Program notes for Hecrtor Berlioz' "Le Cinq Mai" (preface for a published musical scor
See the full text in English, French, and German at:
http://www.musikmph.de/musical_scores/vorworte/1173.html
Excerpt:
On Tour
In Berlioz’s concert tours of Europe in the 1840s, Le cinq Mai was offered frequently. The first exploratory tour was unprecedented in scope, encompassing five months, 11 venues, fourteen concerts and over forty rehearsals. In spite of the huge cost of transporting the scores and parts (over 500 pounds of manuscripts, according to the composer’s letters), it was a remarkable success. Le cinq Mai was included in one of two concerts in Dresden’s Royal Theater (February 17, 1843). Berlioz mentioned that the cantata, with Wächter as soloist, was the particular triumph of the evening, deemed the equal of the symphonies.
Berlioz conducted one concert at the Municipal Theater in Hamburg (March 22, 1843). In a letter to Heinrich Heine, a native of Hamburg, Berlioz wrote that his great discovery of the concert was “Reichel, the formidable bass, with his enormous voice of two octaves and a half! Reichel is a superb-looking man, and represents such characters as Sarastro, Moses, and Bertram, to perfection…an excellent performance, a numerous, intelligent, and very cordial audience made this one of the best concerts I ever gave in Germany. Harold and the cantata of Le Cinq Mai, sung with great feeling by Reichel, carried off the honors. After this piece, two musicians close to my desk touched me deeply by these simple words, spoken under their breath, in French: ‘Ah monsieur, notre respect, notre respect!’ It was all the French they could muster.” The fullest account of the event comes from Berlioz’s March 30 letter to his friend Auguste Morel: “…I was called back twice at the end of the evening. The performance was superb, and had uncommon polish and aplomb; the program included Harold in Italy, the cantata Le Cinq Mai sung in German… for Le Cinq Mai I had Reichel, a prodigious bass singer who can reach a low B natural.” Karl August Krebs, the Hamburg Kapellmeister, after being cooperative during the preparations, remarked, “In a few years your music will be all over Germany – it will become popular, and that will be a disaster. Think how it will be imitated! Only think of the style it will breed, the extravagances! It would be better for art if you had never been born.”
April and May provided the high and low points of the tour: Meyerbeer, based in Berlin, was a diligent proponent of Berlioz’s music and the Berlin standard of performance was much higher than that of the Paris Opéra. Meyerbeer arranged for two hundred performers for Berlioz’s first concert on 8 April in the Royal Opera House in Berlin so that the larger movements of the Requiem might be heard to best advantage. The capable bass Boetticher sang Le cinq Mai. Berlioz described the “magnificent,” nearly 90-strong, opera orchestra of exceptional “precision, ensemble, vigor and refinement” and the “finest opera chorus” he had ever heard. Both the (amateur) choral society and the (professional) military bands were “of such splendor…that French national pride could only feel chastened by the comparison.” On May 6, Berlioz conducted Le cinq Mai at the Royal Theater in Hanover with Steinmüller as the bass soloist. A low point for the conductor, the orchestra was short of strings (only three double-basses) and allowed only two rehearsals.Berlioz had been so impressed with Reichel in Berlin, that he invited him to repeat his performance in Le cinq Mai for the longer May 23 concert in Darmstadt. Here Berlioz was given five rehearsals and surrounded by old friends: the concertmaster was Louis Schloesser, Berlioz’s fellow pupil in Le Sueur’s class in the early 1820s, and the Kapellmeister, Johann Wilhelm Mangold, had studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Reicha, as had his younger brother Karl.
Mendelssohn’s cordial treatment of Berlioz on this tour is among his great legacies, and Berlioz’s long friendship was kindled with Mendelssohn’s concertmaster, Ferdinand David. David was a violin teacher at the new Leipzig Conservatory (among his first students were Joachim and Wasielewski). Berlioz also met Wagner, who later regretted the unkind words he had published about him in the Zeitung für die elegante Welt.
Upon returning to Paris, Berlioz received contracts from Sigismund Thalberg, who planned to arrange his Symphonie funèbre for solo piano. He also approved proofs of the first publication of le cinq Mai, the first of his works to be published with French and German text (op. 6). The original French version of the cantata was conducted by the composer in Paris at the Opéra-Comique (April 6, 1844), at the Grand Theatre in Marseille (June 19), and at the Grand Théâtre in Lyon (July 20). The preparations for the Lyon performance were memorable: Berlioz requested over 200 performers, including extra wind and percussion for his Apotheosis, and professional musicians were recruited from Châlons, Vienne, Dijon and Grenoble. Two general rehearsals and the now usual sectionals were held, some at the Theatre, some at the premises of the Cercle Musical (an amateur society), and some at the barracks. They may not have been entirely free from friction, to judge by a note he received from one of the amateur performers, most likely a chorister, which he quoted in the Gazette: “It is possible to be a great artist and polite.” Berlioz admitted to having a very short temper regarding choruses: “Before rehearsals have even started a sort of anticipatory rage seizes me, my throat tightens and although nothing has yet occurred to make me lose my temper I glare at the singers in a manner reminiscent of the Gascon who kicked an inoffensive little boy passing near to him, and on the latter’s protesting that he had ‘not done anything’ replied, ‘Just think if you had!’”
Berlioz featured Le cinq Mai in the opening concert of his first season as director of the Société Philharmonique (October 22, 1850). This marked his last performance of the work, featuring the bass Paul Barroilhet, and framed by a new arrangement of his cantata Sara la baigneuse for three choruses and orchestra and Bortniansky’s Chant des chérubins.
