Release Date: 01 March 2002
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313513826
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: MARTINU
Description
The Epic of Gilgamesh, an oratorio for soprano,tenor, baritone and bass soloists, choir and orchestra, was written at Nice andcompleted in 1955. It is dedicated to Maja Sacher, the wife of Paul Sacher towhom he had been indebted as a patron and then as a generous benefactor duringhis final years of illness. Martinů made use at first of the Englishtranslation of the ancient Babylonian epic by Campbell Thompson, a version thathas seriously dated since its original publication in 1928 and 1930. A Czechtranslation of the English followed. The poem had its source in ancientSumeria, to be expanded later in the Akkadian language of Babylonia. The hero,Gilgamesh, although the subject of legendary exploits, actually ruled inBabylonia about 2700 B.C. In the poem he is accompanied by Enkidu, a wild mantamed by a courtesan and his constant friend and companion in his adventures.Enkidu rejects the advances of Ishtar, the goddess of love, and when they killthe bull she sends to punish them, the gods take revenge by killing him.Gilgamesh, in grief, seeks a means of restoring his friend to life, and finallylearns from his shade about the world of the dead.Theoratorio is in three parts, the first based on Tablets 1 and 2 of the twelvetablets preserved from the library of King Ashurbanipal of Assyria (669-630B.C.), the second on Tablets 7, 8 and 10 and the third on Tablet 12. Theremarkable setting of the ancient poem by Martinů captures the joy andgrief of the ancient world, where death was sudden and inexorable. It is scoredwith considerable delicacy and subtlety to evoke the past in an eclectic use ofmodes and telling contrasts of the sung and spoken word that add considerablyto the underlying drama.Thefirst part of the oratorio, Gilgamesh,opens mysteriously (1), the chorus leading to the entry of the bass soloistpraising Gilgamesh, the matter taken up by the chorus again (2). The basssoloist describes the creation of Enkidu (3) intoning without accompaniment,except for the addition at one point of a single clarinet note. The chorus goeson to describe Enkidu's way of life in the desert (4) and the tenor, speaking,tells how a hunter had met him and been afraid. His father advises him to use acourtesan to lure Enkidu to the city (5) and the chorus launches into a livelyaccount of how Enkidu approaches the well where the hunter and courtesan awaithim (6). The tenor soloist then urges the girl to reveal her beauty to the wildman (7) and to an orchestral accompaniment of increasing excitement the chorustells how she seduces him. The bass soloist, assisted by the chorus, resumesthe narrative (8), explaining that the cattle now turned away from Enkidu, whohad lost his primitive innocence. The woman addresses him (9), praising hisgod-like beauty in rhapsodic terms and leading him to Erech and to Gilgameshand to the delights of the city, now with the women's voices of the chorus,sustaining a wordless accompaniment. The tenor then declaims Enkidu's willingrespon
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
