AB II-27

Description

Albert Brussee
FANTASY ON THEMES FROM THE OPERA MAZEPPA
BY CLÉMENCE DE GRANDVAL

The French composer Marie Félice Clémence de Reiset, vicomtesse de Grandval (1828–1907), had piano lessons in her youth from Friedrich von Flotow, the composer of the famous opera Martha. After her marriage to Charles-Grégoire de Grandval she resumed her music studies with Camille Saint-Saëns. Her first opera, Le sou de Lisle (1859), was soon followed by other music-dramatic works. Under different pseudonyms, Mme de Grandval also wrote three symphonies, shorter symphonic works, some sixty songs, a famous concerto for oboe and orchestra and – without pretending to be exhaustive – the oratorio La fille de Zaïre. The opera Mazeppa is one of her most prestigious works. It is a musical drama in five acts, on which she worked for four years.

The composer worked with a number of leitmotifs that keep recurring in certain situations, a method that points to Wagner’s influence. The main musical material is usually in the orchestra. The actors seem to ‘speak’ rather than sing, as in a recitative. Only exceptionally do arioso-like cantilenas develop. In this respect, too, the music is more indebted to Wagner with his ‘Sprechgesang’ than to Puccini, whose strength lay in the creation of the most beautiful melodies in full-blown arias. The instrumental parts, such as the ballet music from the fourth act, are therefore among the opera’s highlights. This ballet music has appeared in print in a separate orchestral score and has been performed several times in the past. The entire opera has appeared only in an edition for voice and piano (vocal score), published by Choudens in Paris.

Playing through the 307-page score, I fell under the spell of certain sections. Of the almost twenty existing Mazeppa operas, this was undoubtedly one of the best, and it would be a pity if this music were to be forever buried, gathering dust. The plan evolved to ‘do something with it’ in one way or another, to rescue the most beautiful ingredients (themes, motifs) from oblivion in the form of a fantasy for piano. Thus, during the years when I was working on Mazeppa in the Romantic Arts (from 2010 to 2014), this concert paraphrase, which was revised in 2021–22, came into being as a musical counterpart.

Style: late romantic, with occasional pre-impressionistic, Eastern influences; compare the opera Thaïs by Massenet (1894) or the Fifth Piano Concerto by Saint-Saëns (1896).

Difficulty: Grade X on a scale of I-XII.

REVIEWS

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
© 2022 AB Music Productions & Editions – The Hague.
Number of pages: 36, including a short preface in Dutch and English.
Available through the usual music channels (distribution by Hal Leonhard) or direct from AB Music Productions & Editions.