Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
On New Year's Day night, the author was invited to attend the Wuxi Symphony Orchestra's premiere and 2024 New Year's Concert (Wuxi Grand Theater). Among all the repertoire, Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme" performed by the famous Chinese cellist Wang Jian and the orchestra (conducted by Lin Daye) left the most unforgettable impression on me - Wang Jian's performance was steady, exquisite and warm. And the varied color sense almost perfectly reflects the quality required by Lao Chai's masterpiece. From this, I thought that people always think that Lao Chai's "specialty" is the expression of personal inner feelings and the catharsis of romantic passion, but from a more comprehensive perspective, "classical" styles such as "Variations on a Rococo Theme" (1876) are also The characteristics of Lao Chai cannot be underestimated by future generations.
Wuxi Symphony Orchestra's inaugural performance and 2024 New Year's Concert (Wuxi Grand Theater)
Chinese cellist Wang Jian
Not long ago, I made some comments on Lao Chai's legendary career and artistic contributions ("The Legend "Lao Chai"" , published in "Wenhui Po PEN" on November 30, 2023), but it seems that the meaning is not exhausted-for this music giant with rich styles but often misunderstandings, there are still many topics that can be discussed. So there is the "talk again" here.
The "classical" aspect embodied by Lao Chai in "Variations on a Rococo Theme" is by no means an isolated case, but the norm - "Swan Lake" (1876), "Sleeping Beauty" (1889), "The Nutcracker" ( 1892) three major dance dramas, four "Orchestral Suites" that are less famous but actually worthy of great attention (all composed during the peak creative period from the late 1870s to the 1880s), and the highly performed "String Serenade" (1880 ), as well as Lao Chai's late opera masterpiece "The Queen of Spades" (1890), etc., all clearly reflect Lao Chai's "classical" interest. As a certain expressive image or style category, "classical" posture occasionally appears in his masterpieces of symphonies and concertos (especially some dance movements with ballet characteristics). As a Romantic composer recognized in music history as having a strong tendency for subjective expression and sometimes falling into "morbid" condition, Lao Chai's classical taste not only reflects the multi-dimensional, contradictory and complex aspects of his art, but also It makes people curious about the consequences of his interest.
The reason why an artist has such an orientation in his growth is not only due to his personal choice, but also due to the environment and conditions. From a special perspective, the success of Lao Chai's ballet music writing as "the best in history" is largely due to the unique political and cultural conditions of the old Russian tsarist era. Throughout the 19th century, Tsarist Russia was the most stubborn and conservative country with imperial autocratic power among all the monarchies in Europe. Unlike the more enlightened "constitutional monarchies" such as Britain and France, the Russian Tsar enjoyed absolute authority and controlled the military and government alone. Financial power, of course, is a reversal that goes against the trend of modern democracy (which caused the intensification of social conflicts in Russia in the 19th century, and finally triggered the turmoil in the early 20th century and the subsequent famous revolution). But from another perspective, for ballet, opera and other "elegant" arts that require strong financial support, the tsar, out of the need for royal dignity and aristocratic taste, spared no effort and spent a lot of money. This is why at the end of the 19th century, Russian ballet replaced The secret of the "system" that made the French "originator" of this art the world leader - "What really changed ballet was its chemical interaction with the Russian Empire. Serfs and nobles, the reputation of St. Petersburg and foreign cultures, Hierarchy, order, aristocratic ideas and their constant tension with Eastern folk art forms are all integrated into ballet, making it a quintessentially Russian art. Not only that, classical ballet emerged from the intersection of Russia and the West, and thus gained It has acquired an unprecedented symbolic significance. At this time (the end of the 19th century), the importance of ballet in Russia was obviously greater than before or since elsewhere." ([American] Homans's "Angels of Apollo: Five Hundred Years of Ballet Art Years" Chinese translation by Zhou Xiaoyu et al., page 292).
