Maurice GedronL’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Ernest Ansermet

TCHAIKOVSKYSwan Lake

Variations on a Rococo ThemeSymphony No. 6 ‘Pathétique’

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PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)

CD 1 75’24

Swan Lake, Op. 20 Abridged version

ACT I 1 Introduction (Moderato assai) – No. 1: Scène (Allegro giusto) 5’422 No. 2: Valse (Corps de ballet) 6’443 Pas de trois: 6’58

No. 3a: Intrada (Allegro) No. 3c: Allegro sempliceNo. 3d: Moderato No. 3e: AllegroNo. 3f: Coda (Allegro vivace)

4 No. 7: Sujet – No. 8: Danse des coupes (Tempo di polacca) 4’43

ACT II5 No. 10: Scène (Moderato) 2’356 No. 11: Scène (Allegro moderato) – No. 12: Scène (Allegro) 7’55

Danse des cygnes: 7 No. 13a: Tempo di valse 2’158 No. 13e: Pas d’action: Odette et le Prince – Deuxième danse de la reine

des cygnes (Andante non troppo) 5’429 No. 13d: Danse des petits cygnes (Allegro moderato) 1’160 No. 13f: Danse générale (Tempo di valse) 1’31! No. 13b: Odette solo – Première danse de la reine des cygnes (Moderato assai) 1’43@ No. 13g: Coda (Allegro vivace) 2’08

ACT III£ No. 15: Danse des fançailles (Allegro giusto) 2’54$ No. 17: Scène: Entrée des invités (Fanfares) et la valse (Allegro) 3’33% No. 18: Scène (Allegro) 1’52^ No. 21: Danse espagnole (Allegro non troppo. Tempo di bolero) 2’16& No. 22: Danse napolitaine 2’03

Total timing: 153’44

* No. 23: Mazurka 2’49( No. 24: Danse hongroise (Czárdás) 2’27

ACT I) Pas de deux: 7’37

No. 5a: Intrada-Valse No. 5b: Andante No. 5c: ValseNo. 5d: Coda (Allegro molto vivace)

CD 2 78’20

ACT IV1 No. 28: Scène (Allegro agitato) 2’042 No. 29: Scène final (Andante – Allegro agitato) 6’02

3 Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 16’09

Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 ‘Pathétique’4 I Adagio – Allegro non troppo 18’085 II Allegro con grazia 7’026 III Allegro molto vivace 8’437 IV Finale (Adagio lamentoso – Andante) 9’43

Maurice Gendron, cello [CD2 3]L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Ernest Ansermet

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Moscow theatrical legend has it that Tchaikovskywas inspired to compose Swan Lake during avisit to the Rhineland in 1868 with its romanticcastles and dramatic scenery and was delightedwhen a commission by the Imperial Theatre inSt. Petersburg to compose the musical settingfor a ballet brought his inspiration to fruition.The premiere, on 4 March 1877 at the BolshoiTheatre, was a fiasco: poor production,uninspired choreography, mediocre conductingand, incredible as it may seem today, an attitudethat the music was undanceable. The fact thatTchaikovsky’s genius was too rich for everyone’sblood indicates the depths to which thestandards of ballet composition had plummetedat that time. In his usual self-lacerating way,Tchaikovsky shouldered the blame, telling hispatroness/muse Madame von Meck that SwanLake was poor stuff in comparison to Delibes’sSylvia! Half-hearted revivals came and went andthe composer even toyed with the idea of acomplete rewrite but nothing came of it.

Many years later, after the success of TheSleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, legendarychoreographer Marius Petipa rescued the score.Tragically, Tchaikovsky did not live to see thebelated success of this revival on 27 January1895, for he had died in November 1893. Sincethen, Swan Lake has never been out of the

repertoire of all major ballet companies and isuniversally considered one of the greatest pillarsof that genre.

As with his recording of The Sleeping Beauty(Decca Eloquence 480 0560) Ansermetmagically combines balletic élan with symphoniccohesion, drama and gravitas. Tempi areunforced. There is abundant atmosphere (listento how well Ansermet conveys the sense offoreboding from the very first phrase of theSwan theme at the opening) and also a distinctsense of character about Siegfried, his motherand Odette. The sound is crystalline andimmediate and the orchestral playing superbwith full-bodied brass, supple strings and alert,expressive winds given ample ‘air’ to phrase byAnsermet, although in the ‘Black Swan’ Adagiothe violin must have seemed controversiallyclosely recorded in those days. The harp cadenzais beautifully captured, as are the cymbals.

One critic, presumably tongue-in-cheek,remarked that the Suisse Romande triangle wasso vividly recorded it sounded like the sopraninoanvil in Das Rheingold! It is in the nationaldances that they really excel; the Neapolitandance, with its exaggerated sentimentality andswooning trumpet is a delight, and the silkystrings and rubato at the beginning of theCzardas are wonderful too. Ansermet has his

usual way with waltzes: the opening one has anopulent sweep and perfect pulse.

