Edouard Lalo: Symphony in G minor(1885/86)

Édouard Lalo

in 1891(engraving by Richard Paraire)

(27 January 1823 – 22 April 1892) was a French composer.Easily his most celebrated piece is his Symphonie espagnole, a popular work in the standard repertoire for violin and orchestra. 

〈스페인 교향곡 Symphonie espagnole〉과 명료한 관현악법으로 유명하다.

스페인계 군인집안에서 태어나 1839년 무일푼으로 파리로 가서 파리 음악원에서 프랑수아 아브네크에게 바이올린을 배웠고, J. 쉴로프와 크레브쾨르에게 작곡 개인교수를 받았다.

1848년 첫 작품을 출판했고, 1855년에는 아르맹고(Armingaud) 현악 4중주단에 비올라 연주자로 들어갔다. 바이올린과 관현악을 위한 〈스페인 교향곡〉을 사라사테가 1875년 초연하여 성공을 거두었고, 1876년에는 첼로 협주곡, 1882년에는 발레곡 〈나무나 Namouna〉로 성공을 거두었다. 이 곡은 안무솜씨보다는 수준 높은 음악이 더 돋보인다는 점에서 디아길레프의 발레 작품들을 예시했다. 뒤이어 1887년 〈교향곡 G단조 Symphony in G Minor〉를, 1888년에는 오페라 〈이스의 임금님 Le Roi d'Ys〉의 결정판을 발표했다.

역시 후대에 영향을 준 바 있는 실내악으로는 현악 4중주, 3개의 3중주, 피아노 소나타, 바이올린 소나타가 있고, 바이올린 협주곡과 피아노 협주곡도 작곡했다. 그의 음악은 슈만, 베버와 유사한 점이 있기는 하나 매우 독창적인 재능의 산물이다. [다음 백과]

 

Symphony in G minor

I.Andante-Allegro non troppo:00:00 II.Vivace :08:25 III.Adagio:13:36 IV.Allegro:19:55

Basler Sinfonie-Orchester Giancarlo Andretta

Picture:Jacques-Louis David :Oath of the Horati (1784)

 

The Symphony in G minor was Édouard Lalo’s final original orchestral composition. It was composed in 1885-1886. (There were two earlier symphonies composed by Lalo, believed destroyed). It was premiered on 7 February 1887 in Paris at the Concerts Lamoureux under Charles Lamoureux.

It is a classically constructed romantic symphony with the composer’s Latin roots present in the melodies and orchestration. There are four movements with 28 minutes duration:

• I. Andante - Allegro non troppo
• II. Vivace
• III. Adagio
• IV. Allegro

Instrumentation is two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and strings. The full score was published by G. Hartmann in 1888, and brought out as a Heugel et Cie imprint in 1900 as plate 1820 (Heugel having purchased Hartmann in 1891). Xavier Leroux also made a four hand piano version, published by Heugel as plate 1795.

In a letter of 7 March 1887 to author and Wagner enthusiast Adolphe Jullien responding for information on the symphony, Lalo stated his belief in pure music over descriptive music:

“It appears that you personally wish to have some information regarding the thought which predominates in my symphony. Alas, I am going to scandalize you! I had no literary thought in the sense that you mean. When I write a composition to words, I become a slave to what convention terms the verities of musical expression, according to a given text. But when I write music without a literary text, I have before and about me only the domain of sounds, melodic and harmonic. For a musician, this immense field possesses in itself, aside from all literature, its poems and its dramas. As to my Symphony, I have presented the master phrase in a brief introduction, as you have been kind enough to remark; it predominates in the first movement, and I recall it in the others whenever my poetic or dramatic musical intentions (do not laugh!) make its intervention seem necessary to me”.

Lalo’s symphony was called one of the "happiest" of French symphonies in a 1925 article in The Musical Quarterly. Lalo’s is from the same period that produced three other notable French symphonies: Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 "Organ Symphony", d'Indy’s Symphony on a French Mountain Air, and Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Lalo's work was neglected until Thomas Beecham "discovered" it and conducted it regularly. In the United States, only the New York Philharmonic amongst major symphony orchestras performed the work up to 1970 (that sole performance being in 1931).

A 1961 review of the first major recording (Beecham’s made in 1959 at the Salle Wagram in Paris) disparaged the composition as "not very rewarding. Both matter and manner are dull and undistinguished, without the sparkle and melodic charm of the popular Symphonie Espagnole". A 1976 review of Antonio de Almeida’s recording suggests that "the cyclic theme does bear an unfortunately close resemblance to the opening of the Brahms B-flat Piano Concerto, in a way that Lalo surely did not intend". This review finds the second movement the most cohesive[ ① 점착성이 있는 ② 응집력이 있는 ③ 결합시키는]of the four and "wonderfully scored", suggesting Bizet's Symphony in C as the "closest equivalent".