Capriccio Espagnol and Rimsky-Korsakov

Many composers have been inspired by customs, melodies, and national or ethnic characteristics of countries other than their own. Outstanding examples include Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, Dvorák’s “New World Symphony,” Elgar’s Alassio, Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, and the work heard here. Inspiration in this special compositional category comes to composers in many ways, such as personal travel, attending performances by visiting foreign artists, or research and study.

 

In the summer of 1887, Rimsky-Korsakov was visiting not Spain but Switzerland. Borodin had died in February and had left his opera Knyaz Igor (Prince Igor) uncompleted, and Rimsky-Korsakov undertook its completion. Rimsky-Korsakov had collected material that he originally planned to incorporate into a virtuoso violin fantasy on Spanish themes, but the final form of the work that emerged was that of a five-movement orchestral suite in which the movements are played without pause. The composer himself explained that the changes of timbres, the happy choice of melodic designs and figuration patterns that are precisely suited to each kind of instrument, the short virtuoso cadenzas for solo instruments, the rhythm of the percussion instruments, and so on, constitute in this piece the very essence of the composition. Although it is true that the work derives much of its effect from brilliant orchestration, the composer insisted that the piece is a “brilliant composition for orchestra,” not a “brilliantly-orchestrated composition.”

 

In the first movement in A major, an alborada (morning song), the full orchestra introduces the two principal themes. Violin arpeggios lead to the second movement, “Variations,” which is in the unrelated key of F major. The French horn announces the theme, and five short variations follow. A flute solo leads to a recall of the opening alborada, now transposed to B-flat major with different orchestration. The fourth movement, “Scene and Gypsy Song,” begins with a roll on the side drum. Five cadenzas are heard, followed by a harp glissando. The gypsy song, a seductive cantilena in the violins, grows in drama and intensity, and builds to a whirling climax. A rhythmic theme for trombones begins the final movement, Fandango Asturiano. Woodwinds present a second theme, and the music becomes extremely lively. The work concludes with a recall of the alborada theme.

© Ted Wilks

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