In the previous post, I discussed some of the reasons for the gradual disappearance of the concert overture. It's certainly not at a total vanishing point, yet, but this genre of music is becoming scarcer on the map than it used to be. Here are some more favourite examples.
Right off the bat, I'm going to cheat and use an example that was actually written for a stage play. Aleksey Tolstoy, the second cousin of the famous novelist Leo, wrote a trilogy of stage plays from Russian history that made him the leading dramatic playwright of his day in Russia. One of these, Tsar Boris, deals with the life of that same Russian ruler who was immortalized in Pushkin's verse play and in Mussorgsky's operatic version Boris Godunov. Few people now remember that Tolstoy's drama also attracted the attention of a Russian composer, Vasily Kalinnikov, who wrote incidental music for a production.
That music began with an overture of stunning impact and power. It opens with a strong theme of folklike cut for the lower strings, and this leads to a spectacular entry of the full brass section in a majestic procession. The main allegro section of the overture similarly is based on a vigorous tune of folk inspiration, which gains weight and power as it develops. In the closing pages, the energetic build-up to the final coda is accentuated by brilliant flourishes from the brasses. It's one of the most spectacular showpieces I've ever heard, and I find its neglect quite unaccountable.
To hear this lost masterpiece, you should seek out Neeme Jarvi's Chandos recording of the two symphonies of Kalinnikov, both also lively and memorable, and there you will find the Overture to Tsar Boris as a fill-up.
Schubert composed two Overtures In the Italian Style which are a real delight. Each one is a tribute to the composer's gift of spinning out endlessly ingratiating melodies. Each begins with a slow introduction before launching into a faster allegro main section. These were much better known in earlier years, but have rather fallen out of sight more recently and it's a pity. In fact, Schubert composed many overtures, enough to fill two generous CDs, but these two are the best of the best. Like the earlier symphonies of Schubert, they have been unfairly overshadowed by the late masterpieces of the "Unfinished" and the "Great" C major symphonies.
Finally, I want to return to a favourite composer of mine whose music has only recently begun to re-emerge after long neglect. I may have discussed this piece earlier, but it's such a masterly example of adaptation that it bears repeating. Sir George Dyson was probably most famous in his lifetime for his musical portrait gallery, The Canterbury Pilgrims, a cantata for choir, soloists and orchestra setting a modern-English version of Chaucer's prologue to The Canterbury Tales. This entertaining and intriguing work has only a short orchestral prelude.
Years after its premiere, Dyson revisited the material and composed the concert overture At the Tabard Inn, using themes from the cantata. It can be, and is, used to preface a performance of the complete work, but it also stands as an independent piece. The melodic material of the larger work is adeptly organized into a workable orchestral structure, but with a striking difference. The original work runs largely to common time signatures, 2/4 and 4/4. In the overture, all the themes save one are recast into triple time, a truly remarkable metamorphosis that also (for me) greatly increases the interest of the music. The one exception is the theme for the Wife of Bath, since she already appears in the cantata to the strains of a lively waltz theme, a most appropriate choice for such an earthy character! The overture concludes with a truly lovely setting of the theme which ends the cantata, a flowing tune depicting the journeying and storytelling, and closes with the return of the brass fanfare which calls us to attention at the opening.
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