Program Notes 76 continued from previous page The orchestrated version of Une barque sur l’océan was performed soon after it was made, but Ravel was dissatisfied with it and withdrew the work. Some say that many of the effects that worked brilliantly in the piano version didn’t come off nearly so well with an orchestra—a reversal of the usual situation. It is also true that Debussy’s big, majestic La mer had had its first performance just before Ravel began his orchestration; Une barque sur l’océan is quite a different work, and it’s possible that Ravel didn’t want the inevitable comparisons to be drawn. Unlike La mer, Une barque sur l’océan is a piano and orchestral miniature that relies on subtleties rather than massive effects. At its heart it is a barcarolle. It begins in calm seas but with exquisite color. The big waves do come from time to time—with an ominous sense of the power lying beneath them—but there is no external drama to shape the music. As the title of the piano suite suggests, the work mirrors the experience of the sea and, as always with Ravel, its beauties are as ephemeral as the light glinting off the waves. The Walk to the Paradise Garden Frederick Delius Born 1862 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England Died 1934 in Grez-sur-Loing, France Frederick Delius was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1862 and died in Grez-sur-Loing, France in 1934. He composed this work as an interlude in his opera A Village Romeo and Juliet in 1901, and it was first performed with the debut of the opera in 1907 at the Komische Oper in Berlin under the direction of Fritz Cassirer. The score calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, harp, and strings. Frederick Delius was born in England but lived most of his life outside the country. After showing an exceptional lack of talent for the family wool business, he lived in Florida, New York, Leipzig and Paris. In his later years he lived mostly in France, sometimes in England. Delius is one of those composers whose work, like Debussy’s or Orff’s, pops out of the texture of music history. It is singular, personal and not clearly derived from the prevailing tradition. Delius’ music tends to be free in form and content, the composer preferring the instinctive over the systematic. A Village Romeo and Juliet was Delius’ fourth opera, completed in 1901 and first produced in 1907. The familiar story, as re-told by Gottfried Keller, has the feuding families and two young lovers set in a 19th-century German village. The two lovers, here named Sali and Vrenchen, set off on their own to escape their families’ strife. Along the way they are tempted to a life of sin, but they resist. Unable to overcome their woes, they make a suicide pact; they lie in an open river barge, release the plug, and are engulfed together. The Walk to the Paradise Garden is a poignant interlude that depicts their journey as they first strike out on their own.
19118BP
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