Borodin, Steppes of Central Asia and Polovtsian Dances - Ankara Kent Filarmoni Orkestrası/James Ross

Alexander Borodin (1833-87), In the Steppes of Central Asia and Polovtsian Dances (Prince Igor) - Ankara Kent Filarmoni Orkestrası; James Ross, conductor.

Borodin was the son of a Georgian prince, and many of his works, including his only opera Prince Igor and his ‘musical picture’ In the Steppes of Central Asia, show a fascination with the Caucasus and beyond. Composed in 1880 and dedicated to Franz Liszt, In the Steppes was intended for an unrealised ‘tableau vivant’ as part of the celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of Tsar Alexander II’s reign, but soon became a popular concert hall work independent from its original conception.

In the silence of the monotonous steppes of Central Asia the unfamiliar sound of a peaceful Russian song is heard. From the distance we hear the approaching tramp of horses and camels and the melancholy sounds of an Oriental melody. A native caravan approaches, escorted by Russian soldiers, and continues safely on its way through the immense desert. It disappears slowly. The notes of the Russian and Asiatic melodies join in a common harmony, which dies away as the caravan disappears in the distance.

Alexander II had presided over substantial Russian imperial expansion into Central Asia, but Borodin does not seem to have been making any profound political point: in musical terms the two main melodies, Russian and ‘Oriental’, interact harmoniously as equals.

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Borodin’s professional life was dominated by an internationally distinguished career as a chemist, which helps explain his limited compositional output. His opera Prince Igor, was started in 1869 and remained unfinished at his death in 1887. It was completed posthumously by Glazunov and by Rimsky-Korsakov who, simultaneously, was composing his ‘symphonic suite’ Scheherazade.

The opera’s libretto, written by the composer, is based on the ancient Russian epic Song of Igor’s Campaign, set in 1185 during wars between the Kyivan Rus Empire and the Turkic nomadic Polovtsï. Prince Igor of Seversk and his son Vladimir have been taken prisoner by the Polovtsian Khan Konchak, who holds them in comfortable captivity. These two dances frame Act Two, set in the Polovtsian camp on the Central Asian steppe. In the first, Polovtsian maidens entertain their prisoners with singing and drinking. The second is more elaborate: Konchak has proposed a military alliance with Igor, who has rejected it. Words having failed, Konchak’s men celebrate their Khan’s power, while he unleashes the charms of his court on his captive prince.

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