Medtnaculus's video: Anatoly Alexandrov Echoes of the Theatre Op 60

Anatoly Alexandrov (1888 - 1982), Echoes of the Theatre, Op. 60 Performed by Kyung-Ah Noh 00:00 - No. 1 Aria: Adagio molto cantabile 02:33 - No. 2 Galliarde and Pavana: Vivo 05:54 - No. 3 Chorale and Polka: Andante 08:51 - No. 4 Waltz: Tempo di valse tranquillo 10:25 - No. 5 Dances in the Square and Siciliana: Quasi improvisata - Allegretto 12:49 - No. 6 Gavotte: Tempo di gavotte Echoes of the Theatre, Op. 60, is undated but presumably comes from the mid-1940s; without ever descending to specifics its movements seem to evoke music for plays and ballets. These six beautifully crafted pieces do not bear the subtitle ‘in Old Style’, but some of them certainly could, for they appear to hark back nostalgically to the settled world and formal decorum of the Baroque era; but they either invest them with unsettling undertones or are undercut by unexpected stylistic juxtapositions which well illustrate Alexandrov’s mastery of musical characterisation. The gorgeous ‘Aria’, which sets out singing in D major but turns sombrely before the end to the pathos of the relative minor, immediately makes the first approach abundantly clear. A ‘Galliarde and Pavana’ follows, but this is not a binary pair of dances. Rather, the busy E major Galliard (a distinctly twentieth-century spin on the archaic genre, reminiscent if anything of Ravel’s approach in Le Tombeau de Couperin) encloses and envelopes the grave and restrained A minor Pavan, whose archaism is entirely genuine, for a footnote reveals it is a transcription for piano of a sixteenth-century lute piece. In the third movement, the soft, bell-like harmonic clashes of the Chorale (in which Alexandrov writes chains of consecutive tenths for the left hand) preface a raffish and cheerily dissonant Polka – sacred and highly profane brought cheek to cheek. A tranquil Waltz in A major comes next: it seems blithely simple, a sunny right-hand melody unfolding against a conventional left-hand accompaniment, yet contrives to hint at unstated emotional complexities before the end. ‘Dances in the Square and Siciliana’ is the title of the fifth movement: Alexandrov is perhaps thinking of a mediaeval or Renaissance Italian scene, maybe even tangentially of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Opening nominally in D major, a brief pugnacious introductory recitative prefaces a pair of bustling, boisterous dances (Allegretto) with an intricate rhythmic life of their own; the tempo then slows to Andantino for the D minor Siciliana, an exquisite bittersweet piece. A recall of the rough recitative leads directly into the last movement, an extended Gavotte whose apparent cheerful innocence is somewhat belied by knowing jazzy harmonies, and an unexpectedly majestic last few bars.