This is an incomplete recording, based on the1895 revival and sequences which occur inomitted numbers are described in squarebrackets in the synopsis below.

ACT IThe oboe introduces a hauntingly melancholictheme depicting the bewitched swans andcreating an atmosphere of despondency. PrinceSiegfried and his friends are celebrating hiscoming of age the following day with copiousamounts of wine and dancing, when a ball willbe held at the castle at which he will beexpected to choose a wife from among sixprincesses to be presented to him. Some youngfolk congratulate him and the entire companylaunch into the first of several famous waltzes.[Siegfried’s mother and her ladies-in-waitingarrive. She is usually depicted giving him acrossbow as a present. She then reproaches himfor unbecoming conduct and reminds him of hisresponsibility to take a wife. Siegfried escorts hismother out and returns in reflective mood.] Apas de trois consisting of an Intrada and a set ofvariations, two delicate, the middle one robust,are followed by a coda. [Wolfgang, the Prince’selderly tutor, decides to join in but is tooinebriated and collapses.] The Prince is then

encouraged to join in a spirited polonaise.

ACT IIIn a forest clearing at dusk, swans glidemajestically across the lake but as they drawcloser it appears they have been transformedinto beautiful women. Siegfried’s hunting partytakes aim with crossbows but their leader rushesforward to protect them and asks why the partywants to kill them. She then reveals herself, inmime, as the Princess Odette, cursed to be aswan by day and allowed to resume humanform only at night. The other swans are herattendants. Only a vow of eternal love can breakthe spell and liberate her. With that, the evilsorcerer Rothbart, who holds them in thrall,appears, disguised as an owl, and threatensSiegfried. Ignoring the threat, Siegfried invitesPrincess Odette to the ball at the castle. Therefollows a series of dances which include anotherwaltz, an ecstatic Adagio pas de deux forSiegfried and Odette, the famous staccatoDance of the Little Swans, and a reprise of theearlier waltz. As dawn breaks, the swans departand Rothbart drags Odette away from adistraught Siegfried.

ACT IIIIn the castle ballroom, the guests assemble andfanfares greet the six princesses with whomSiegfried briefly dances. His mother asks him to

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decide but he declines. Another fanfare presagesthe arrival of Baron Rothbart and his daughterOdile, who has been disguised as Odette.Siegfried is elated. They dance together. [In someproductions a pas de six of five variations and acoda for the six princesses, presumably tohighlight their particular qualities ortemperaments, is performed here, but is omittedon this recording.] There follows a divertissementof nationalistic dances generally thought torepresent the respective nationalities of theprincesses. A Spanish dance is followed by aNeapolitan number, then a mazurka and finallya Hungarian czardas. Siegfried and ‘Odette’ thenperform the so-called ‘Black Swan’ Adagio pasde deux to the accompaniment of a solo violin.Siegfried announces ‘Odette’ as his choice of abride. Rothbart persuades him to pledge eternallove and in doing so, break his vow to the realOdette whose vision, still trapped as a swan,instantly appears. Rothbart and Odile rush fromthe castle, closely followed by a horrified Siegfried.

ACT IV[Odette’s attendants await her return and dancemournfully.] When she appears, she tells themshe has been betrayed. Siegfried arrives as astorm brews and begs forgiveness. She instantlydies in his arms, and, taking her coronet, he castsit over the lake, which then engulfs the couple.

As the waters subside, the transfiguration iscomplete and the swans glide slowly into thedistance.

Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Themewere composed in 1876 for the German cellist,Wilhelm Karl Friedrich Fitzenhagen, leader of theMoscow Imperial Music Society and, like Tchaikovsky, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.

Like ‘Baroque’, the word rococo originally had apejorative connotation of decadence anddebasement, but in Tchaikovsky’s time, as now,its wider connotation implied the elegant,graceful and charming aspects of eighteenthcentury art. Tchaikovsky regarded Mozart,whose music was then not generally accordedthe idolatry it is today, as a sort of musical Christand this piece was certainly intended as anhomage to Mozart’s spirit. He wrote that Mozartwas ‘the culminating point of musical beautyand that no one had made me weep andtremble with rapture at nearness to what we callthe ideal.’ He saw only classical restraint, in bittercontrast to his own often disastrously chaoticemotions. Ironically, Mozart’s contemporariesoften regarded what they saw as his excessiveself-dramatisation and emotional turbulencewith the same distaste as Tchaikovsky’s confrèresdid his own perceived excesses!

