Harold en Italie | |
---|---|
Symphony with viola solo by Hector Berlioz | |
![]() Portrait of Berlioz, 1832 | |
English | Harold in Italy |
Catalogue | H. 16 |
Opus | 16 |
Based on | Lord Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" |
Performed | 23 November 1834 |
Movements | four |
Scoring |
|
Harold en Italie, symphonie avec un alto principal (Harold in Italy, symphony with viola obbligato), as the manuscript describes it, is a four-movement orchestral work by Hector Berlioz, his Opus 16, H. 68, written in 1834. Throughout, the unusual viola part represents the titular protagonist, without casting the form as a concerto. The movements have these titles, alluding to a programme:
The Italian composer Niccolò Paganini encouraged Hector Berlioz to write Harold en Italie. The two first met after a concert of Berlioz's works conducted by Narcisse Girard on 22 December 1833, three years after the premiere of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique . According to Berlioz' Memoires , Paganini had acquired a "superb viola", a Stradivarius (the so-called "Paganini-Mendelssohn" [1] ) — "But I have no suitable music. Would you like to write a solo for viola? You are the only one I can trust for this task." ("J'ai un alto merveilleux, me dit-il, un instrument admirable de Stradivarius, et je voudrais en jouer en public. Mais je n'ai pas de musique ad hoc. Voulez-vous écrire un solo d'alto? je n'ai confiance qu'en vous pour ce travail.") [2]
Berlioz began "by writing a solo for viola, but one which involved the orchestra in such a way as not to reduce the effectiveness of the orchestral contribution". When Paganini saw the sketch of the allegro movement, with all the rests in the viola part, he told Berlioz it would not do, and that he expected to be playing continuously. [3] They then parted, with Paganini disappointed. A few years later, Paganini was in Paris again and attended a concert including the Symphonie Fantastique and Harold en Italie conducted by Berlioz. After the concert Paganini went to see Berlioz and told him he had never been as touched as by Harold, then kneeled and kissed Berlioz's hand.
Lord Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" inspired the mood of Harold, Berlioz wrote.[ citation needed ]
My intention was to write a series of orchestral scenes, in which the solo viola would be involved as a more or less active participant while retaining its own character. By placing it among the poetic memories formed from my wanderings in the Abruzzi, I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer in the manner of Byron's Childe-Harold.
— Hector Berlioz, "Harold in Italy", Memoirs
That he had recycled some of the material from his discarded concert overture Rob Roy went unmentioned. Despite Berlioz' mention of Byron, music critics, including Donald Tovey, have pointed out that Harold in Italy owes nearly nothing to the poem: "no definite elements of Byron's poem have penetrated the impregnable fortress of Berlioz's encyclopaedic inattention,...there is no trace in Berlioz's music of any of the famous passages of Childe Harold." [4]
From a formal point of view, the work can be regarded as a symphony. For example, it has four movements, the third of which is a Beethovenesque scherzo. The solo parts never have a virtuoso style comparable to other solo concertos. The viola has its most important role in the first movement, where it introduces the Harold theme as well as the two secondary themes. [5]
In addition to the solo viola, the work calls for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1st doubling cor anglais in movement III), 2 clarinets in C (movements I, III, and IV) and A (movement II), 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, 2 tambourines, harp and strings.
Throughout the work the viola represents Harold. The first movement, Harold aux montagnes, traces scenes his melancholic character encounters in the mountains. The manner in which the viola theme hesitantly repeats its opening phrase — gaining confidence, like an idea forming, before the long melody spills out in its entirety — was satirized in a musical paper after the premiere: "Ha! ha! ha! – haro! haro! Harold!" it began, a cheeky touch Berlioz recalled years later in his Mémoires. In the second movement, Marche des pèlerins, Harold accompanies a group of pilgrims; in the third, Sérénade, his mistress is enchanted by music. The last movement, Orgie de brigands, finds the hero spiritually drained and in wild company, perhaps in a tavern. (Jacques Barzun reminds us: "The brigand of Berlioz's time is the avenger of social injustice, the rebel against the city, who resorts to nature for healing the wounds of social man." [6] )
Harold in Italy was premiered on 23 November 1834 with the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Chrétien Urhan playing the viola part, Narcisse Girard conducting. Even though the second movement "March of the Pilgrims" received an encore, this performance contributed to Berlioz's decision to conduct his own music in the future.
Paganini did not hear the work he had commissioned until 16 December 1838; then he was so overwhelmed by it that, following the performance, he dragged Berlioz onto the stage and there knelt and kissed his hand before a wildly cheering audience and applauding musicians. A few days later he sent Berlioz a letter of congratulations, enclosing a bank draft for 20,000 francs.
