Should you find yourself in the Auteuil district of Paris, it’s likely for the tennis – Roland Garros is there – or football at the Parc des Princes. But in 1910, if you were about town late enough, you might have spotted a gang of ne’er-do-wells slinking up to the building at 3 rue de Civry, each of them whistling the same darkly Russian tune. The melody was from Borodin’s Symphony No 2, and it was the secret sign that allowed access to the house – headquarters to Les Apaches, a society of like-minded writers, artists and musicians, who met regularly to set the world to rights.
Of the musical bunch, Ravel was the prime force. Falla and Stravinsky flickered around the edges. All of them orbited Debussy, never himself a member, but still Les Apaches’ spiritual leader. Among the musicians was Florent Schmitt. He was a big deal at the time but slipped from favour, at least in part because of his association with the Vichy regime during World War II. He’s important, though, because his ballet The Tragedy of Salomé, which Orchestra Wellington performs in its excellent The Secret Society concert became Stravinsky’s template for The Rite of Spring.
“You can absolutely hear the inspiration Stravinsky derived from Schmitt,” says OW music director Marc Taddei. “Both works share an off-kilter dance to finish, and there’s this percussive, pounding ostinato that Stravinsky must have been inspired by.”
OW performs Salomé's symphonic suite – alongside music by Debussy, Ravel and Boulanger – rather than the full ballet. “We’re doing the suite because it’s louder,” grins Taddei. “The ballet is very beautiful but it was written for a small theatre and an orchestra of about 20, whereas [the OW performance] must be about 85 musicians.”
That number includes singers from Wellington’s The Tudor Consort, which has a brief but telling cameo. Another who pops up in spirit is Richard Strauss, whose opera Salome was just a couple of years old when Schmitt set to work; anyone who knows Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils will hear its orientalist echoes.
Strauss is performed often, but as far as Taddei has been able to figure, this is the first time The Tragedy of Salomé has been heard in Aotearoa. Is it worth reviving? Taddei believes so.
“I think it’s an important work bridging late Romanticism and early Modernism,” he says. “And let’s hear different things in the concert hall. We have to develop [the audience’s] trust and then deliver on that by saying, ‘You might not know this music but it’s fantastic. Have a listen, you won’t be disappointed.’”
Orchestra Wellington, The Secret Society, Michael Fowler Centre, September 28, 7.30pm.
