A collaborative blog created by the instructor and students of the Symphonic/Choral literature classes of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (Spring semester, 2016, 2017, 2018).
The painting shows that Paganini met Berlioz after the concert of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique in the Paris Conservatoire.
After three years, in 1834, Paganini asked Berlioz to write a viola concerto to introduce the Stradivarius viola he had acquired. However, when Paganini saw the sketch of the 1st movement with all the rest in the solo viola part, he was disappointed and told Berlioz he would like to play continuously. They then parted ways.
But it is not the end between Paganini and Harold en Italie. After Paganini heard the performance in 1838, he said to Berlioz "You will never know how your music affected me. It is many years since I had felt anything like it." After few days, Paganini sent Berlioz a letter to congratulate him.
The fourth movement of Mendelssohn's 4th symphony, 'Italian', features a fast Italian dance called saltarello. Here, it is played by two domras and accompanied by piano. The domra is a lute-like instrument originated from Russia. Does this arrangement make the work even more exotic?
Scriabin wrote the Piano Sonata no.5 (op.53) & Poem of Ecstasy (Op.54), on the same poem. Though the Poem of Ecstasy was named a later opus number, Scriabin actaully started earlier on the symphonic poem.
The poem is difficult to understand, yet, there is a programme notes approved by Scriabin himself:
The Poem of Ecstasy is the Joy of Liberated Action. The Cosmos, i.e., Spirit, is Eternal Creation without External Motivation, a Divine Play of Worlds. The Creative Spirit, i.e., the Universe at Play, is not conscious of the Absoluteness of its creativeness, having subordinated itself to a Finality and made creativity a means toward an end. The stronger the pulse beat of life and the more rapid the precipitation of rhythms, the more clearly the awareness comes to the Spirit that it is consubstantial with creativity itself. When the Spirit has attained the supreme culmination of its activity and has been torn away from the embraces of teleology and relativity, when it has exhausted completely its substance and its liberated active energy, the Time of Ecstasy shall arrive. (from wikipedia)
The interesting thing about this composition is that Scriabin did not refer to the poem when he composed the pieces, however, he found similarities when he compared his own works. Not only the poem can be combined with the works, both the sonata and Poem of Ecstasy has a very similar structure (Both in Sonata Form). Moreover, these two works are the first ones that Scriabin moved away from keys. Although the sonata was marked F-sharp major, there is no F-sharp major throughout the whole piece.
He also introduced the famous mystic chord - C F# Bb E A D.
However, in his sonata, only a fragment of the poem was included:
What characterizes the distinctive Russian flavor in nineteenth century Russian orchestral music? Does it make a difference if it is played by native Russians or musicians of other nationalities?