The cover of the Chinese version of "The Angel of Apollo: Five Hundred Years of Ballet"
Stills from the ballet "Swan Lake"
Lao Chai was born at the right time for Russian ballet. His music has helped this Russian art species, which best represents the classical royal style, rise to the top of the world. Without the strong support of the old Russian imperial system, there would be no brilliant ballet music creation by Lao Chai; similarly, without Lao Chai’s musical creativity and artistic ingenuity, the achievements and glory of Russian classical ballet would be impossible to talk about. Both czars Alexander II (who ascended the throne in 1855, promulgated the serfdom reform decree in 1861, and was assassinated in March 1881) and III (reigned from 1881 to 1894) highly valued Lao Chai’s musical genius—Lao Chai’s music Reputation and achievements brought countless honors to the Russian royal family, so it was only natural that the Tsar (Alexander III) granted Lao Chai a noble status (1884) and a lifetime salary (1885). Due to the special character of ballet music in the 19th century, it is inextricably related to the classical style of the 18th century and even the baroque aristocratic dance before it. In Lao Chai's mature style composition and expression scope, the light, bright, gorgeous and colorful classical aristocratic taste has been deliberately carved and continuously amplified through Lao Chai's unique personal vocabulary, and ballet music is Lao Chai's release of his classical style. The best channel for noble feelings.
What is intriguing is that the musical predecessor whom Lao Chai most admires is Mozart, the supreme "master" of classical music in the 18th century. At first glance, Lao Chai's preference may be surprising: considering that people are familiar with Lao Chai's music style. It seems unreasonable that Mozart, the classical standard-bearer with strong subjectivity and known for his objectivity, health, elegance and purity, should become Lao Chai's idol. However, Lao Chai repeatedly confessed his preference for Mozart in his letters and diaries: "I not only love Mozart - I simply adore him. In my opinion, the most outstanding opera of all time is "Don Giovanni" ." (Letter to his patron Mrs. Meck on March 16, 1878); "Mozart doesn't shock or shock me - he captures me more and gives me happiness and warmth... It's hard to explain what he means to me. What beneficial influence there is, but it is undoubtedly very beneficial. The longer I live and the more I know about him, the more I love him." (Letter to Mrs. Meck, January 11, 1883); "I The most profound belief is that in the field of music, the highest peak of beauty is Mozart... I love everything about Mozart, because when we truly love a person, we will love everything about that person." (Diary, September 20, 1886 ) We might as well regard the clear classical aspect and aristocratic taste in Lao Chai’s music as Lao Chai’s tribute and gift to Mozart. 1887 was the 100th anniversary of the release of Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni". Lao Chai even chose four of Mozart's piano pieces to perform "Chai-style" orchestral arrangements to show his admiration - this is the "Fourth Orchestral Suite" Mozart "Style" op. 61.
implants this kind of classical taste that belongs to another time and space into the romantic cultural context of the 19th century, which inevitably brings strange feelings and a sense of dislocation to the listener (viewer) - I always feel that there is some kind of difficulty in this. The metaphorical meaning of speech. Specifically speaking of the Russian society in the second half of the 19th century, in which Lao Chai lived, classical tastes naturally belonged to the aristocratic class. Lao Chai expresses, embodies and depicts classical style in his music, which inevitably reminds people of the life world of Russian aristocracy. What is disturbing is that at this time in Russia, the intellectual class and artists have become increasingly painfully aware of the decadence and depravity of the aristocracy itself, as well as the profound moral dilemma and crumbling of the aristocratic system - Leo Tolstoy's Three Russian critical realist literature, represented by the great novels (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection), reveals the increasingly serious existential crisis of the aristocratic system in Russian society at this time, as well as the increasingly severe criticism and questioning.Therefore, a subtle question arises here: As a vested interest in the aristocracy, Lao Chai was also an important member of the intellectual and artistic circles in the Tsarist Russia era. What position did he take between aristocratic taste and critical consciousness, and how To coordinate?
The typical psychological dilemma and spiritual tragedy of old Russian intellectuals arise from this: on the one hand, their superiority and nobility are due to their aristocratic status and status; on the other hand, they see the embarrassment of the aristocratic system , corruption and inhumanity. Moral embarrassment and conscience uneasiness have become distinctive psychological characteristics of old Russian intellectuals. Guilt, repentance, thinking and civilian consciousness have generally become the common mental states of these aristocratic intellectuals. For this reason, they use various methods to move toward spiritual salvation and social reform and even radical revolution. Isn't it the case with Lao Chai? Although he was recognized as the crown prince of the Russian Empire, enjoying the highest honors and the best resources a living musician could have, in his heart - and in his musical expression - he was constantly disturbed and disturbed. Feeling anxious and uneasy, sometimes even falling into deep darkness.
