Escales (Ibert)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Escales ("Ports of Call") is a three-movement orchestral suite by Jacques Ibert. The music was inspired by several voyages the composer made in the years after the First World War. He did not originally give the three movements geographical titles, but they are now customarily headed "Rome–Palerme", "Tunis–Nefta" and "Valencia". Escales was an immediate success when premiered in Paris in 1924 and has remained one of Ibert's most popular works.
After distinguished naval service in the First World War – winning the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour[1] – Jacques Ibert resumed his interrupted musical career. In 1919 he sat for the Prix de Rome, France's most prestigious musical prize, and won it at the first attempt.[1] The prize brought with it two or three years' residence in and study at the Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome. Students were required to submit their new compositions to the Paris Conservatoire; Ibert's first submission from Rome was La Ballade de la Geôle de Reading a sombre orchestral piece inspired by Oscar Wilde's poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol. It was followed by an opera, Perseus and Andromeda and, in 1922–23, Escales.[2]
Before setting off for Rome, Ibert had married his fiancée, Rose-Marie Veber. They sailed to the Balearic Islands but Ibert was taken ill in Majorca and the couple returned to Paris. Nevertheless, Ibert jotted down some musical impressions.[3] In February 1921 the Iberts took a more extended sea trip, calling at various Mediterranean ports, before taking up residence in Rome. Ibert gathered more material during the cruise. The vibrancy and shimmering sunlight of Palermo in Sicily delighted him, and he invoked them in the tarantella rhythms of the first movement. The plaintive oboe melody of the second movement was transcribed from a chant he heard in Tunisia, and the third movement, inspired by Valencia, is an evocation of Spain in the tradition of Debussy and Ravel.[4] In a 1967 biography of Ibert, Gérard Michel wrote:
[T]he work is not the musical illustration of a particular cruise ... It is a sound synthesis of several journeys during which the composer endeavoured to transcribe his impressions in the best tradition of romantic and modern "poet-symphonists".[5]
Premiere
The first performance of Escales was given on 6 January 1924 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris by the Lamoureux Orchestra conducted by Paul Paray.[6]