There is a brief introduction, foreshadowing theopening phrase of the theme before the celloannounces the theme itself. There are sevenvariations: 1: The cello makes the theme dancein triplet rhythm, to the accompaniment ofpizzicato strings. 2: Cello and orchestra have aconversation based on thematic fragments. 3: An extended waltz version. 4: A virtual returnto the theme. 5: The flute carries the tune withthe cello accompanying with trills and cadenza.6: A version of the theme in a minor key.7: A swift, dazzling finale, the themespectacularly fragmented and pyrotechnics onthe cello before a brilliant conclusion.

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony has attractedmore unwelcome baggage than any other sinceBeethoven’s Eroica Symphony. With the latter, itwas confined to Napoleon’s influence. With thePathétique, it has involved everyone frompsycho-musicologists to conspiracy theorists andinvestigative journalists. The exact circumstancesof the composer’s death from drinking unboiledwater during a cholera epidemic, a week afterthe premiere of this work, instantly cast aromantic, or mawkish, aura over it. One isreminded of Metternich’s wonderfully cynicalreaction when told that a certain delegate wouldnot be attending the Congress of Vienna in1815 because he had recently died: ‘How

unfortunate! I wonder what the real reason is.’These considerations need not detain us here.

One of the many things worth mentioningabout this work is that no other symphonybefore the neurasthenic masterpieces of Mahlerand Shostakovich was a vehicle for such extremebut genuine soul bearing emotions – adocument of suffering and ultimate despair. Noother symphony up until this time and few since,has so successfully externalized inner conflictsand anxieties. Nor has any so convincinglydeparted so radically from the then conventionalsymphonic structure.

Tchaikovsky solved problems of form in thiswork by simply ignoring their very existence.The Pathétique is a vehicle for emotionaleloquence and genuine autobiographicaldrama, as opposed to self-dramatisinghistrionics. It was begun in February 1893 as aprogram symphony, completed in August andpremiered on 28 October by the RussianMusical Society, by which time Tchaikovsky hadenthusiastically embraced his brother Modest’ssuggestion of Pathétique (Emotional) as asubtitle. The public reception was one ofapproval rather than enthusiasm.

The very opening bars are dark, mysterious andtentative, with a bassoon vainly attempting to

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struggle out of the gloom created by restless,veiled bass chords. The Allegro consolidates itselfas a dialogue among all sections of theorchestra, gaining momentum and intensity andculminating in a brusque interjection on thebrass, and then subsides with angry mutteringon the cellos. The famous second subject, warmand expansive, follows, first on cellos and violinsthen woodwind and finally with a passionate fullorchestra; the clarinet and bassoon cast anafterglow. The development explodes withunprecedented force and galvanizes theorchestra, where the first violins furiously usherthe opening theme into a manic fugato section.In the recapitulation there is a smooth countermelody to the second subject but it is the coda,emotionally spent, which sets the seal bydeclaring ‘an end to all things lovely’.

The second movement is a waltz, but of abizarre type: uniquely in 5/4 time, giving it alimping quality, which, as a commentatormordantly observed, could not be danced unlessone had three legs. The melancholy introvertedbeauty is a complete contrast to the glamorous,opulent waltzes in his ballets. The thirdmovement marks another departure fromconventional symphonic form in Tchaikovsky’sadoption of a march, feverish rather thanceremonial or triumphant, in lieu of the

traditional scherzo. The initial nervous scurryingrhythms finally coalesce into a solid theme. Thismovement illustrates the composer’s ability toachieve an astounding climax through repetitionrather than development.

The final movement is a psychologicalmasterstroke as well a musical masterpiece.This is Tchaikovsky’s finest moment. Neither thecombination of dignity and stoicism, nor theconsoling second theme can assuage, let alonebanish, the all-pervasive paroxysms of despairto which Tchaikovsky succumbs, as the soundfrom the orchestra ebbs away like the breathfrom a dying body. No other work in musicevokes so powerfully and movingly the darknight of the soul.

Ansermet’s reading holds the listener’sattention by its avoidance of excessive passionand tempo extremes, which tend to distort theshape and line of the work. The first movementis almost a musical universe in itself andAnsermet eschews the temptation to resort tochaos and hysteria of the development sectionand handles the three appearances of thefamous ‘big’ tune differently and equallyeffectively: cautious optimism on the mutedstrings, unashamed joy on full strings andresignation when it reappears on the clarinet.He realizes the multi-faceted moods of this

movement, possibly the most volatile evercomposed up until this time, avoiding makingthe music unduly episodic or fragmented, whilemaintaining an overarching shape.

In the ‘waltz’ Ansermet again maintains anunsentimental, almost rubato-free line and yieldslittle in the trio section. The march’s initialscamperings suggest the composer’s unfocusedemotional confusion rather than panic. In theAdagio finale Ansermet achieves thatremarkable dichotomy of remaining resolutelydry-eyed and stoic but investing it with plentyof drama.

