is believed that Dvorak took up this small orchestral genre because it was less demanding than the symphony, but allowed for the provision of pleasure and entertainment. He combines several expressive characteristics throughout this piece; cantabile style (first movement), slow waltz (second movement), humorous high spirits (third movement), lyrical beauty (fourth movement) and exuberance (fifth movement).

Quotes and Interpretation

“The Serenade (Op. 22) was aptly entitled, since at least four of its five movements (the second of which was a delightful waltz) displayed an elegant touch suggestive of gracious living accompanied by ‘serenading’ in the stately home of some eighteenth-century aristocrat; in the finale alone did the composer discard periwid and lace cuffs, and even here the junketing, though lively, was well-bred, and in the closing moments there was a delicious return to the courtliness of the opening. Pastiche perhaps, but what excellent pastiche! Since Dvorak was as yet only on the threshold of developing an individual style, it is perhaps not surprising that this slightly uncharacteristic but extremely accomplished and enjoyable Serenade is the earliest of his compositions in which a detached listener is likely to discover enchantment.” (Gervase Hughes 1967)2

“Just like delivering good news to someone has a positive rub-off effect on the messenger, performing Dvorak’s Serenade is really a very therapeutic endeavor for performers. There is so much “pure goodness” in it. Somehow even the moments which could cast a gloomy shadow – light melancholy of the Waltz, or the fragility of the opening of Larghetto – retain the wonderfully cloudless atmosphere… The remarkable thing about Dvorak’s Serenade – this “cloudless goodness” is fully sufficient for sustaining meaningful communication for nearly half an hour of music.” (Misha Rachlevsky, 2000)