Pélléas et Mélisande
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Maurice Maeterlinck’s story of Pélléas and Mélisande has inspired a number of composers, and we will hear two takes on the symbolist drama this evening.
We begin with ‘Fileuse,’ one of four intermezzos Gabriel Fauré composed for a performance of the play “Pélléas et Mélisande” at London’s Prince of Wales theater. Joseph Silverstein conducts the Boston Symphony as they invoke the gentle humming of a spinning wheel. In our second hour, we hear Jean Sibelius’s Opus 46, which consists of nine musical depictions of various episodes, not illustrating the action but reflecting the psychological undercurrents of the drama.
Other works for your enjoyment this evening: Telemann’s Viola Concerto in G, with Reinhardt Goebel playing the viola and leading the Musica Antiqua Koln; “Nine Miniatures” by contemporary American Marc Mellits, played, oddly enough, on Baroque instruments by the American Baroque Ensemble; Mozart’s Serenade in C Minor, K. 388, performed by the inimitable Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; and, of course, the always-popular “more”!
We begin with ‘Fileuse,’ one of four intermezzos Gabriel Fauré composed for a performance of the play “Pélléas et Mélisande” at London’s Prince of Wales theater. Joseph Silverstein conducts the Boston Symphony as they invoke the gentle humming of a spinning wheel. In our second hour, we hear Jean Sibelius’s Opus 46, which consists of nine musical depictions of various episodes, not illustrating the action but reflecting the psychological undercurrents of the drama.
Other works for your enjoyment this evening: Telemann’s Viola Concerto in G, with Reinhardt Goebel playing the viola and leading the Musica Antiqua Koln; “Nine Miniatures” by contemporary American Marc Mellits, played, oddly enough, on Baroque instruments by the American Baroque Ensemble; Mozart’s Serenade in C Minor, K. 388, performed by the inimitable Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; and, of course, the always-popular “more”!
