BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. Claudia Barainsky as the soprano.
I - Tempo I. Sehr ruhige Bewegung - Tempo I - Ruhig bewegt - Allmählich verlangsamen - Ruhiger - Ein wenig vorangehen - Wieder zurückhalten - Più mosso ed un poco agitato - Allmählich ruhiger - Ruhiges Hauptzeitmaß [Tempo I] -Sehr ruhig - Zwischenspiel. Andantino molto rubato - Lebhafter - Wieder lebhafter - Etwas zurückhalten in Tempo - Fließend - Große Steigerung - Stark verbreitern - Tempo I - Sehr ruhig - Ende des Zwischenspiels - Sehr langsam und ruhig beginnen - Zeit lassen - Aufblühend - Von hier ab große Steigerung! Vorwärts! Drängend! Wachsend! - Vorwärts! - Ekstatisch verbreitern - Sehr bewegt - Sehr breit - Tempo I: 0:00
Ben-Haim's "Pan" was composed in 1931, with sketched dating from the mid-1920s. He completed and orchestrated the work after he had found himself jobless in a homeland that was increasingly turning its back to him, as the first signs of widespread anti-Semitism started to appear in Germany. The premiere, under the composer’s baton at the July 1932 Bayerische Künstlerwoche in Munich, won great acclaim from the audience and critics alike. Despite this and other successes, Ben-Haim would emigrate to the British Mandate of Palestine in October 1933. In 1937, the Palestine Symphony Orchestra would perform the work in a Hebrew version.
The work is based on one of the cycle of "Five Poems" (1907) by the German poet Heinrich Lautensack. The lyrics describe a woman speaking to a man in a dream. The poem starts by depicting the sunset over the shore of an imaginary sea, which is in fact the dream’s coast. There is much weariness. Men are drowsy after their day of toil, and their falling asleep is represented as boats returning to the shore, to the sound of mysterious bells. The last part of the poem describes a woman overtaken by a tempestuous erotic experience brought about by the god Pan.
The choice of that mythological figure is surely related to the seductive character of the Greek god of shepherds and their flocks, who draws the heroine to him with his enthralling charms, which represent the splendour of the universe and nature, until his wild and dangerous lunge, an expression of hidden passions and the human unconscious. The mysterious dream world, which culminates in a burst of passion, is characteristic of the poet’s psychological work. The Catholic vespers' prayer, which represents nature and the chiming bells, and the erotic rupture, in the spirit of ancient Hellenism, are the two facets of the text that captured the composer’s imagination.
It opens with airy chords on the violins, accompanying the solo flute, all painting the scene of evening descending, portrayed in the poem’s first stanza. This light and luminous orchestration would, over the next years, become emblematic of the composer’s style. The soprano enters with a description of the approaching evening. She proceeds through all the stanzas, except for the last one. The orchestra gradually joins in, until the magical moment when stars appear in the night sky. The warm sound of the strings and horns introduces the poem’s second stanza, describing the tired men who are drowsing off to sleep. The sounds of the harp, and afterwards the woodwinds, in extensive solo segments, stir bold colours that depict the water, sky, and the chimes of bells described in the poem.
The third stanza, describing the boats that lead us into the dream realm, opens with two flutes and continues to an expansive and strongly expressive development of the airy chords of the beginning of the piece.The soprano ceases singing. A long orchestral transition, again starting with the solo flute, depicts the dream visions in an unusual orchestration that includes mandolins, the expressive, quivering sound of which stands out as they accompany short solos by the clarinets, horns, and other wind instruments. This orchestral segment develops into a fiercely expressive melody on the strings, which takes the composition to its inspiring peak.
Now the soprano returns to sing the last stanza, which describes an uncontrollable sensual experience. She sings about losing herself to her passions and taking off her clothes. The melody played by the violins in the interlude now returns to lead to one last orchestral climax. When the orchestra quiets down, the flute repeating the same melody with which it opened the work, the narrator feels the cold touch of Pan.
[Activate the subtitles to read the lyrics].
Picture: "Pan and Two Nymphs" (1922) by the Austrian artist Georg Janny.
Source: tinyurl.com/24...
Unfortunately, the score is not freely available.
3 окт 2024