Yes, he can temporarily forget reality and immerse himself in Mozart's imaginary world and aristocratic tastes, such as "Variations on a Rococo Theme" and his three major dance dramas. But the reason why Lao Chai is a master in art is that he will not be satisfied with a simple single dimension, but move towards complex multi-dimensionality. The most profound exploration in this is to combine the classical taste of the aristocrat with his unique The tragic tones carry out multi-faceted parallelism, confrontation, decomposition and integration, from which an infinitely rich, diverse, entangled and unsolvable flavor of life arises, sometimes even evoking a sense of absurdity and grotesqueness with strong modernity.
A great example of this is his greatest operatic masterpiece, The Queen of Spades. The male protagonist Gell-Mann's twisted psychology of envy and hatred for the aristocratic world gave the composer the opportunity to use the existing classical aspects of his own style in a surprisingly ironic manner. Here, inspired by Pushkin's original work, Lao Chai reveals that he is worthy of being a fellow of Russia's great critical realist literature. Gell-Mann eventually went mad and died, and his fierce questioning and protest against the aristocratic system and the society to which he belonged was further strengthened through Lao Chai's music. The author wrote a special article for the Shanghai Grand Theater's performance of this play in the past few years ("The Triple World of the Opera "The Queen of Spades"", published in "Wenhui Po PEN" on October 8, 2016), in which he talked about the opera through Lao Chai It has the outstanding feature of constructing profound humanistic meaning through unique different musical styles and categories.
Stills from the opera "The Queen of Spades"
This disturbing contrast, entanglement and interweaving between classical interest and tragic tones in "The Queen of Spades" also appears in Lao Chai's other instrumental works - this is why The reason why we should pay more attention to Lao Chai's "Orchestral Suite". A few days ago, I took the time to read the interesting long article "Tchaikovsky and Human Nature" by American Russian music expert Richard Taruskin (contained in the book "Music Defining Russia", 1997), and then I learned about Lao Chai He attaches great importance to these suites and even considers them to be his most essential and distinctive achievements - today we probably would not completely agree with the composer's self-evaluation. After all, we still think that Lao Chai's symphonies (especially " Four, five, and six (the last three masterpieces) are more important.
Richard Taruskin and "Defining Russia with Music"
I also disagree that Taruskin deliberately regarded some of Lao Chai's creations as musical examples that promoted the Tsar's "imperial style" (such as "Orchestra" "Suite No. 3" op. 55, composed in 1884, the brilliant "Polonaise" in the last variation of the final movement). To my ears, these suites are indeed twin sisters of Lao Chai's ballet music. They are full of the gorgeous dance feeling of Lao Chai's music, and the listener can easily imagine the moving ballet postures in his mind. But more importantly, in these orchestral suites, we hear the complex intersection of Lao Chai's unique tragic tones and ballet pulse. The depth, precision and care of his brushstrokes can be said to be even better than his ballet music. and."Suite No. 3" overall reaches a very high artistic level, and each movement is comparable to Lao Chai's best symphony writing. However, the four movements of this suite always maintain a strong "dance characteristic". Each movement is separate and even seems a bit loose. The whole piece does not have an abstract narrative that runs through it from beginning to end. Therefore, it is not a "symphony" but a "symphony". suite". I personally particularly admire the first movement "Elegy" and the second movement "Melancholy Waltz" in the "Third Suite" (as well as the first movement "Introduction and Fugue" and the third movement "Interlude" in the "First Suite" "Music") - This is an exemplary masterpiece in which music is both "symphonic" and "ballet", and at the same time rich in psychological thickness and emotional depth. If we bring into the painful psychological experience of the aristocratic intellectuals of the old Russian era when listening, Lao Chai's music at this time will become an expression that is profound and transcends words - expressing that specific era of old Russia, and at the same time, it is very likely that Will inspire all times.
Written in Bingcheng Linjiang Pavilion on January 21, 2024
Author: Yang Yandi
Text: Yang Yandi Editor: Xie Juan Editor: Shu Ming
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