Harold en Italy

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Berlioz in 1832, painted by Émile Signol

Harold en Italie ( French for “Harold in Italy”; op. 16, H. 68 ) is a symphony with solo viola ( Symphonie en quatre parties avec alto principal ) by the French composer Hector Berlioz . He composed the work in 1834 in Paris , the first performance took place there on 23 November the same year in the Salle du Conservatoire with Christian Urhan as a soloist and Narcisse Girard as a conductor instead.

Emergence

Niccolò Paganini commissioned Berlioz in 1834 to compose a viola concerto for his new Stradivarius viola (the so-called “Paganini-Mendelssohn” from 1731). In his memoir, Berlioz states that he replied: “  Certes, lui répondis-je, elle me flatte plus que je ne saurais dire, mais pour répondre à votre attente pour faire dans une semblable composition briller comme il convient un virtuoso tel que vous, il faut jouer de l'alto; et je n'en joue pas.  "(, German:" Sure, I answered, it flatters me more than I could express, but in order to meet your expectations and to make a virtuoso like you shine in a work like this, you have to be able to play the viola, and you can I don't. ”) Nonetheless, Paganini insisted on the order, and Berlioz finally gave in. After looking at the first movement, Paganini is said to have been disappointed because the work lacked numerous virtuoso passages for the soloist (“  Il faut que je joue toujours.  ” (, German: “I have to (= I want) all the time play.")). However, this seems to have been Berlioz's intention from the beginning, because as early as March 1834 he described the composition as a symphony with solo viola. Paganini did not hear the work for the first time until 1838, but according to Berlioz he should have been deeply touched. Paganini is said to have taken him by the arm and led him back to the stage, where many musicians were still lingering: "There he knelt down and kissed my hand". A few days later Berlioz received a congratulatory letter from Paganini and a check for 20,000 francs .

The work has an autobiographical background. It consists of the experiences Berlioz had in Italy after winning the Rome Prize in 1830 . Berlioz linked these own experiences with the literary figure of Harold from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage . Berlioz writes about this in his autobiography: “  je voulus faire de l'alto, en le plaçant au milieu des poétiques souvenirs que m'avaient laissés mes pérégrinations dans les Abruzzes, une sorte de rêveur mélancolique dans le genre du Child-Harold de Byron.  »(, German:“ I wanted to turn the viola into a kind of melancholy dreamer of the sort of Byron's Childe Harold by placing it at the center of poetic memories that my wanderings in Abruzzo had left with me . ”) The However, the composition does not follow the literary model in terms of content, so the scenes from the symphony are not included in Byron's work. The literary reference should therefore be understood more as a paraphrase.

The score was first published by Schlesinger in 1848 . The dedicatee is Humbert Ferrand.

occupation

The cast consists of solo viola, two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , four bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , Ophicleide , 2 timpani , triangle , pool , two small drums , harp and strings .

shape

From a formal point of view, the composition can be viewed as a symphony. It is laid out in four movements, the third of which is a Scherzo in the tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven . The viola never has such virtuoso tasks as is usual in instrumental concerts ; it has central tasks especially in the first movement, in which it introduces the Harold theme as well as the 1st and 2nd secondary themes. However, there is no common cadence . In the second and third movements, the use of the solo instrument is almost entirely restricted to the performance of the Harold theme; in the last movement the viola is restricted to even shorter passages that have a reminiscence-like character. The relative uniformity of the thematic allocation of the solo viola parts, which often consist of the performance of the Harold theme, allows the solo part to be assigned to the role of the "melancholy dreamer" Harold. The Harold motif corresponds to the idée fixe of the work.

