At a Glance
Magdalena Kožená and Yefim Bronfman's program draws on music
from Eastern Europe (Russians Modest Mussorgsky and Sergei
Rachmaninoff, and Hungarian Béla Bartók), as well as music from
France (Maurice Ravel and the contemporary Marc-André Dalbavie).
Though the musical styles of these songs are as diverse as their
composers, they share some characteristics. Principal among them is
humor, both gentle and with a satirical edge. In The
Nursery, Mussorgsky brilliantly captures the unconscious
funniness of the way children look at the world. Ravel's little
portraits in Histoires naturelles are sharply
observed satires of human behavior in animal guise. And Bartók's
Village Scenes are filled with the earthy humor of
peasant life.
These songs also demonstrate a naturalistic, often speech-like
approach to their vocal parts. The words here were of supreme
importance to these five composers, and so the outpouring of the
music had to be somewhat subordinated to their clear declamation.
Mussorgsky was the master in this respect: The
Nursery uncannily mimics the rhythm and cadence of a
child's speech. Ravel copied the sounds and gaits of his animals,
while Bartók was aided by his folksong material not to overdress
the verse. While writing marvelously colorful piano music, Dalbavie
is careful never to get in the way of his singer's delivery of the
Ezra Pound poem. And even the arch-Romantic Rachmaninoff traded in
his usual Russian effusiveness to convey the sensuous sounds of his
poems with impressionistic delicacy.