Franz Liszt prepared a piano transcription (with viola accompaniment) of the work in 1836 (S.472). [7]
The first studio recording was made by RCA in 1944 with William Primrose and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky.
The piece was used in Terrence Malick's 2013 film To The Wonder, starring Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko. The film has several visual references to the composition's content and history.
Harold en Italie has been frequently recorded. [10] [11]
Roméo et Juliette is a seven-movement symphonie dramatique for orchestra and three choruses, with vocal solos, by French composer Hector Berlioz. Émile Deschamps wrote its libretto with Shakespeare's play as his base. The work was completed in 1839 and first performed on 24 November of that year, but it was modified before its first publication, in 1847, and modified again for the 2ème Édition of 1857, today's reference. It bears the catalogue numbers Op. 17 and H. 79. Regarded as one of Berlioz's finest achievements, Roméo et Juliette is also among his most original in form and his most comprehensive and detailed to follow a program. The vocal forces are used in the 1st, 5th and 7th movements.
James Ehnes, is a Canadian concert violinist and violist.
The Frankfurt Radio Symphony is the radio orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk, the public broadcasting network of the German state of Hesse. From 1929 to 1950 it was named Frankfurter Rundfunk-Symphonie-Orchester. From 1950 to 1971 the orchestra was named Sinfonie-Orchester des Hessischen Rundfunks, from then to 2005 Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt. Prior to 2015, the English translation Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra was used for international tours.
Antoine Tamestit is a French violist. He premiered several contemporary compositions. Tamestit plays the Stradivari viola Gustav Mahler.
John Wilton Nelson is an American conductor. His parents were Protestant missionaries.
Jean Fournet was a French flautist and conductor.
Tabea Zimmermann is a German violist who has performed internationally, both as a soloist and a chamber musician. She has been artist in residence of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, Zimmermann founded the Arcanto Quartet, a string quartet that performed until 2016. Several composers have written music for her, including György Ligeti, and she has made her own version of Bartók's Viola Concerto from the composer's sketches.
Nobuko Imai, is a renowned Japanese classical violist with an extensive career as soloist and chamber musician. Since 1988 she has played a 1690 Andrea Guarneri instrument.
Léon Eugene Barzin was a Belgian-born American conductor and founder of the National Orchestral Association (NOA), the oldest surviving training orchestra in the United States. Barzin was also the founding musical director of the New York City Ballet.
Enrico Pace is an Italian pianist of international renown.
French composer Hector Berlioz wrote a number of "overtures", many of which have become popular concert works. They include true overtures, intended to introduce operas, but also independent concert overtures that are in effect the first orchestral tone poems.
The French composer Hector Berlioz made four attempts at winning the Prix de Rome music prize, finally succeeding in 1830. As part of the competition, he had to write a cantata to a text set by the examiners. Berlioz's efforts to win the prize are described at length in his Memoirs. He regarded it as the first stage in his struggle against the musical conservatism represented by the judges, who included established composers such as Luigi Cherubini, François-Adrien Boieldieu and Henri-Montan Berton. Berlioz's stay in Italy as a result of winning the prize also had a great influence on later works such as Benvenuto Cellini and Harold en Italie. The composer subsequently destroyed the scores of two cantatas almost completely and reused music from all four of them in later works. There was a revival of interest in the cantatas in the late 20th century, particularly Cléopâtre, which has become a favourite showcase for the soprano and mezzo-soprano voice.
Jean-Pierre Wallez is a French violinist and conductor.
Kun-woo Paik is a South Korean pianist. He has performed with multiple orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic.
Vardan Mamikonian is an Armenian pianist, and also a naturalised French citizen.
Lawrence Power is a British violist, born 1977, noted both for solo performances and for chamber music with the Nash Ensemble and Leopold String Trio.
Frederick Craig Riddle OBE was a British violist. He was considered to be in the line from Lionel Tertis and William Primrose, through to the violists of today such as Lawrence Power.
Les nuits d'été, Op. 7, is a song cycle by the French composer Hector Berlioz, setting six poems by Théophile Gautier. The cycle, completed in 1841, was originally for soloist and piano accompaniment. Berlioz orchestrated one of the songs in 1843 and did the same for the other five in 1856. The cycle was neglected for many years, but during the 20th century it became, and has remained, one of the composer's most popular works. Of the many recordings made in the 20th and 21st centuries, most are of the orchestrated version and are sung by a soprano or mezzo-soprano.
Timothy Ridout is a British violist and 1st Prizewinner of the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.
Jörg Widmann's Viola Concerto was composed in 2015 and premiered on 28 October 2015 with soloist Antoine Tamestit and the Orchestre de Paris under the direction of Paavo Järvi at Philharmonie de Paris. The concerto gained attention, because of its theatralic aspects.