In Part 1 we preview four musical talking points we'll be starting from in Part 2: (1) Andante sostenuto, (2) "Pandaemonium,"
(3) "Le Serment" ("The Oath"), and (4) A snatch of Nietzsche
-- from the Feb. 6 "Tribute to Seiji Ozawa" on the BSO website
#1 of 4 [see above & below]: Andante sostenuto
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, Apr. 2, 1977
by Ken
Seiji died Tuesday, at 88, after a number of years of diminished health, but also after a remarkably full (and I hope satisfying; he did an awful lot to feel satisfied about) run. If you need reminding of how productive a life it was, I do commend to you that "Tribute" posted on the website of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, whose music director he was for a, well, remarkable 29 seasons (1973-2002). I've been fascinated in particular by the well-filled-out "Timeline of Seiji Ozawa with the BSO," which although specifically BSO-focused can't help but touch on non-BSO doings.
I know we have all sorts of desperately important business pending -- and as you can see, this "musical remembrance" is now itself mostly pending, though I'm hoping its pendency will be brief; Parts 2 and 3 are taking shape. A quick peek in the Sunday Classics Musical Archive confirmed my sense that Seiji has been a frequent guest here, and Part 3 will consist mostly (I hope!) of just pulling a buncha stuff out of the archive for our listening pleasure.
Part 2, however, as you may have noted, is going to spring from four "musical talking points" that have leapt out of my wanderings through memory. The first we've heard above, in its intact, self-contained form -- self-contained except for the story attached, which has to do with my happening to hear Seiji and the BSO play the piece from which this Andante sostenuto is drawn, a symphony I imagine I thought I knew reasonably well at the time (the summer of 1974) but in the case of this movement seemed to be hearing for the first time, to overwheming effect. For the record (pun possibly slightly intended), the recording was made several years later, in April 1977, when Seiji was rounding out his fourth season as BSO music director -- and I wonder how many people imagined that 25 more seasons were to follow.
THE OTHER THREE "MUSICAL TALKING POINTS"
One is another self-contained movement from a larger -- in this case much larger -- symphony. The other two are extractions from pieces that depict dramatic moments in larger works where series stories are being told music. We'll look at those contexts in Part 2, and also some broader lines of musical connection that run from (or through) them.
#2 of 4: "Pandaemonium"
After THE PRINCES OF DARKNESS receive assurances from a proffered newcomer's escort that he has freely signed himself over to their ranks, a chorus of Démons et Damnés (Demons and the Doomed) dances around their new, er, soulmate, chanting in what the text describes as "langue infernale," or "the infernal language," with effusive invocations of Mérikariba, Satan, Belphégor, Méphisto (especially), Kroix, Astaroth, and Belzébuth.
Donald McIntyre, baritone; Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1973
#3 of 4: "Le Serment" ("The Oath")
SOLOIST: Swear then, by the august symbol,
on the body of the daughter and on the body of the son,
by this sorrowful tree that consoles,
swear all, swear by the sacred crucifix
to seal between you an eternal chain
of tender charity, of fraternal friendship!
And God, God who holds in hand future judgment,
in the book of pardon will inscribe this oath.
[Emphasis added -- by the composer!]
[A small chorus repeats the soloist's exhortation while combined choruses sing their avowed intent to swear the oath.]
José van Dam, bass-baritone; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
Giorgio Tozzi, bass; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, Apr. 23-24, 1961
#4 of 4: That snatch of Nietzsche: "O Mensch! Gib Acht!"
(maybe a trifle colloquially: "O mankind! Watch out!")
O man! Take heed!
What says the deep midnight?
"I slept, I slept --,
from a deep dream I have awoken:
The world is deep!
And more deeply conceived than day.
Deep, deep, deep is its pain --,
joy -- deeper still than heartache.
Pain says: Die!
But all joy seeks eternity --
seeks deep, deep eternity."
-- "Zarathustra's Midnight Song" from Friedrich Nietzsche's novel Also sprach Zarathustra; translation by Deryck Cooke
Jessye Norman, soprano; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded live in Symphony Hall, April 1993
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