Leos Janacek’s orchestral suite “Taras Bulba” was premiered at a concert by the National Theatre in Brno on October 9, 1921. The conductor was František Neumann. Janácek’s native Czech and Moravian homeland was dominated by the foreign Habsburg Empire for all but the last decade of his life. Seeking to liberate themselves from their German-speaking oppressors, Czechs looked eastward for support, to the Russian Empire of Tsar Nicholas II. Janacek was an enthusiastic Russophile, even giving his children Russian names and sending them to be educated in St. Petersburg. He studied the Russian language, and was inspired by Russian literature for several of his greatest works, including his orchestral rhapsody Taras Bulba, after a celebrated novella by Nikolai Gogol. The title character is an intrepid and ruthless military leader in sixteenth century Ukraine, a Cossack warrior engaged in deadly combat against the Poles. Gogol creates a bloody tour de force for this hardened and bloodthirsty soldier whose life, ultimately, is tragic. One of his sons, Andrei, falls in love with a Polish princess and thereby becomes a traitor to his people. He is killed by his own father on the battlefield. After his other son, Ostap, is captured, publicly tortured and executed by the Poles, Taras assembles a Cossack army to avenge Ostap’s death, only to be captured and burned at the stake. With his last words, he extolls the cause of the Russians, spurring his troops to final victory. What attracted Janácek to this grim story was the combination of nationalism and personal drama. The three-movement Rhapsody was written at a time when extreme Slavic patriotism had erupted during the cataclysm of World War I. Janácek’s sympathies were, of course, on the side of the Russians and their Western allies. He finished an early version of the piece in 1915 and then revised it thoroughly three years later, as the war was nearing its end in the East and the negotiations that would lead to the independence of Czechoslovakia were already underway. Herewith a performance of the first part of the Rhapsody, entitled “The Death of Andrei.” The Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE is under the baton of Andrés Orozco-Estrada. youtube/watch?v=zZc1UcW9keE
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 06:41:26 +0000