The exciting new musical ensemble, the Santa Barbara Chamber Players, concludes its second season with a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6 in the First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu St.
The program, conducted by the internationally recognized Maestro Emmanuel Fratianni, consists of three works: the four-movement suite from Gabriel Fauré’s incidental music for Marice Maeterlinck‘s “Pelléas et Mélisande, Opus 80” (1900); Astor Piazzolla‘s “Adiós Nonino” (1959), orchestrated by Eduardo Marturet; and Johannes Brahms‘ “Serenade No. 1, Opus 11:” Johannes Brahms’ “Serenade No. 1, Opus 11” (1857-58).
When Gabriel Fauré received the commission for the English language production of Maeterlinck’s play, he was given very little lead time (March to June). He took his usual expedient of adapting some tunes he had already written but hadn’t used.
Particularly important was a “Sicilienne” from his unfinished 1893 score for Moliere‘s “Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.”
This is interesting, because the “Sicilienne” is the most memorable piece in the entire “Pelleas” score. (A popular album of the 1960s, “Duets with a Spanish Guitar,” featured a performance of the exquisite “Sicilienne” by guitarist Laurindo Almeida, and flautist Martin Ruderman.
The album also featured soprano Salli Terri, sometime wife of one of my most admired masters, composer John Biggs.) So, the melody most people associate with Fauré’s “Pelleas” music, was not composed for Maeterlinck’s “Pelleas,” written in 1893, but for a completely different play, written more than three centuries earlier.
Fauré, not very interested in orchestration, happily turned the task of orchestrating “Pelleas” over to his pupil Charles Koechlin (who turned into a pretty good composer his own self).
In the ordinary way of things, I’m not much interested in Astor Piazolla, although I must say that I find “Adios Nonino” to be a real composition, well-made, tuneful, and moving — as befits what is essentially a lament composed on learning of the death of his father in a traffic accident. The work was written, I have read, in 30 minutes.
“Piazolla” is an Italian name, not a Spanish one. “Noninno” means “grandpa” in Italian, not Spanish. Now, according to Argentine government websites, 47 percent of the population of Argentina are of Italian descent — the second largest Italian population, after Brazil, outside Italy.
I will leave it to my readers to sort out the history of this remarkable statistic, but I mention it for the possible illumination it provides on the unusual flavor of Piazolla’s music. He is famous for his tangos, and is credited as the creator of the “tango nuevo.”
The tango itself is a quintessentially Spanish dance, and encompasses an entire milieu. (I cannot recommend too highly Sally Potter’s film “The Tango Lesson”) Perhaps, what we have in Piazolla, is less a “new” tango, than an Italian translation.
Wikipedia provides the following history of the Brahms’ “Serenade No. 1:” “original version for wind/string octet 1857 (discarded), 2nd version for chamber nonet 1857 (lost); revised for chamber orchestra 1858 (lost); revised and adapted for full orchestra 1858-59; arr. for piano 4-hands 1859–60.”
I’m not sure of the difference in status between “discarded” and “lost,” but presumably either word signals a score that is no longer available or retrievable.
A pity, since this “Serenade” — one of Brahms’slovely, lovely early works — obviously underwent a considerable evolution on its way to its present form, and it would be great to have these early stages available for study. The opening passages, it seems to me, leave Gustav Mahler little room for improvement.
Tickets to this concert are $20 general admission, with students 18 years and younger admitted free.
For tickets and information, visit www.sbchamberplayers.org.