BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Garry Walker. [Arrangement by Malcolm MacDonald]. I - "At the Court of the Emperor Altoum". Adagio solenne - Allegro con brio: 0:00
II - "Minuet". Launisch (capriccioso): 5:00
III - "Entrance of Princess Turandot and her Retinue". Moderato maestoso: 6:50
IV - "Nocturne". Andante comodo ma misterioso: 11:06
V - "To the Divan!" Tempo vivo - Adagio: 13:10
VI - "Lugubre-Marsch". Deciso - Adagio solenne: 17:43
Brian composed his second opera, the three-act German-language "Turandot, Princess of China" between 1949 and 1951, subtitling it: "a tragi-comic fairytale". His libretto is extracted from Friedrich Schiller’s German translation of the Italian fable of 1762 by the Venetian dramatist Carlo Gozzi. Though Schiller altered Gozzi’s text, it remains nearer in spirit and substance to the original than the story from Puccini's Turandot. The opera contains a large amount of orchestral music, offering a great potential for orchestral excerpts. In 1962-63, Brian returned to the score and produced a selection which he entitled simply as "three Pieces from Turandot"
When Malcolm MacDonald examined the scores of Turandot and the three Pieces in 1972, he was surprised that Brian had made no attempt to extract any of the portions of Acts 2 and 3. In correspondence with Brian, MacDonald suggested he could make such further extracts. He replied that it was certainly possible and he would consider doing something about it, but there the matter rested until his death later in the year. Taking his comments as at least partial authority, in 1975 Malcolm MacDonald devised a suite from Acts 2 and 3, giving the movements appropriate titles or adapting the titles they carry in the opera score.
In the first movement (prelude to act 2), the curtain rises on the great Hall of the Imperial Council of State, the Divan, in oriental parlance. Doorways lead offstage to the Emperor’s apartments and to the seraglio of Princess Turandot. An overture, alternating solemn brass-dominated pageantry with comic hurry and bustle. Motif (a) sounds out clearly in the cellos at one point. A grotesque march in 3/4 heralds the entry of the aged Emperor himself. The piece ends unexpectedly with a quiet cadence for strings alone.
The second movement is a minuetto. A mocking solo for Tartaglia, in the role of the Emperor’s chancellor, pityingly describing the latest suitor for the Princess’s hand: a handsome prince (Kalaf) who refuses to reveal his name. A little mock-antique dance; Tartaglia’s voice is here transferred to solo cello. Forms of motif (d) are much in evidence here, as well as the whining figure (a) in the final bars.
In the third movement (as in the opera) Brian dispenses with the voices in this extended processional of wit, pageantry and formal gesture, sumptuous in its polyphonic textures, which functions rather like a ballet interlude. Turandot’s theme (b) naturally makes an appearance, first in the strings, and is extensively developed, as is motif (d) before the beautiful, relective close.
The fourth movement is a nocturne (Prelude to Act 3). On the walls of Peking, at night. A beautiful reflective piece scored for two harps, divided strings, bassoon, two horns and percussion, including a bell. The rocking, lullaby-like rhythm of the opening bassoon solo and the ensuing string section are only one aspect of the evocations of night in this brief scene-setter.
The fifth movement is the ending of Act 3 scene 1 and the start of scene 2, but they play continuously, develop the same basic materials and form a perfect musical unit (a Zwischenspiel covering a change of scene). Kalaf is being hurried by Brighella, Captain of the Guard, from the palace apartments and back to the Divan, where he will have his final confrontation with Turandot. As the music, one of the most virtuosic and eventually awesome outbursts in the entire opera, makes clear, this is a moment of high drama. The return to the Divan brings reminiscences of the Act 2 Prelude, but developed to a grimly majestic climax before an unexpectedly serene coda.
In the final movement, Turandot enters with her slaves and servants, all dressed in black. Kalaf has solved her riddles, and she must marry him unless she can solve the counter-riddle: what is his name? But she believes she knows the answer. Thus this movement, a magnificent mock-classical invention, may sound like a funeral march but is rather a pre-funeral march. For Turandot, marriage would be like death, the death of her freedom. But she still hopes at this stage that Kalaf will be the one to die. The march-tune, in its two forms: bassoons and basses state the first, solo oboe the second is based on a melding of her motif (b), now in simple dotted rhythm, with figure (d). Ater the introductory bars, the music settles down into A minor, but following the spooky central episode the march comes back, climactically, in C sharp minor.
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