Suite: Der Rosenkavalier
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
The 80-year-old Richard Strauss did not attend the 1944 première of this suite, held in the USA. He didn’t compose it either. For sure, the musical material is taken from his opera of the same name, but the identity of the arranger remains a mystery. The published score of 1945 credits no-one for their labours, even though Strauss authorised its release.
The opera upon which the suite is based tells a bitter-sweet story. An aristocratic woman with the title of ‘Marschallin’, i.e. the wife of a Field-Marshal, has taken her 17-year-old lover, Count Octavian, to her chamber. Their activity behind closed doors is depicted graphically in the famous ‘erotic prelude’ which opens the suite, as it does the opera. The sub-plot dwells on the Marschallin’s boorish country cousin, Baron Ochs (German for ‘ox’), who is betrothed to Sophie, the beautiful daughter of a Viennese merchant. According to local tradition, the betrothal is sealed as an irreversible contract once a silver rose has been presented to the bride-to-be by a ‘Kavalier’, or go-between, on behalf of the groom-to-be. Octavian is the chosen messenger. When he meets Sophie, bang! Love at first sight. The remainder of the opera grows from this awkward situation, the matter being resolved finally when the Marschallin acknowledges that the pairing of Octavian and Sophie is an inevitable and appropriate triumph of youth over middle age, so she gives the two her blessing.
This is all set in the time of the Empress Maria Theresa, about 1760, but the music is in a full-blooded late 19th century style, with waltzes featuring prominently. The tenderness of young love is portrayed through the most delicate scoring – akin to chamber music – while the oafish Baron Ochs is embedded in the wilder passages. At the end of the opera, a trio of women’s voices, the Marschallin, Sophie and Octavian, evoke love coupled to sorrow. And yes, Octavian is sung by a woman, which adds an extra frisson to the staged version. The opera tells the story as a straight narrative leading to the final wistful trio, which suggests that the happiness of one person is all too often interwoven with the unhappiness of another.
There are no singers in this orchestral suite but the harmonic decoration to the chorale-like melody of the ‘trio’ is unusually striking: little spikes of dissonance, generally played by a combination of celesta, harp, flutes and violins. The suite does not attempt to recreate this narrative in detail; more, it singles out the main moods and characters, and treats their associated melodies and motifs almost symphonically, repeating and varying them as befits the overall structure. So our gorgeous ‘trio’ appears towards the end rather than at the very end, as in the opera. An extra waltz rounds things off with a chuckle rather than a tear on the cheek. After the prelude, the first of the main sections captures the stirred feelings of the Marschallin even though she foresees that she will, eventually, have to surrender Octavian to another. Next is the extended ‘duet’ between Octavian and Sophie, featuring oboe and horn, and anticipating some of the final harmonic language of the famous trio. Their love becomes ever more intense until some sharp dissonance, representative of Baron Ochs, intervenes. No-one can miss the next junction. A wonderful waltz takes us in its arms and whirls us around the ballroom floor. Waltzes dominate from here on for the most part, leaving space for the richly romantic ‘trio’ music, with its dissonant embellishments, to be given a final airing.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
The 80-year-old Richard Strauss did not attend the 1944 première of this suite, held in the USA. He didn’t compose it either. For sure, the musical material is taken from his opera of the same name, but the identity of the arranger remains a mystery. The published score of 1945 credits no-one for their labours, even though Strauss authorised its release.
The opera upon which the suite is based tells a bitter-sweet story. An aristocratic woman with the title of ‘Marschallin’, i.e. the wife of a Field-Marshal, has taken her 17-year-old lover, Count Octavian, to her chamber. Their activity behind closed doors is depicted graphically in the famous ‘erotic prelude’ which opens the suite, as it does the opera. The sub-plot dwells on the Marschallin’s boorish country cousin, Baron Ochs (German for ‘ox’), who is betrothed to Sophie, the beautiful daughter of a Viennese merchant. According to local tradition, the betrothal is sealed as an irreversible contract once a silver rose has been presented to the bride-to-be by a ‘Kavalier’, or go-between, on behalf of the groom-to-be. Octavian is the chosen messenger. When he meets Sophie, bang! Love at first sight. The remainder of the opera grows from this awkward situation, the matter being resolved finally when the Marschallin acknowledges that the pairing of Octavian and Sophie is an inevitable and appropriate triumph of youth over middle age, so she gives the two her blessing.
This is all set in the time of the Empress Maria Theresa, about 1760, but the music is in a full-blooded late 19th century style, with waltzes featuring prominently. The tenderness of young love is portrayed through the most delicate scoring – akin to chamber music – while the oafish Baron Ochs is embedded in the wilder passages. At the end of the opera, a trio of women’s voices, the Marschallin, Sophie and Octavian, evoke love coupled to sorrow. And yes, Octavian is sung by a woman, which adds an extra frisson to the staged version. The opera tells the story as a straight narrative leading to the final wistful trio, which suggests that the happiness of one person is all too often interwoven with the unhappiness of another.
There are no singers in this orchestral suite but the harmonic decoration to the chorale-like melody of the ‘trio’ is unusually striking: little spikes of dissonance, generally played by a combination of celesta, harp, flutes and violins. The suite does not attempt to recreate this narrative in detail; more, it singles out the main moods and characters, and treats their associated melodies and motifs almost symphonically, repeating and varying them as befits the overall structure. So our gorgeous ‘trio’ appears towards the end rather than at the very end, as in the opera. An extra waltz rounds things off with a chuckle rather than a tear on the cheek. After the prelude, the first of the main sections captures the stirred feelings of the Marschallin even though she foresees that she will, eventually, have to surrender Octavian to another. Next is the extended ‘duet’ between Octavian and Sophie, featuring oboe and horn, and anticipating some of the final harmonic language of the famous trio. Their love becomes ever more intense until some sharp dissonance, representative of Baron Ochs, intervenes. No-one can miss the next junction. A wonderful waltz takes us in its arms and whirls us around the ballroom floor. Waltzes dominate from here on for the most part, leaving space for the richly romantic ‘trio’ music, with its dissonant embellishments, to be given a final airing.