Nocturne and Tarantella from Chopiniana Op.46

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

arranged by

Alexander Glazunov (1865 -1936)

Nocturne and Tarantella from Chopiniana Op.46

Without Glazunov there would be no Les Sylphides. On the other hand, most present-day versions of Les Sylphides are performed without Glazunov. In 1892 Glazunov had the original idea of orchestrating four of Chopin’s piano pieces – a polonaise, a nocturne, a mazurka and a tarantella – and putting them together in a concert suite called Chopiniana. In 1907 the progressive St Petersburg choreographer Mikhail Fokine devised a ballet to those four pieces together with another dance, a waltz, that he got Glazunov to orchestrate for him. A few months later, however, Fokine revised his choreograpy, comissioning a new score of Chopin arrangements from Maurice Keller and retaining only the waltz from the Glazunov version.

Although Chopiniana was strong enough in that form to survive (under that title) in Russian ballet theatres to this day, Fokine hadn’t finished with the idea of a storylesss ballet to Chopin’s music. Working with the Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909, he devised a new version, now called Les Sylphides, with a score consisting of yet more Chopin arrangements commissioned by Diaghilev from various Russian composers, including the young Stravinsky. But he did retain the Glazunov waltz. Great success though Les Sylphides was as a ballet, the score proved to be less than satisfactory and, since the Ballets Russes failed to establish a standard version, many other composers have since been called upon to make Chopin arrangements, notably Roy Douglas in 1936 (the year of Glazunov’s death).

Glazunov might have been all but elbowed out of the Les Sylphides but the Chopiniana orchestral suite that started it all still has a life in the concert hall. The first of the two movements included in this performance, Glazunov’s version of the Nocturne in F major Op.15 No.1 is a fascinating study in orchestration. The opening melody, for example, would be awarded by most composers to a woodwind instrument, most likely oboe or clarinet. Glazunov boldy entrusts it to a horn and only then, as Chopin introduces a more fanciful variant of his theme, passes the solo role to clarinet. In the stormy F minor middle section he makes effective use of the trombone and, somewhat mysteriously recomposes a few bars before the return of the opening theme, with cellos and violins now occupying the roles orignally taken by horn and clarinet. Still one of the least familiar of Chopin’s piano pieces, the Tarantella in A flat Op.41 is most skillfully handled by Glazunov who, though without inhibiting them, restrains his orchestral resources until the explosion of colour in the closing bars.