Nikolai TCHEREPNIN (1873-1945)
La princesse lointaine Op. 4 (1896) [8:13]
Narcisse et Echo Op. 40 (1911) [48:24]
Moon Yung Oh (tenor), vocal ensemble, Bamberger Symphoniker / Łukasz Borowicz
rec. 2018, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal, Konzerthalle Bamberg
CPO 555 250-2 [56:54]
Nikolai Tcherepnin was the founder of a musical dynasty, with his son Alexander and grandson Ivan both being composers. Nikolai himself was brought up in comfortable circumstances in Tsarist Russia and studied with Rimsky-Korsakov. He worked in the idiom of Russian Orientalism which his teacher used, which is also displayed in such works as Borodin’s Prince Igor, Balakirev’s Tamara and the works of Liadov. He was also a fine conductor and was engaged in this capacity as well as for his own works by Diaghilev when he began his Russian ballet. Diaghilev mounted Tcherepnin’s 1903 ballet Le Pavillon d’Armide in his first ballet season, in Paris in 1909. Tcherepnin composed Narcisse et Echo and The Mask of the Red Death for Diaghilev but became overshadowed as a composer by the young Stravinsky, whose music he admired. After the revolution he moved first to Georgia and then to Paris where he became prominent in the circle of émigré Russian musicians and continued to compose but in increasingly difficult circumstances. There is a useful site with information on the whole dynasty here.
We are here concerned with his early work. La princesse lointaine is the prelude to a play by Edmond Rostand based on a medieval legend about the love of the troubadour Geoffrey Rudell for the princess Melissinde. It is a full-blooded piece in the Russian Orientalist tradition, and it is good to have it.
The main work is based on the story of Narcissus and Echo from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This is the story of the young man who fell in love with his own reflection in the water, and eventually becomes a flower. The nymph Echo, who can only repeat his words, and, in this version, two nymphs as well, are hopelessly in love with him, though he dallies with Echo before seeing his own reflection. It is rather a thin story to make into a ballet, but Tcherepnin rises to the occasion with dances of various kinds and a large number of very short pieces making up the work. By this time he has heard and absorbed a good deal of French impressionism, and the listener will think that he has clearly heard Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe – there is even a wordless chorus. But in fact, Tcherepnin’s work is the earlier. The same team worked on both works: the designer Bakst and the choreographer Fokine. It was very successful and stayed in the repertoire for fifteen years. It is a good work, not as good as the Ravel, but that sets a high standard, and it is well worth hearing.
The performances here are thoroughly committed and convincing and the recording has a lovely glow. Mikhail Pletnev included both La princesse lointaine and another early Tcherepnin work, The Enchanted Kingdom, on one of his best early recordings; this has been deleted by DG but you can get it as a Presto CD. There was also a previous recording of Narcisse et Echo, by Gennady Rozhdestvensky on Chandos and without a coupling; this has also been deleted. Those who have these previous versions can rest content. Newcomers are recommended this new version. I do hope they go on to record The Mask of the Red Death, which has not, I think, ever been recorded and should be worth hearing.
Stephen Barber