A typical performance of the work is 40 minutes.

music

I. Harold in the mountains : Subject of the Adagio
I. Harold in the mountains : Subject of the Allegro
II. March of the Pilgrims : Subject
III. Serenade : Subject of the Allegro assai
III. Serenade : Subject of the Allegretto
IV. At the banquet of the robbers : Subject

I. Harold in the mountains

The first movement has the full title «  Harold aux montagnes. Scènes de mélancolie, de bonheur et de joie  »(German:" Harold in the mountains. Scenes of melancholy, happiness and joy ") and consists of several themes that have an independent effect. It begins with an adagio in which, after a chromatic introduction, the Harold theme is introduced, which can be heard both solo and played by the orchestra. This is followed by the Allegro . This is not composed strictly according to the sonata form ; the development and the recapitulation are not clearly separated from each other and both themes appear changed when they recur. In the coda that closes the movement, the themes are varied once more, and the tempo increases to twice that of the Allegro . These three parts correspond in character to the three scenes named in the heading.

II. March of the Pilgrims

The second movement is with "  Marche des pèlerins chantant la prière du soir  (German:" March of the pilgrims who sing the Evening Prayer ")" overwritten. The thematic motif is similar to that of the second movement of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's “Italian” symphony . At the beginning, the movement describes in musical form an approaching pilgrimage, which is represented by a crescendo . The associated melody sequence is referred to as canto in the score . This is then interrupted by what Berlioz describes as follows: “  la sonnerie des cloches du couvent se fait entendre […], représentée par two notes de harpe que redoublent les flûtes, les hautbois et les cors.  »(, German:“ The ringing of the monastery bells sounds, represented by two notes of the harp, which are doubled by the flutes, the oboes and the horns ”). In contrast, the Harold theme sounds in the solo viola, which is played adagio . This first part of the movement is followed by a middle section. This was described by Berlioz as canto religioso in harmonies in the style of Palestrina . The soloist accompanies them by playing sul ponticello arpeggios . The sentence ends with the canto of the first part being taken up again. The onward journey of the pilgrimage is symbolized by a decrescendo .

III. serenade

The third movement is entitled "  Sérénade d'un montagnard des Abruzzes à sa maîtresse  " (German: "Evening serenade of an Abruzzo mountain man to his beloved"). An essential component is the evening serenade mentioned in the title , which is accompanied - in a contrapuntal way - by the Harold theme. The serenade is flanked by two Allegro parts that are played twice as fast. The latter have the characteristics of a Sicilian . The sentence ends with a part in which all three elements previously present in the sentence are combined. The siciliano rhythm accompanies the melody of the serenade and the Harold theme in the form of an ostinato .

IV. The robbers' feast

The heading of the fourth movement is “  Orgie de Brigands. Souvenirs de scènes précédentes  »(German:" Feast of the robbers. Memories of past scenes "). The movement begins with a more detailed introduction, which contains five revisions of motifs from the previous movements, played by the soloist. They are repeatedly interrupted by the beginning of the final theme. After this introduction, a sonata movement begins, but the development is missing. The character of this part is very lively and wild and can be interpreted as the orgy. The solo part is completely missing, which Berlioz later explained as Harold's "Escape". Only at the end, however, does the viola start again with the theme of the pilgrims' march as the last moment of remembrance.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So designated by the composer, cf. Hector Berlioz: Harold en Italie. (PDF) Manuscript on IMSLP, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wolfgang Dömling : Harold en Italie . In: Wulf Konold (Ed.): Concert Guide Romanticism . Schott, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-254-08388-3 , pp. 27-32 .
  3. ↑ a b D. Kern Holoman: Harold en Italie . In: Index of Berlioz's Work. UC Davis , April 18, 1998, accessed August 3, 2018 .
  4. ^ Antonio Stradivari, Viola, Cremona, 1731, the 'Paganini, Mendelssohn' (description of the instruments). In: Tarisio. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Hector Berlioz: Mémoires de Hector Berlioz. Project Gutenberg , accessed August 3, 2018 (French).
  6. ↑ a b c Graham Olson: Harold en Italie (Harold in Italy), symphony for viola & orchestra, H. 68 (Op. 16). Allmusic , accessed on August 3, 2018 .