Bizet: L’Arlésienne Suite No. 1 & Suite No. 2

Back-up category

  • I. Pastorale
  • II. Intermezzo
  • III. Minuet
  • IV. Farandole

Nathalie Stutzmann/Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Suite No. 1

  • I. Prélude, Allegro deciso (the March of the Kings)
  • II. Minuet, Allegro giocoso (The ending of this movement is slightly expanded from the version in the incidental music.)
  • III. Adagietto (In the incidental music, this number is preceded and followed by a melodrama that, in the suite, forms the central section of the concluding Carillon. For this purpose it is transposed up a semitone.)IV. Carillon, Allegro moderato (Expanded as indicated above.)

Suite No. 2

  • I. Pastorale
  • II. Intermezzo
  • III. Minuet
  • IV. Farandole

Instruments:

  • two flutes (second doubling piccolo), oboe (also cor anglais), clarinet, two bassoons
    alto saxophone
  • two horns
  • timpani
  • tambourin (tambourin provençal not tambourine)
  • strings
  • offstage harmonium to accompany the choruses.

L’Arlésienne Suite No. 2, also written for full orchestra, was arranged and published in 1879, four years after Bizet’s death, by Ernest Guiraud, using Bizet’s original themes (although not all of them were from the L’Arlésienne incidental music). The second suite is generally credited to Bizet since he wrote the themes and the basic orchestration,

The suites have been recorded many times. There are at least two recordings of the complete incidental music for the play, one conducted by Albert Wolff[3] and another by Michel Plasson (who has also recorded both suites). Marc Minkowski has made a more recent nearly-complete recording on the Naive label.

 

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