Valery Gergiev and Kirov Orchestra
Stravinksy, Scriabin Abum Review
Conductor Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg bring us fantastical encounters between gods, ogres, and men.
Conductor Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersberg specialize in performing the masterpieces of Russian composition, and their album featuring Stravinsky's The Firebird and Scriabin's Prometheus: The Poem of Fire does not disappoint.
Composed in 1919, The Firebird is harmonically and timbrelly lush in the 19th century vein, full of chromaticism and relying on instruments traditionally associated with the supernatural: the harp and celesta. Though not as innovative as Igor Stravinsky's later experiments in neo-Classicism and primitivism, The Firebird is still a colorful piece of music, transporting the listener to fairytale Russia.
As a ballet, the work is narrative, relating the story of a magical bird with feathers that shine like fire. The heroic prince spies the bird fluttering about a garden, and entering, he succeeds in capturing the bird. But the garden belongs to an ogre, who turns all men who enter his kingdom into stone (and keeps all the women captive). In exchange for her release, the Firebird gives the prince one of her feathers. The prince uses the magic feather to summon the Firebird, who helps him outwit the ogre, thus freeing the princesses. Like all good fairytales, the story ends with the prince marrying one of the princesses.
In order to set the magical characters (such as the firebird and ogre) apart from the humans (the prince and princesses), Stravinsky adopts a musical device his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov had already employed. The humans are given very diatonic (or "natural") music whereas the magical characters are portrayed through chromatic lines that emphasize the flattened fifth scale degree. The firebird herself is associated with "fluttering" arpeggios.
Color and sound fascinated Alexander Scriabin, prompting him even to invent a "color keyboard" which would produce a beam of colored light correlated to every tone played. Scriabin's fascination with the link between sound and color influences even his compositions meant for more traditional instruments. His piano concerto/tone poem Prometheus is another story of supernatural encounters, the Greek myth of the man who stole fire from the gods and received eternal punishment for his heroism.
As the story unfolds, different colored lights are meant to reinforce the mood (and are unfortunately lost in an audio recording). The intro is based on chordal fourths, representing primordial chaos; the colors are blue, violet, and grey. The horns in the intro represent man's desire ("The Theme of the Creative Wish") and a brilliant trumpet fanfare represents man's will ("Theme of the Will"). The piano enters with the "Theme of Understanding" accompanied by brilliant blue light. The exuberance of the initial theme morphs into yearning, which transitions the music into the development section, a turbulent red that disintegrates into a host of shifting visuals. The "Theme of Assertion" is also built on fourths (an interval very important to Scriabin's harmonic language) and voiced in the horns. As in any classical recapitulation, the beginning themes return but in full-fledged form: desire is now dazzling white. A coda recalls "Assertion," and color ends as it began: in blue.
This combination of "Russian fire" is full of passionately dark and delicate themes and the Kirov Orchestra's sensitive expressivity make this album a must-have for any lover of Russian music.
