46 2014 Program Notes, Book 7
Friday, July 25 and Saturday, July 26, 2014
ottolknuli yevo ruku zrachki.
the pupils turned away his hands.
Na tsarye ot etikh chortovykh glaz zyabko
On the czar’s head, by those fiendish
looks chilled,
shapka Monomakha zatryasias,
the Monarch’s orb began to tremble,
i zhestoko, nye skryvaya torzhestva,
and brutally, not hiding its triumph,
nad tsaryom zakhokhotala golova!
the head began laughing at the czar!
“POLOVTSIAN DANCES” FROM
PRINCE IGOR
(1874-1875)
Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
Borodin’s
Polovtsian Dances
is scored for piccolo, two flutes,
oboe, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns,
two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion and
strings. The performance time is 14 minutes. The Grant Park
Orchestra and Chorus first performed the
Dances
on July 3,
1935, with Eric de Lamarter conducting.
In Borodin’s opera, Igor is captured while trying to rid Russia of the Polovtsi, an
invading Tartar race from Central Asia. The leader of the Polovtsi, Khan Kontchak,
treats Igor as a guest rather than a prisoner and entertains him lavishly. Khan offers
him his freedom if he will promise to leave the Polovtsi in peace, but Igor refuses.
Igor nevertheless effects his escape and returns triumphantly to his people. Borodin
wrote that
Prince Igor
is “essentially a national opera, interesting only to us Russians,
who love to steep our patriotism in the sources of our history, and to see the origins
of our nationality again on the stage.” To make his opera as authentic as possible,
he studied the music, history and lore of Central Asia, where the opera is set, and
sought out travelers with first-hand knowledge of the region. His colorful, “Oriental”
writing for the Polovtsi was influenced not only by authentic Caucasian melodies, but
also by music from the Middle East and North Africa.
The
Polovtsian Dances
are the centerpiece of the Khan’s entertainment for Igor
in Act II. A brief introduction opens the scene in the Polovtsian camp with an arch-
shaped theme played quietly by flute and clarinet. The first dance, whose beguiling
melody was transformed into the song
Stranger in Paradise
in the 1953 Broadway
musical
Kismet
, accompanies the procession of captives. The women of the chorus
sing its text, a tender song extolling the high mountains and blue skies of their
Polovtsian homeland. Next comes the entry of the Polovtsian warriors to solid, rough
music led by the Oriental wailings of the woodwinds and a sturdy version of the
arched theme from the introduction. A timpani solo introduces a ferocious general
dance in which the chorus, accompanied by full orchestra, sings the praises of the
mighty Khan. The next dance, with its galloping rhythm, its persistent descending
four-note motive and its continuing adulation of the Polovtsian ruler, accompanies
the war games of the savage young men. The swaying melody of the first dance
returns in a richer setting and is soon combined with the energetic theme of the
savage warriors. The rough music and Oriental wailings that introduced the warriors
return with a ferocious vehemence to bring the brilliant
Polovtsian Dances
to a
rousing close.
WOMEN’S CHORUS AND DANCE
Uletay na kryliyakh vetra
Fly on the wings of the wind
ty v kray rodnoy, rodnaya pesnya nasha,
to our native land, you folksongs;
tuda, gde my tebya svobodno peli,
to the place where we sang in freedom,
gde bylo tak privolno nam s toboyu.
where we existed so simply.
