Richard III

[Mark Thomas]

I was recently in Leicester with time to kill, so I visited the city's cathedral to look at the tomb of the newly unearthed King Richard III. Both it and the adjacent visitor centre are well worth a visit, by the way, but they're not the point of this post. Seeing the king's tomb gave me the idea this morning that I'd have a "Richard III Fest" and play all the music I could find which was inspired by Shakespeare's play about the last of the Plantagenets. Both Smetana's symphonic poem and Volkmann's Overture are familiar works, and always bear rehearing. Smetana's in particular I have always found a very impressive piece in the way that he manages both to depict the action of the play and give a psychological portrait of Richard himself. I relish one particular see-sawing theme with which Smetana depicts the hunchback's crooked walk and malignant character so graphically. It's a magnificent piece of writing altogether and in my view is the best of Smetana. Volkmann's is a persuasive work too, although rather more episodic than Smetana's. It's always marred for me, though, by his incongruous injection of a Scottish folk tune mid way through. I suppose that, sitting as he was in Budapest, Volkmann thought it gave the work British colour, but to this Englishman it jars, which is a pity because the Overture is otherwise a strong composition.

Beside them, Edward German's Richard III Overture is a poor thing. It's drama is somehow synthetic and unconvincing and German's themes are trite and unmemorable. The "Shakespeare Scenario" arranged by Christopher Palmer from Walton's Richard III film score is chronologically outside UC's remit, but falls within it stylistically. Most of its short pieces are heavy on pageantry, pomp and circumstance, but the Prelude itself is another powerful evocation of this controversial monarch's twisted personality as portrayed by the bard, and there is drama and pathos in spades in the final three numbers which chronicle the battle of Bosworth and Richard's death. The whole set is highly colourful, enjoyable and appropriate music. Apart from the short, and quite spectacular, fanfares which Smetana wrote for a performance of the play, the only other composition which I could find was a surprise: an overture for large wind band by the Belgian composer Paul Gilson which I hadn't come across before, and found on YouTube. I don't know when it written, but it is another powerful, inventive and thoroughly romantic work which holds the attention throughout its nine minutes. The brass writing is superb.

No doubt there are other romantic works based on Richard III, but I don't know of any recordings of them. Of those to which I listened today I'm clear that Smetana's symphonic poem is by some margin the most satisfying and well-rounded translation of the play into music, with Volkmann's Overture a very honourable runner up. It would be interesting, but a longer listen, to repeat the exercise with another Shakespeare villain: Macbeth

[MartinH]

I know he's out of range of UC, but William Walton's score for the 1955 film is superb. Not "concert" music perhaps, but it should be. The Palmer arrangement on Chandos is excellent and not modern in any sense. Quite listenable and enjoyable.

[jerfilm]

Well, there's Robert Volkmann Richard III Overture, opus 68. 

Jerry

[mikehopf]

  ... and there's a jolly good opera by Canepa : Riccardo III

[Wheesht]

There are operas by Giovanni Battista Meiners and Gaston Salvayre. Together with some later Richard III works they are listed here
There is an overture, entr'actes and incidental music by one G.A. Schneider (1828); the same by Louis Schlösser (Darmstadt 1835); [Otto?] Gieseker (composed in 1876 in Würzburg); and there are overtures by Isidor Rosenfeld, composed in 1860, and Anton Emil Titl, composed in Vienna about 1870. Whether any of these were recorded is another question.

[Mark Thomas]

Fascinating, thanks. Has the Canepa opera been properly recorded? I see there's a performance on YouTube here, but it's in truly dreadful sound. I don't think any of the others have except Volkmann's Overture, of course, which I mentioned in my post.

[mikehopf]

Well, there's a better recording of the same performance also on Youtube but it's split into many parts.

The sound quality may not be great, but the singers are good and, at least,  Susan Boyle isn't in it!

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Mike. I'll look out the split up YouTube recording. Despite the atrocious sound I must say that I enjoyed Riccardo III which, I see, dates from 1879. It reminded me of Ponchielli rather than the expected Verdi. It's certainly as good as some of the former's efforts (although not up to the level of La Gioconda of course), and better than quite a few of the Italian obscurities which Bongiovanni and other small Italian labels have released. Good vigorous writing for the principles and the chorus, strong melodies and (as far as one can tell!) attractively orchestrated.

[semloh]

I will avoiding stepping outside our agenda by commenting on the marvellous film scores by Walton and Trevor Jones, and simply agree with your German - Volkmann comparison, Mark.

[pcc]

I still quite like German's overture -- it doesn't seem the way it was described here to me.  It is a theatre overture, written for Richard Mansfield, so its function is a little different than some of the other works. And I must admit that a part of me likes it because Bernard Shaw was vicious about it.

[Holger]

Volkmann's is a persuasive work too, although rather more episodic than Smetana's. It's always marred for me, though, by his incongruous injection of a Scottish folk tune mid way through. I suppose that, sitting as he was in Budapest, Volkmann thought it gave the work British colour, but to this Englishman it jars, which is a pity because the Overture is otherwise a strong composition.

A while ago, a friend of mine from GB also pointed out the appearance of the Scottish tune in an email he sent me. (I hadn't taken note of it before since I simply didn't know the tune.) At that point, I did some research about the background and finally found out that in essence, it's a sort of mistake by Volkmann. He believed the tune was an old English war song and therefore thought it would fit well into the context of Shakespeare's tragedy.

[sdtom]

No doubt there are other romantic works based on Richard III, but I don't know of any recordings of them. Of those to which I listened today I'm clear that Smetana's symphonic poem is by some margin the most satisfying and well-rounded translation of the play into music, with Volkmann's Overture a very honourable runner up. It would be interesting, but a longer listen, to repeat the exercise with another Shakespeare villain: Macbeth

I've made CD's of Hamlet recordings of which they're several including my favorite Tchaikovsky's "Hamlet Fantasy Overture."

[Sharkkb8]

Highly unlikely that the music will be appropriate for this forum, but considering the specificity of the original post, and the producer/soloist/reciter on this upcoming recording, I couldn't resist posting.....

https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Iii-EM-RUPERT-MARSHALL-LUCK/dp/B07624VG1K/ref=sr_1_272?fst=as%3Aoff&qid=1550391621&refinements=p_n_date%3A1249114011&rnid=1249111011&s=music&sr=1-272

[eschiss1]

Well, if you count a 1911 work by Frank Bridge that has a movement inspired by Richard III (his Pageant of London suite for wind band) and which has been recorded, there's still _something_ if not a huge something.

[eschiss1]

G.A. Schneider would be Georg Abraham Schneider, a Beethoven contemporary (very much so- 1770-1839). The only commercial recordings of his works I know of offhand are of a concerto and some chamber works.