The Houston Youth Symphony Sinfonia Orchestra performs "Love Music" from Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky (Arr. Hans Kindler) under the direction of Michelle Perrin Blair.
Modest Musssorgsky’s opera masterpiece, Boris Godunov, is set in 1598 Moscow. Based on the play by Alexander Pushkin, Mussorgsky’s libretto employs the historical figures, Boris Godunov (tsar of Russia 1598-1605), and his nemesis, Dmitriy (reigned 1605-1606). Act I opens five years into the reign of Godunov with a novice monk, Grigori, hatching a plan to assume the identity of the dead Tsarevich Dmitriy, who is the rightful heir to the Tsardom, thus becoming “False Dmitriy.” With evidence that Boris may have killed Dmitriy, Grigori sets out to expose the tsar’s crime and the throne for himself.
The “Love Music” arrangement by Hans Kindler takes themes from a duet in Act III featuring the opera’s leading lady, Marina, and Grigori, both determined to ascend the throne as tsar and tsaritsa. The oboe solo at the beginning of the piece represents Marina’s lovesick singing as she looks down from her father’s castle into the garden were Grigori awaits. Marina’s quiet and gentle song gives way to Grigori’s agitated response, in which he kneels at her feet and begs her to love him. Grigori’s melody is played by the middle-register voices in the orchestra, such as Violas and French horn. Though Marina and Grigori’s duet ultimately turns sour in the opera, Kindler’s arrangement offers the listener a beautiful and triumphant conclusion to this lovers’ serenade.
November 2, 2014, Stude Concert Hall, Rice University
