Georgez Bizet (born 1838; died 1875)
Known for one of the world's most popular operas, Carmen, Georges Bizet deserves attention as well for other works of remarkable melodic charm. Many of his works received cool receptions on their premieres, but are now central to the repertory of classical music.
Born in Paris on October 25, 1838, Bizet grew up in a happy, musical family that encouraged his talents. He learned to read music, at the same time he learned to read letters equally well. Entering the Paris Conservatory before he was ten, he earned first prize in solfège within six months, a first prize in piano in 1852, and eventually, the coveted Prix de Rome in 1857 for his cantata Clovis et Clotilde. His teachers had included Marmontel for piano and Halévy for composition, but the greatest influence on him was Charles Gounod, of whom Bizet later said "You were the beginning of my life as an artist."
Bizet himself hid away his Symphony in C, written when he was 17, feeling it was too much like its models, Gounod's symphonies. The two years spent in Rome after winning his prize would be the only extensive time, and a greatly impressionable one, that Bizet would spend outside of Paris in his brief life.
When he returned to Paris, he lost confidence in his natural talents and began to substitute dry Germanic or academic writing for his own developing idiom. He composed a one-act opera for production at the Opéra-Comique, but the theater's director engaged him to write a full-length opera instead, Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). It was not a success at the time, but despite a few weaknesses, the work met revival in 1886, and its sheer beauty has earned it a respected position among the lesser-played operatic repertory.
In 1863, Bizet's father bought land outside Paris where he built two bungalows, one of which Bizet frequently used as a compositional retreat. He began a friendship (apparently not a physical one) with a neighbor-woman named Céleste Mogador, a former actress, author, courtesan, circus rider, and dance-hall girl. She is reputed to have been the model for his masterpiece's title role of Carmen.
Bizet earned his living as an accompanist and publishing house arranger. Meanwhile, he poured his creative efforts into an immense five-act opera in the grand tradition, Ivan IV, but it never premiered. This proved to be a pattern for the rest of his career. Bizet would work hard to get an opera produced, and even if he did, it would usually receive only a handful of performances. Bizet's corpus of unfinished works is large and testifies to his unsettled existence and his difficulty in finding a place in France's notoriously hierarchical and conservative musical world.
In 1869, Bizet married Geneviève Halévy, daughter of his teacher. The marriage did not turn out to be a happy one, primarily due to her family's history of mental illness. In 1872, Bizet's splendid incidental music for the play L'arlèsienne received a poor reception, but – when the composer assembled the music into an orchestral suite for a November performance – it found great acclaim. At last confident of his creative vision, Bizet was able to steer his final masterpiece through various obstacles, including the objections of singers and theater directors shocked by Carmen's subject matter. When the opera premiered on March 3, 1875, it received approval barely well enough to hang on for future productions. Although it took audiences only a few weeks to catch on, Bizet died convinced it was a failure.
Children’s Games (Jeux d'enfants)
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, three percussion, strings.
The DPO last performed this piece in December, 1940, with Paul Katz conducting.
Like Schumann's Kinderszenen and Debussy's Children's Corner, Bizet's Jeux d'enfants for piano duet is more about children than for children to play. It's a suite of a dozen miniatures, each a minute or two long, evoking the simple games and interests of very young children. Most of Bizet's piano works are miniatures and mood pieces, and Jeux d'enfants stands out from this oeuvre only in its special vivacity and tunefulness.
L'Escarpolette (The Swing) is a slow, graceful opening number that mimics the movement of a swing with gentle arpeggios and brief, "push-off" melodic gestures. La Toupie (The Top) maintains a spinning figure in the background of a scampering main theme. Offering contrast with the top's energy is a berceuse called La Poupée (The Doll), a sweet, gently rocking lullaby. Galloping through the nursery now are Les Chevaux de bois (The Wooden Horses), in which Bizet revisits the spinning figure from La Toupie and now uses it, along with a quick march tune, to depict a little equestrian stampede. Le Volant, with its sequence of tiny rising and falling phrases, portrays a shuttlecock knocked back and forth in a game of badminton. Trompette et tambour (Trumpet and Drum) is a perky miniature march suitable for toy soldiers (and looking ahead to the Children's March in Carmen).
Les Bulles de savon sounds as if it might accompany the progress of rabbits or grasshoppers across a field, but it actually concerns soap bubbles popping in the air. In Les Quatre coins, it's the children themselves who take to the field, the music following them as they run to the playing area's four corners, a game that begins slowly but ends up rather frantic. The hesitant music of Colin-maillard depicts a game of blind man's bluff, while the more vigorous Saute-mouton engages in musical leapfrog. Petit Mari, petite femme offers the suite's greatest emotional depth, a slow, tender movement inspired by children playing at being husband and wife; the music includes a rapturous little climax almost worthy of one of Bizet's operatic love duets.
Finally, Le Bal is an effervescent galop, an exuberant music-hall finale. Bizet arranged five of these movements for orchestra, calling it either Jeux d'enfants like the original or Petite Suite.
Composition Description by James Reel
Biography by AMG
Source: All Media Guide
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