BALLETS RUSSES

This recording is my homage to an exciting era. I first came to learn about the Ballets Russes and Sergei Diaghilev as a young teenager, through my interest in Leon Bakst, a wonderful Russian artist, mostly remembered now for his designs for Daphnis and Chloe, Sheherezade and many other famous Diaghilev productions. Reading about this era of incredible artistic happenings in early 20th century Paris, I learned that the Ballets Russes had a profound influence on the artistic trends of the next few generations. The company’s grand- scale productions, which spanned its first season in 1907, through to Diaghilev’s death in 1929 and later became known as Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo until the 1950s, instantly became one of the most prestigious attractions in the Western world. These productions fused avant- garde music, dance and style in a fresh and innovative way that was forward- looking and radical. Diaghilev’s stars were Nijinsky, Pavlova, Massine, Picasso, Matisse…and Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokofiev.

The three pieces I perform on this recording are arrangements. While preparing them I was faced with an obvious problem: how can I play this music on the piano without compromising the luscious and colourful timbres of the orchestration? Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Ravel were among the greatest masters of orchestration in music history and playing their scores on “merely” a piano might seem to some as a limitation. I believe that the solution to this problem lies within the nature of the piano, which is a self-sufficient, self-contained instrument. Its notes range higher and lower than the entire orchestra, and it can produce a wide variety of dynamic colours and effects. I feel that one can play anything on the piano. Therefore, these arrangements are not direct transcriptions. They are not meant merely to reproduce the sounds of the orchestra but instead they stand in their own right as essentially pianistic pieces that are derived from the original ballets.

Fortunately, both Stravinsky and Prokofiev wrote their own brilliant piano arrangements. Stravinsky arranged the Three movements from Petrushka for Arthur Rubinstein and Prokofiev premiered the Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op.75 himself. As for Ravel’s Daphnis, I discovered Ravel made a piano reduction of the entire ballet for rehearsal purposes. It was, however, never intended for a concert performance; the writing is too bare and feels “unfinished” to me. This reduction became the starting point of my arrangement, and despite my initial fears, I feel that Daphnis fits the piano extremely well. This passionate masterpiece, based on the Greek tale by Longus, is full of seductive harmonies and rich textures. It is poetic and overwhelmingly sensual. I chose the last two movements, where Daphnis and Chloe are miming the tale of the gods, Pan and Syrinx. In order to seduce Chloe, Daphnis plays a gorgeous tune on the flute, while Chloe dances to it. The dance becomes more and more animated and finally they fall into each other’s arms. They declare their love for each other, and the piece concludes with an ecstatic Danse générale. Daphnis was premiered by the Ballets Russes in 1912, only one year after Petrushka.

Listening to the recording of Petrushka when I was growing up, I was taken by its bold expression and extreme theatricality, and of course, its sheer excitement was compelling to my young sensibilities. I instantly fell in love with the piece. The Russian Dance is a scene where the three puppets – Petrushka, Ballerina and a Moor – come to life after the Charlatan’s magic spell and they dance together. The next movement – Petrushka’s Room – is the emotional core of the suite, with Petrushka anxious and unhappy in his cell, being “imprisoned” by the Charlatan and falling in love with the Ballerina, who rejects him. Petrushka is in despair. The last movement – The Shrovetide Fair; Mardi Gras – is a group of dances with Russian tunes. It ends with a fight between Petrushka and the Moor over the Ballerina, and eventually leads to Petrushka’s death. However, since he is merely a puppet, is any of this real?

The score is a collage of Russian folk-like tunes, with extended harmonies, polyrhythms and complex metres. Playing Petrushka on the piano is a big technical challenge. The writing is quite unusual in its rapid jumps, thick chords and fast tremolos. It is worth noting that Prokofiev and Stravinsky played together a four-hands version of Petrushka in Rome.

Curiously, the young Sergei Prokofiev attended the Ballets Russes’ productions of Petrushka and Daphnis on his first trips to Paris and London. It is most amusing to read his initial comments in a letter to his mother. He writes about Petrushka: “The music illustrates very well every detail of action on stage, just as the action conforms with the minute details of each orchestral phrase. The orchestration is excellent and, when necessary, most amusing.” His views on Daphnis were not so positive: “incredibly boring, thin and watery, soporific when it touches on poetry, and laughable when it concerns drama or scenic action. Its success is due entirely to the enchanting choreography”. Prokofiev was notable for nasty, rude comments of this type on other people’s music, perhaps due to his extremely competitive nature. However, his appreciation and respect for Ravel grew with the years and he became friendly with both composers.

Prokofiev had written three ballets for the Ballets Russes in the 1920s – The Buffoon, Le Pas d’acier, and The Prodigal Son – before composing Romeo and Juliet in the summer of 1935, shortly after his final return to Russia. It was produced by the Kirov Theatre in 1940. With Romeo and Juliet Prokofiev invents a new style, more simple and direct, full of beauty and lyricism. I am taken by Prokofiev’s ability to convey the emotional depth and variety of Shakespeare’s characters without using words. The suite ranges from the joyous Folk Dance, through the innocent Juliet as a Young Girl and the brutal march of Montagues and Capulets, and finally to the gorgeously tragic Romeo and Juliet before Parting with its love duet and a clock ticking away at the end.

Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky – how aesthetically different they are from each other, yet in my mind they have a common thread – they were inspired by the energy and charm of one man, a force of nature – Sergei Diaghilev!

Recording this CD and making the drawings to design it have given me a great deal of joy. I hope that the sense of fun and adventure I experienced will come across to the listener.

© Roman Rabinovich, 2013