First Nights: Five Musical Premieres 《首演》

First NightsFive Musical PremieresThomas Forrest Kelly

• ok takes us back to the first performances of five famous musical compositions: Monteverdi’s Orfeo in 1607, Handel’s Messiah in 1742, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in 1824, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in 1830, and Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps in 1913. Thomas Forrest Kelly sets the scene for each of these premieres, describing the cities in which they took place, the concert halls, audiences, conductors, and musicians, the sound of the music when it was first performed (often with instruments now extinct), and the popular and critical responses. He explores how performance styles and conditions have changed over the centuries and what music can reveal about the societies that produce it.

Kelly tells us, for example, that Handel recruited musicians he didn’t know to perform Messiah in a newly built hall in Dublin; that Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was performed with a mixture of professional and amateur musicians after only three rehearsals; and that Berlioz was still buying strings for the violas and mutes for the violins on the day his symphony was first played. Kelly’s narrative, which is enhanced by extracts from contemporary letters, press reports, account books, and other sources, as well as by a rich selection of illustrations, gives us a fresh appreciation of these five masterworks, encouraging us to sort out our own late twentieth-century expectations from what is inherent in the music.

原作名: First Nights: Five Musical Premieres作者: [美] 托馬斯·F. 凱利《首演》

譯者: 沈祺

出版社: 商務印書館

出版年: 2011-2

頁數: 483

ISBN: 9787100068963

內容簡介

《首演》描述了五位西方音樂巨匠的五部代表作的首演情況，分別是蒙特威爾第的《奧菲俄》、亨德爾的《彌賽亞》、貝多芬的《第九交響曲》、柏遼茲的《幻想交響曲》以及斯特拉文斯基的《春之祭》。作者不僅細緻描繪了這幾部作品產生的文學背景、社會背景，並且大量引用了首演時的海報、評論文章、音樂家的通信等原始材料，對當時的娛樂場所、劇院形制、人們的欣賞習慣等進行了嚴謹的人文學研究。

目錄

序言

導言

第一章克勞迪奧·蒙特威爾第，《奧菲歐》

第二章喬治·弗里德里希·亨德爾《彌賽亞》

第三章路德維希·範·貝多芬《第九交響曲》

第四章赫克托爾·柏遼茲《幻想交晌曲》

第五章伊戈爾·斯特拉文斯基《春之祭》

結語

補充讀物

譯者跋