Andrés Orozco-Estrada
- The Death of Andrei
- The Death of Ostap
- The Prophecy and Death of Taras Bulba
Jiří Bělohlávek
Instruments:
- piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 1st doubling Eb clarinet), 3 bassoons, contrabassoon
- 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba
- timpani, snare drum, suspended cymbal (played with snare drum sticks), triangle, bells, harp
- organ
- strings
Rhapsody:
Taras Bulba is a rhapsody for orchestra. Janáček described the piece as a “rhapsody” and chose three episodes from Gogol’s story to portray in this programmatic work.
History:
The first version of the work was finished on 2 July 1915, but Janáček later revised it and made substantial changes. The second, almost complete, version was finished on 29 March 1918. Taras Bulba was premiered at the National Theatre in Brno on 9 October 1921, conducted by František Neumann. In 1927 the full score was published with further changes.
1st movement: The Death of Andrei
This focuses on the Cossack Taras Bulba’s younger son, who falls in love with the daughter of a Polish general. Andrei fights on the side of the Poles, but when his father nears him in the battle, he realizes his treachery, and lowers his head to be killed by Taras Bulba himself.
2nd movement: The Death of Ostap
The second movement, The Death of Ostap, focuses on Taras Bulba’s older son, who is overcome with grief by Andrei’s death. He is captured by the Poles during the battle and hauled off to Warsaw for torture and execution.
3rd movement: The Prophecy and Death of Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is eventually captured in a battle on the Dnieper River, but before he is burned to death by the Polish army, he issues a defiant prophecy: “
Do you think that there is anything in the world that a Cossack fears? Wait; the time will come when you shall learn what the orthodox Russian faith is! Already the people sense it far and near. A Tsar shall arise from Russian soil, and there shall not be a power in the world which shall not submit to him!”