Friday, December 26, 2014

Martinů - "The Butterfly that Stamped" - Ballet in one act after Rudyard Kipling - Prague Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek - Supraphon 1986

Martinů has written many works that happen to have intriguing, mysterious names ('The Strangler', 'Legend of the Smoke from Potato Fires', 'Comedy on the Bridge', 'Inconstancy of the Life', 'Alexander Twice', 'The Kitchen Revue'....and of course The Butterfly That Stamped!) Yes, the title of Martinů's early one-act ballet makes me smile a bit, it just sounds so odd without the actual story of the winged friend. This is one of my favorite Martinů discs, and it's a real rarity at that. Martinů based it on an exotic story by Rudyard Kipling, employing a wordless female choir to further enhance the 'oriental' atmosphere. The score is full of Eastern spice and Martinů pulls it all off convincingly and to beautiful effect, with a sense of floating sonically, as if in a dream. 

"The Butterfly that Stamped" (Motýl, který dupal), H. 153, has never been performed-as far as I know. Martinů completed the Ballet in Paris on March 9, 1926, a time when the composer was still finding his voice; it is safe to say however, and easy to hear-that his was unique from the very beginning-with avant-garde outings such as "La Bagarre" or "Half-Time" as well as otherworldly, enchanting and impressionistic tinged scores such as "The Butterfly that Stamped". The ballet is charming and fresh, delicate in it's orchestral color and musical narration, providing a finely contoured version of the humorous tale of a butterfly and his quarrelsome female companion. Martinů took the story from Kipling's "Just So Stories", several short and fantastic accounts of how various phenomena came about. The stories typically have the theme of a particular animal being modified from an "original" form to its current form by the acts of man, or some magical being.



In "The Butterfly That Stamped", we join King Solomon, his lovely wife Balkis, his other nine-hundred ninety nine wives, and two charming but quarrelsome butterflies. Solomon (who mainly goes by Suleiman bin Daoud in the story) is a very wise man, but is very annoyed with his surplus wives and all their quarreling. He thinks they are very loud and ungrateful. He refuses to use his magic to do anything about it because he believes it is just showing off, something he will not do. One day, when walking in his forest, Suleiman bin Daoud stumbles upon two butterflies arguing. The male butterfly tells his wife he could stamp his foot and the huge palace and garden would disappear. The king hears the butterfly's story and finds the claim amusing, and so calls the butterfly over. The king asks the butterfly why he lied, to which the butterfly replies that it was to silence his quarrelsome wife. The King tells the butterfly that if he has to, he can 'help him'. Meanwhile, Balkis has a talk with the butterfly’s wife, who says she is only pretending to agree with him, because "you know how men are." Balkis tells her she should dare her husband to stamp his foot, as he must be lying, and then she can argue with him again. Really, she is hoping the disappearance of the palace will shock the other wives into obedience.

The female butterfly dares her husband, and the butterfly prevaricates by telling her the king called him over to ask him not to, because he is afraid of the butterfly. The wife insists he stamps, and he goes to the king, who tells him he will make it happen to help control his wife, sympathizing with the butterfly's plight. The butterfly stamps and the palace disappears. This makes the butterfly's wife scared, and she promises never to argue with him again as long as he brings it back, leaving Solomon in fits of laughter. But when the garden vanishes, Solomon's less pleasant wives are deathly afraid, believing that the king is dead and the heavens are mourning the news. Balkis claims it was the butterfly who was angry at his wife, and they realize that if the king will do this for the sake of a tiny butterfly, 'what will he do to us, we who have been making him miserable with our quarreling', and they in turn become scared of Solomon's powers, and are nice and quiet from then on.
There's a bit more but this is likely already more of the story than most of you bargained for ;)



I hope everyone enjoys this rather unusual Martinů gem as much as I do!

Martinů_The_Butterfly_That_Stamped_Tzadik.zip

http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/47155357/file.html

20 comments:

Squirrel said...

wow....incredible! thanks for this share, I know I would never have heard this without you!

Joan Tallada said...

I will enjoy it, indeed! Thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

Bellisimo opus de un cd checo inolvidable que tengo real,comprado por 2004,super fabuloso,Tzadik!! Tapirman.

theoddvark said...

Could you please repost? Zip file says "it is no longer available+.

Anonymous said...

Hello:

I just encountered your blog for the first time this evening, and I have to say I have never before encountered such a wide array of (relatively) obscure yet valuable releases in one place. Hovhaness, Koechlin, Martinu, Duckworth, Ewazen, and especially Rosner and the single Piston release you have here - all wonderful stuff, much of it very, very hard to find in any form anywhere else. Thanks very much for all of this. I think you've already put all the Rosner that's ever been released up on this blog, but if you could see your way to posting more of the Piston, well, that would be most welcome.

