Litvinovsky - Pélleas et Mélisande (Suite for String Orchestra)

Alexander Litvinovsky
Pelléas and Mélisande
Suite for String Orchestra

Published by Halidon Ediz. Mus.
Performed by Metamorphose String Orchestra
Conductor: Pavel Lyubomudrov

00:00 I. Ils étaient comme des enfants (They were like children)

 04:04 II. Des pas dans le château (Steps in the castle) 

06:52 III. Galliard. Navire dans la tempête (Galliard. Ship in a storm) 

09:31 IV. La grotte. Lac souterrain (Grotto. Underground lake)

 13:31 V. Procession du crepuscule (Twilight procession)

 16:13 VI. Ballade. Les trois sœurs aveugles (Ballad. Three blind sisters)

 19:23 VII. La chasse commence (The hunting begins)

 22:29 VIII. Menuet. Sous la fenêtre de la tour (Minuet. Under the tower window)  

25:51 IX. Mélisande au rouet (Mélisande at the spinning wheel)  

28:54 X. Les ombres dans le jardin (Shadows in the garden) 

31:59 XI. Duel. Épée de jalousie (Duel. Sword of jealousy)

 34:43 XII. Mort de Mélisande (Death of Mélisandre)

Composer Alexander Litvinovsky worked on the suite ‘Pelléas and Mélisande’ in the summer of 2021. His score became the embodiment of the figurative content of the play of the same name by the classic of Belgian literature Maris Maeterlinck. At one time, Alexander Litvinovsky wrote music for the theatrical performance 'Pelléas and Melisande'. The successful artistic result inspired a new idea: on the basis of this musical material the composer decided to create a suite for a string orchestra. However, the deepening into the symbolism of Maeterlinck's play led Alexander Litvinovsky to the need to carefully rework the finished numbers, expand the dramatic context and, in fact, write a new, independent orchestral work.
 
In the history of ‘Pelléas da Mélisande’ there is a lot of mystical, encrypted, unsaid. The fictional kingdom of Alemond exists outside of a certain era, outside of reality and time. The strange and infantile characters in the play live in their own temporal dimension. The events are driven not by the actions of the heroes, but by their reflections, spontaneous impressions, reasoning, exchange of emotions, clarification of relationships.
 
The orchestral embodiment of the imaginative world of such a drama demanded professional ingenuity and virtuoso skill from the composer, who strove to avoid monotony and static in the new suite. He embodied in music an active internal plot, gave dynamism, alternating tempos and rhythms, timbre nuances, sound colors of modes, tonalities, creating an amazing theatricality of effective episodes and a genre variety of ancient dances.
 
The author of the suite 'Pelléas and Mélisande' does not seek to experiment with the latest musical techniques, he is interested in maximizing the singing nature of string instruments, the beauty of sound recording, which helps to reveal the emotional purity of the images of the embodied plot. And connoisseurs of Alexander Litvinovsky's work will recognize his bright, attractive author's style, which combines elements of baroque, romantic and postmodern music.
(Music critic Svetlana Beresten)

Alexander Litvinovsky | Facebook