Greg Keane

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ERNEST ANSERMET was a significant figurein twentieth-century music. He was born in1883 and followed his father’s profession ofmathematician, graduating from LausanneUniversity in 1903 and returning there asProfessor of Mathematics, although by thenhe had realised that music was his truevocation. He received tuition from ErnestBloch and conducted his first concerts atMontreux in 1910.

He became a friend of Debussy, Ravel andStravinsky, on whose recommendation hebecame conductor for Diaghilev’s BalletsRusses, a position which took him to Londonand South America and which enhanced hisreputation to the point where he premieredFalla’s Three-Cornered Hat, Prokofiev’s TheBuffoon and Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale,Pulcinella and Renard. All his life, Ansermetwas associated with the ‘Diaghilev’ scores –Ravel, Debussy and romantic Russians likeRimsky-Korsakov and Borodin.

However, Ansermet’s talents extended wellbeyond this sphere of repertoire: he alsopremiered works by Bloch, Copland,Lutoslawski, Martinu, Walton and Britten’sopera The Rape of Lucretia. Ansermet’sgreatest legacy was undoubtedly the SuisseRomande Orchestra (Romande being the

French speaking region of Switzerland centredaround Geneva where the Orchestra is based)Ansermet remained its Chief Conductor fromits formation in 1918 until his retirement in1968, surely an unprecedented period in thehistory of music. After World War II, he signedan exclusive contract with Decca and, apartfrom a flirtation with the London Philharmonicand the occasional excursion (vide somerecordings with the Paris ConservatoireOrchestra), his recordings were madeexclusively with this orchestra until hisretirement. This made Ansermet unique, aseven conductors such as Furtwängler andKarajan, who both had marathon periods asChief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic,also frequently conducted other orchestrassuch as the Vienna Philharmonic and thePhilharmonia Orchestra.

The Suisse Romande was never one of theworld’s top ten orchestras, but on its day it wasa fine ensemble which benefited fromAnsermet’s scrupulous adherence to the score,clarity and flair for detail. In a 75th birthdayarticle, The Gramophone magazine commentedon his ‘mathematical accuracy’ – anunintentionally double-edged comment since itsuggests a sort of desiccated human abacus,largely devoid of spontaneity and intuition.

Ansermet was essentially unassuming, almostascetic, and had none of the grand seigneur,bullying podium psychopath, or the fatuousdynamism of the bogus celebrity about him.However, he was, especially towards the endof his life, often cantankerous and petulantand very jealous of any considerationdisplayed towards his Decca colleague andcontemporary, Pierre Monteux. It was ameasure of Ansermet’s influence that hemanaged to persuade Decca to cast himagainst type, as it were, and allow him torecord Beethoven and Brahms cycles when thecompany had such titans in theAustro/Germanic repertoire as Karl Böhm,Hans Knappertsbusch, Rafael Kubelik andGeorg Solti. Some of his last recordings wereof Bach cantatas.

No portrait of Ansermet, however brief, wouldbe complete without anecdotal evidence ofhis parsimonious side, delivered withconsiderable relish by John Culshaw in hisautobiography, Putting the Record Straight.Ansermet’s Geneva apartment had drawersand cupboards stuffed with material from theDiaghilev days – notes galore from theimpresario himself, or from Stravinsky andNijinsky, bundles of little sketches by Picasso,postcards from Debussy, Satie and Ravel –

which seemed to mean little to him. Despitethis veritable cornucopia, on the departurefrom the company of the recording producerJames Walker, who had worked with infinitepatience and loyalty to produce the bestresults possible during Ansermet’s decliningyears, all he received from Ansermet was abox of Swiss chocolates!

After his retirement as Chief Conductor of theSuisse Romande Orchestra in 1968, he madeonly one recording: a complete Firebird withthe New Philharmonia, which included arehearsal sequence. He survived only a fewmonths and died in February 1969. Had itbeen impossible for him to live without hisbeloved Suisse Romande Orchestra?

Greg Keane

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Ernest Ansermet’s complete Tchaikovsky recordings for DECCA:

Swan Lake; Rococo Variations; Symphony No. 6Decca Eloquence 480 0563

The Sleeping BeautyDecca Eloquence 480 0560

The Nutcracker; Suites Nos. 2 & 3Decca Eloquence 480 0557

Recording producers: James Walker (Swan Lake, Symphony No. 6); Victor Olof (Rococo Variations) Recording engineers: Roy Wallace (Swan Lake); Gil Went (Rococo Variations, Symphony No. 6)Recording location: Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland, November 1953 (Rococo Variations), October1956 (Symphony), November 1958 (Swan Lake)Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-HomjiEloquence cover image: detail from the cover image for an LP of Swan Lake highlights issued on Decca’s‘Ace of Diamonds’ series: SDD 182Art direction: Chilu Tong · www.chilu.comBooklet editor: Bruce Raggatt

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