Again, thanks, and kudos for a classical blog that is, to my mind, entirely unique.

MB

Tzadik said...

Hi Squirrel, I like to hear that you are enjoying it so much! Thanks for such a comment, that's what keeps me posting :) -TZ

Tzadik said...

Hi Joan, you are most welcome. I actually thought of you when I posted this rarity, I know you are a "Martinu follower" just as I am ;) TZ

Tzadik said...

Tapirman .... que realmente el propietario de éste? Wow, estoy impresionado! Eso significa que en realidad hay dos personas en el mundo que lo compró;-) -TZ

Tzadik said...

theoddvark, please try the link again, I just checked and downloaded the file just fine...

Tzadik said...

MB, welcome to the blog, great that you found my lil haunt here ;) And thank you for such nice compliments, trust me it means a whole lot to me.
I actually have not posted all the Rosner, I'm not sure why I didn't post the others yet (there's two more Albany discs, one with his brilliant String Sextet and two other works, plus the most recent disc, a 2 cd set of his songs. Then, a compilation on Centaur that features his Sonata for Oboe and Piano). So, more to come! I love Piston, and have plenty of his music to post. Kind regards, TZ

Anonymous said...

Hi again Tzadik:

Yes, I was wrong about the Rosner. I actually have both of those remaining discs myself, so perhaps that's why I imagined you had already posted them. The quartet on that compilation disc, however, is just about impossible to find at anything resembling a reasonable price, so that was a fantastic find here, for me.

Best,
MB

Tzadik said...

MB, I am impressed and happy to hear that you have the other Rosner discs already; I know my appreciation is shared by others but truly most seasoned listeners have not heard of him. Happy I could be of help with that rare disc of Quartets. I'm fortunate I bought it when I did; it disappeared as quickly as a tween-age fad. Stay tuned for more Piston. Thanks for your comments, I hope you type 'round here when you can :) Best, TZ

Scraps said...

I love Martinu -- his Nonet is one of my favorite chamber pieces ever -- and have a lot of him, but not this: and Supraphon is hard to come by. Thanks.

Piston, Piston... I hope (hope! hope!) that you have the Northwestern String Quartet's complete string quartets, long out of print and very hard to find; at least, I had them, lost them, and ever since (sob!) I can't find them.

Tzadik said...

Hello again scrap scrap scrappy scraps etc.
Yes love the Nonet here too.
Well, you are (potentially) in luck; I did buy those three discs waaay back when however-no clue as to where they are-I have a feeling they are in storage in one of several possible places. I too would love to revisit those versions! Btw it is the NorthEastern Label, and the Quartet is the "Portland". I also have the Naxos w. the 1/3/5th quartets (easier to find I should think) and a great Koch disc with quartets by Piston, Porter, and Barber. Also a double cd on VoxBox "American Quartets" which has Piston-another who-knows-where-I-put-em scenario though.. TZ

Scraps said...

I somehow knew it was the Portland Quartet, but I trusted a weird internet site before my memory. Never again!

(Actually, I will always trust anyone against my rotten memory now; I had an awful stroke six-plus years ago [at 44], etc; now I have Language Problems, for a start...)

Tzadik said...

Oh man I am so very sorry to hear this friend. I am only 10 years younger than you and I have friends my age/slightly older who have brain tumors (2) and also strokes (2). And there's no answer or explanation, the universe will not offer us one. Do you do any physical therapy (realize you may not need that at all) or language rehabilitation therapy? Kind regards TZ

Tzadik said...

Have had, that is

Scraps said...

I used to do both. It was slowly (agonizingly) getting better, but then I suffered a year later seizures (ain't that the way?), and that set me back, to the point where some of my condition was stuck. Anyway, about three or four years ago, I stopped getting better, and of course if you stop getting better, your insurance company stops paying, even with medicaid/medicare (I forget which I'm on).

It's all right though; most of it I'm used to. I still have music!

Scraps said...

And thank you.

Tzadik said...

But of course Scraps, indeed we must keep on keeping' on. Insurance Co.s are cruel heartless money machines, especially in the States. I have had my fair share of grief due to many pointless complications and straight up denial of services. I hope you have no issues getting your scripts filled these days. (medicaid is much more of a 'guarantee' compared to private shit insurance, so that's good) Music music music....yes self-medication can be the one bliss ;)

Best,

TZ