tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3763524608484932801.post2850474133364251957..comments2024-02-06T23:18:42.946-08:00Comments on Shakespeare Calling: What To Do About HamletRuby Jandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12107354716859269385noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3763524608484932801.post-40144350811217093622013-02-25T04:06:35.428-08:002013-02-25T04:06:35.428-08:00Thank you, Alexander, both for the links and the i...Thank you, Alexander, both for the links and the information and insights. Music is generally the answer to most questions...I'm listening to the Tchaikovsky as I write.Ruby Jandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12107354716859269385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3763524608484932801.post-68513216913093055332013-02-19T03:23:20.617-08:002013-02-19T03:23:20.617-08:00What to do about Hamlet? Tough question. Let's...What to do about <i>Hamlet</i>? Tough question. Let's listen to some music, shall we?<br /><br />There are two fascinating symphonic poems inspired by the play and/or the title character, neither of which is especially overplayed or overrecorded. In fact, both are nearly forgotten. Yet both, I think, are worth hearing.<br /><br />Here is Liszt's <i>Hamlet</i> with Bernard Haitink and the London Philharmonic:<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MywDbD5nETk<br /><br />And here is Tchaikovsky's <i>Hamlet</i> with the scary Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony:<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyH1B8ONJfM<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPrvq0o66O4<br /><br />Liszt composed his poem in 1858, apparently under the influence of a specific performance of the play with Bogumil Dawison in the title role which he had attended some two years earlier. In a letter Liszt said that Dawison "did not create an uncertain dreamer crushed by the weight of his mission, as has been generally envisioned ever since Goethe produced his theory (in <i>Wilhelm Meister</i>); instead he presented an intelligent, enterprising prince, full of significant political concepts, who is waiting for the appropriate moment to wreck his vengeance and achieve his ambition of being crowned in his uncle's stead."<br /><br />I don't think the music fits such an interpretation, but hear and see for yourselves.<br /><br />Tchaikovsky's <i>Hamlet</i>, composed in 1888 by the way, has been heavily criticised for not being anything as tuneful and tightly organised as his earlier and far more famous <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>. Few people seem to reflect how extremely different the original plays are; it would be a colossal blunder if any two musical works inspired by them have anything in common.<br /><br />For example, Mily Balakirev, who was always fonder of commenting on other people's work rather than doing his own, once wrote with fine sarcasm that the lyrical theme refers to Hamlet's offering Ophelia an ice-scream. It never occured to him that the bitter love story (if it may be called thus) between Hamlet and Ophelia is a very different affair than the all-consuming, Tristan-and-Isolde-like passion between Romeo and Juliet.<br /><br />Since I detest anatomizing program music theme by theme, bar by bar, and so on, I skip this part deliberately. There is very little left by both composers in this respect. Liszt said that the gentle clarinet after the climax refers to Ophelia and that's all. Tchaikovsky was even less explicit. It's up to the listener to supply the rest - everything, that is. <br /><br />Give an ear. See if the music can enhance the reading.Alexanderhttp://www.librarything.com/profile/Waldsteinnoreply@blogger.com