Heves megyei aprónyomtatványok 21/K

TWO PORTRAITS

(ONE IDEAL - ONE GROTESQUE)

Libretto written by Géza Balogh Directed by Géza Balogh

Designed by Imre Ambrus

Cast:

The Youth.................................................................................István Erdős

The Girl .................................................................................Márta Szakály

and Tamás Cser, Hugó Gruber, Henrik Gyurkó, Melinda Kássa (The Budapest Philharmonics Orchestra, conducted by Miklós Erdélyi)

The Two Portraits is one of the young Bartók's first major orchestral compositions. Its birth is closely linked with two other compositions, the First Violin Concerto, written for Stefi Geyer and the 14th Bagatelle. The "ideal" piece of the Two Portraits emerged from the first theme of the violin concerto, while the "grotesque" from the Bagatelle. The dual-character portrait, moulded into contrasting characters from the same theme, dates back to the period when the young Bartók's human, creative force began unfolding. The contrast pair follows the traditions of Beethoven, Liszt and Berlioz, but the effects of the post-Romantic heritage can also be traced in the work.

On the State Puppet Theatre stage, the Two Portraits depicts a young man's struggle against his own self, his nostalgic search for the ideal, then his disappointment and disillusionment. While the two themes are of entirely contrasting tone, they are built on a common thematic basic idea (one four-vocal d-F sharp-a-C sharp-heptachord motive). In the first part of the composition. The Youth appears as the characteristic figure on the beginning of the century, of the Art Nouveau. Fie is solitary and seeks for ideals in books. Then, the outer world calls him: behind an alluring, nice glass door he foresees genuine adventures. But when this outer world revels itself, it turns out to be an empty one. Thus, through his dreams, his fancy gets a free range and his longings soon find shape in the ideal Girl. Like the hero of Lampedusa's short story with Ligheia, he too meets with the Botticelli-created Venus, emerging from the waves, for a single minute only, she disappears before he could get her know. The Youth is alone again. The music, crystalizing after parts folding like a liane, thén bursting again, suggests that he did not give up hope to meet the beloved again, created by his desires.

After the crescendo of the „ideal portrait", the second theme's dissonant, nearly vulgar, diabolic rythm, reveals an entirely different world, more precisely, the reverse of the world seen before. At the beginning of the theme, we see the reverse, image-reflected version of the first scene. Here, however, the events follow each other at a top speed. The Youth, after so many years, can see the ideal girl again — as a dancer in a slum pub. It is hardly believeable that this girl is identical with the grotesque ideal, but he still does not give up hope: he follows the girl, since now he can have her. The woman does offer herself, provokingly and lowly, but by the time they reach the couch, her body disappears along with her draping clothes. She is nowhere there, she has never been.

THREE VILLAGE SCENES DANCE SUITE

Libretto written by Gyula Urbán Directed by Gyula Urbán Designed by Imre Ambrus

Cast:

Bridé ...................................................................................... Gitta Kárpáti

B

ridesmaids.......................................Anna Simándi and Ibolya Dal los

_ . , ( László Hetey

I Tamás Cser

Bridesmen...................................................István Dinnyés and János Ősi

Animators .... Edit Fóthy, Eszter Kozáry and Erzsébet Turcsányi

(The Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television, conducted by György Lehel, choir, State Folk Ensemble).

The second variation of Three Village Sceneslfor 4 or 8 female vocals and chamber orchestra), was composed by Bartók in 1926; at the request of the New York Composers' Society. The fundamental tone of the composition is supplied by Zólyom county Slovak folk songs. In spite of this, it is by no means a simple arrangement of folk-songs. The themes, with titles referring to genre pictures: Wedding, Lullaby, Lads' Dance, cover genre pictures neither, but through the holidays of the peasant life, make a more substantial world with a more general validity unfold, in a dramatic form. The composition analyses the relations between the two genres, chiefly from the woman's point of view. It is about the functional changes a wedding brings along in the life of the woman living as a member of the community.

On the puppet stage, the play is opened by the arrival of the "stronger-sex", totem-like roughhew wooden figures of the Bridegroom and two, little tipsy, bridesmen. They want to spy upon the bride being dressed. The bridesmaids, however, shoo them off.

In the theme, entitled Lullaby, the Bride's thoughts carry her away from the commotion of the wedding, she already sees the cradle, her maternity. Her thoughts run evens-farther in time: she sees herself as an old and destitute woman, since she gives birth to her baby just to give him up to another woman and then to death. There appears, within the frame of the cradle functioning as the stage, the real drama: the story of the life-giving woman and the life-receiving boy, both drifting towards the common end.

The third theme of the play comes back to the present again. The bridesmaids make the hankering lads dance exhaustively. Finally, the huge, up to now separating door is thrown open and the Bridegroom, his face transfigured with joy, embraces the Bride who is his woman now, his legal wife. — There can commence the drama then that the Bride foresaw in her imagination when the ornaments of the cradle came to life.

Libretto written by Dezső Szilágyi Designed by Iván Koós

Playing parts: Ibolya Dallos, István Dinnyés, Edit Fóthy, László Hetey, Gitta Kárpáti, Eszter Kozáry, János Ősi, Anna Simándi, Erzsébet Turcsányi.

