SYMPHONIC POETRY: MAGIC, FIRE & LIGHT
Luke Kritzeck
Luke Kritzeck
Luke Kritzeck has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theater, dance, music, circus and opera, on stages around the world as a Lighting and Production Designer. He currently serves as the Resident Lighting Designer and Technical Producer for the San Francisco Symphony and has been a member of the creative team on numerous multimedia production. Mr. Kritzeck served as the Director of Lighting at the New World Symphony and has working for Cirque du Soleil on its touring production TOTEM and in Macau, China on its resident show ZAiA. His other projects with Cirque du Soleil include serving as the Lighting Director for featured performances at the Venetian Macau. Selected design credits include Chautauqua Opera Company, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cedar Fair Entertainment, Curtis Institute of Music, Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Lafayette Ballet Theatre, and the St. Louis Symphony.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By James M. Keller
Paul Dukas
Born October 1, 1865, in Paris, France Died May 17, 1935, in Paris, France
THE SORCERER’ S APPRENTICE [ 1897 ]
Were it not for a single fantastically successful work, Paul Dukas would be a stranger to music lovers today. The Sorcerer’ s Apprentice( L’ Apprenti sorcier), composed after a scenario by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and premiered in 1897, has all but single-handedly kept his name before the concert-going public. Even before Walt Disney’ s 1940 film Fantasia catapulted it to mass-media prominence( with Mickey Mouse starring as the Apprentice), it was one of the most frequently performed of all“ modern” compositions. It holds its place as a small masterpiece of a symphonic poem.
The legend of the sorcerer’ s apprentice dates to antiquity, with variations on it occurring in Roman, Greek, and even Egyptian literature. When Johann Wolfgang von Goethe( 1749 – 1832) wrote his classic treatment of it, the ballad“ Der Zauberlehrling,” he followed the traditional plot closely. An ambitious apprentice eavesdrops on his master, a sorcerer, to learn the incantation the master uses to turn his broom into a servant. When the master steps out, the apprentice tries out the incantation, commanding the broom to bring a bucket of water. But the apprentice had failed to learn how to break the spell. The broom-servant continues to bring water practically to the point of inundation; and when the apprentice tries to stop it by cutting it in half with an axe, he finds that he now has two brooms bearing buckets rather than just one. The master returns in time to set everything aright, and the apprentice feels properly chastised.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, two cornets, three trombones, timpani, bass drum, cymbals( pair), suspended cymbal, orchestra bells, triangle, harp, and strings.
Maurice Ravel
Born March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, Basses- Pyrenées, France Died December 28, 1937, in Paris, France
DAPHNIS ET CHLOÉ SUITE NO. 2 [ 1909 – 13 ]
Serge Diaghilev’ s Ballets Russes arrived in Paris in 1909 and in no time flat a commission from the company became a signal that a composer had arrived at the summit of cultural life. Diaghilev’ s choreographer, Michel Fokine, had been urging Diaghilev to consider a ballet on the myth of Daphnis and Chloé, and he began working with Maurice Ravel to devise a suitable scenario. For their source they turned to a pastoral romance attributed to the thirdcentury C. E. Greek author Longus, as filtered through the 16 th-century French poet Jacques Amyot. The goatherd Daphnis loves the shepherdess Chloé. Pirates abduct Chloé, but she is rescued after the god Pan intervenes, scaring off the pirates and restoring peace. Daphnis and Chloé are reunited, and everyone celebrates their love in an ecstatic dance.
From the outset the going was not easy. In June 1909, Ravel wrote to a friend:“ Almost every night, work until 3 a. m. What complicates things is that Fokine doesn’ t know a word of French, and I only know how to swear in Russian. In spite of the interpreters, you can imagine the savor of these meetings.” Work continued slowly. The ballet finally premiered in Paris on June 8, 1912, about two years after Diaghilev had hoped. It has enjoyed sporadic success as a staged ballet, but Ravel’ s music became a concert classic. Even before the ballet reached the stage, he had already extracted the first of his two orchestral suites from the score. In 1913, he followed
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