Directed by: Kató Szőnyi

(The Budapest Philharmonic Society Orchestra, conducted by János Sándor)

In a review of the orchestral work’s world permiére (1923) Aladár Tóth, overwhelmed by the event of music history importance, writes the following: "Bartók is a revolutionary explorer of ancient, primitive passions, a genius, who unveils the deepest dynamics of life ... In the Dance Suite, a beautifully colourful world unfolds from the mystic, heavy rythm of the dark forces beneath the earth . . ."

This beautifully colourful world is in a constant movement and development, though the composer does not tie it to any defined themes, conflicting figures and series of actions as he did it with his earlier works written for the stage. Nevertheless, Dance Suite carries a drama as well, it does offer itself for stage. Its transposition to the puppet stage (a revival of an earlier experiment by us, on a smaller stage a couple of years before) does not follow the pattern of the plot or the conflicts of the traditional drama, but following the Bartókian music, it intends to speak about the development of mankind, symbolically, flashing up the trends of some major conflicting moments of this development with the help of the metaphoric representation of the musical themes.

The opening of the composition, in conformity with the disintegrated tunes, leads into the world of the stones: it is here where the convetionalized man appears for the first time. In the second theme, the stone-world expands and from among the people, there emerges a shaman-like figure of a ruler. The whole group of people shares the same struggle and dread: the hunt is followed by an offer of sacrifice. In the third theme, the relations defining the dépendance of the man organized into community become marked but there is also a glint of joy of creation as well, reglected by the motives of Romanian, Slovak and Hungarian folk songs. The Hungarian ritornelle that links the themes takes shape in the form of a sun-flower, which keeps reappearing, signalling the ambitions and need of liberty of the people.

In the fourth theme, which is one of Bartók's most beautiful "night musics", there dawns upon the sleeping man, like at the depth of a huge lake, the world of his past and the world of his desires, — painfully, inaccessibly.

In the fifth theme, the creative work of the human group is already conscious. Man creates his own machine replica that soon outrivals him so that the community has to pool all its forces to subdue the soulless puppet. In the closing theme, the struggle of the disuninted human group sharpens. Mollification is finally brought along by the huge sun-disk with flower petals that lures everybody to itself and, with the "round dance of the peoples" it creates harmony for manind.

9

CANTATA PROFANA

Libretto written by Dezső Szilágyi Designed by Iván Koós

Playing parts: Béla Csajághy, Tamás Cser, István Erdős, Hugó Gruber, Henrik Gyurkó, Melinda Kássa, Eszter Kozáry, Imre Pataky, Márta Szakály

Designed by: Kató Szőnyi

(The Symphony Orchestra of the Hungarian Radio and Television, conducted by György Lehel. Singing József Réti and András Faragó and the Budapest Choir).

Bence Szabolcsi writes: . . . "Cantata", composed to the lyrics of ancient Romanian folk-song, is a conclusive and moving expression of Bartók's love of freedom and nature. Back to nature is the only way for man to escape. This is symbolized by the sory of the folk ballad's nine mythic stags . . . Bartók himself considered this work as an expression of his most intimate creed." He put it into words as follows: "Ever since I found myself as a composer, my true ideal and, I am fully aware of it, is the ideal of fraternity among the peoples. Yes, fraternity, in spite of all the strifes and conflicts. It is this ideal that I want to serve by my music to the best of my ability and, this is why I do not avoid any influence, be it from either Slovakian, Romanian, Arab or source or any other source until this source is pure, fresh and healthy!

Cantata Profana, "a later arrival in Bartók's stage works" (Szabolcsi) now comes to life with the means of a puppet show. On the puppet stage, the ballad of the boys, who turned into stags, is not intended to be a simple dramatization of a source-legend, neither a pictorial illustration of the musical work, but some sort of on-the-stage ritual, in which a four-member choir recalls the example of the youths who shook off the shackles of the convention of the past and who are unable to compromise with their conscience. In the Bartókian work, the surging tale and the timeliness of heart wringing drama go side by side and, the puppet stage wants to illustrate this by stylized figures, a defined system of their movement, the expansion of the dimensions of the human environment and by a dual role by the choir.

The shocking music and the lyrics bear a symbol and convey an appeal. The puppet stage performance attempts to translate these into such a clear and simple thing as is the truth of the stag-boyS who shook their former life off: "Never again do their lips drink out of a glass, — but out of a pure source only."

The interludes were selected and directed by Géza Balogh based on the works of Béla Bartók, Gyula Illyés, Ferenc Juhász, Lajos Kassák and Dezső Keresztury

The poems are recited by Gyula Szabó The puppet-scenes

Slightly Inebriated and Bear's Danse arranged by Imre Pataky, puppets designed by Imre Ambrus.

Performers: Imre Pataky, István Erdős, l-lenrik Gyurkó Music consultant: István Láng Music assistants: Irén Katona and Gabriella Miklósi Assistant directors: Márta Kasznár-Kiss and Éva Kalmár

F. k.: Sásdi Jenő — Révai, Eger — f. v.: Vilcsek János — 81 1076 5000

"FROM PURE SOURCE ONLY"

FOUR BARTÓK COMPOSITIONS

"QUE D'UNE SOURCE CLAIRE"

QUATRE OEUVRES DE BARTÓK

STATE PUPPET THEATRE

THÉÂTRE NATIONAL DE MARIONNETTES

1981

7

8