Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra after Keyboard Pieces by Couperin

The Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra after Keyboard Pieces by Couperin, Op. 86 is an orchestral suite composed by Richard Strauss published in 1942 which consists of eight movements, each one based on a selection of pieces from François Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin written for the solo harpsichord over the period 1713 to 1730.

Composition history

The bulk of the divertimento was written to complement the earlier 1923 [Tanzsuite aus Klavierstücken von François Couperin, TrV 245|Tanzsuite aus Klavierstücken von François Couperin, TrV 245|Dance Suite after Keyboard Pieces by Couperin] for a ballet Verklungene Feste: Tanzvisionen aus zwei Jahrhunderten premiered in Munich on May 20, 1941. The divertimento was then published in 1942 with two additional movements as an orchestral suite and given an opus number. The premiere was given on 31 January 1943 by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Clemens Krauss. Although much of the music for the divertimento was written for the ballet, Strauss wrote it with the end product of the divertimento in mind. In his note books he wrote on September 17, 1940 that he had completed "movements 1-3 of the Divertimento"; December 27 movements 4 and 5; September 12, 1941 the Divertimento was finished. Thus although there is a letter from Clemens Krauss on 13 August 1941 suggesting a "second Couperin suite", the "second suite" had been Strauss' intention for some time.
Norman Del Mar wrote of the Divertimento: "The juxtapositions, additions and reworkings to be found in the Divertimento are a little nearer in flavor to the original Couperin than the 1923 Dance Suite... Nevertheless, Strauss's procedure is not markedly different. Apart from generally filling in the textures with new and often elaborate counterpoints, the emphasis is still on abridging the original simple binary pieces by the omission of repeats or by lopping off the closing bars in favor of newly devised and extended codas".

Instrumentation

The Divertimento suite uses a chamber orchestra with the following instrumentation:

2 flutes, oboe, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons
2 horns, trumpet, trombone
Timpani
Percussion: bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, triangle
Harpsichord, organ, harp, celesta
Strings

This is a slightly larger orchestra than for the 1923 Dance Suite. In particular, the organ is added in II.1 and II.4 in part to provide a drone for the "bagpipe". The additional percussion and timpani are used together in movement V.1, whilst the triangle appears on its own in VIII.1 and the tambourine in VIII.2.

Recordings of the ''Divertimento''

There have been several recordings of this piece, some of which are listed in the table. There was also a recording by Clemens Krauss taken from a live radio broadcast issued on the Amadeo label in 1988 which is no longer available.

CD title	Orchestra and conductor	Reference
Arnold Schoenberg: Concerto For String Quartet And Orchestra ; Richard Strauss: Divertimento For Small Orchestra,	New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz	Nonesuch Records – B000063735
Munch conducts Romantic Favourites.	Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch	West Hill Radio Archive – WHRA6017
Ballet Suites after Couperin	Bamberg Symphony, Karl Anton Rickenbacher	Koch – 365352
Strauss: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Divertimento After Couperin	Orpheus Chamber Orchestra	Deutsche Grammophon 435871
Strauss: Verklungene Feste / Tanzsuite / Divertimento.	Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshi Wakasugi	Denon Records B00000DT02

''Bygone Celebrations: Dance Visions from Two Centuries''

The ballet Verklungene Feste: Tanzvisionen aus zwei Jahrhunderten for which the music from the divertimento was written was the idea of Clemens Krauss, the director of the Munich opera. Originally, he had envisaged the 1923 Dance Suite to be the first half with Strauss's Josephslegende being the second half. The choreographers Pia and Pino Mlakar had already choreographed the Dance Suite for a performance in 1936 and were given the task of creating a new version of Josephslegende. However, they suggested using Feuillet's Chorégraphie to reconstruct the choreography of the time of Couperin. Krauss wrote to Strauss "Mlakar has found the original choreography by famous dance masters from Couperin's time and wants to make use of it for the Couperin Suite. Now a question: would you be so kind as to expand the Couperin suite with two new dances should the need arise?" In the end, Strauss wrote several new dances and incidental music for the ballet.
In the final version there were six parts to the Bygone Celebrations which takes about 55 minutes to perform. The order of the music was as follows:
It can be seen that whilst the material form the 1923 Dance Suite was included as whole movements, the music used in the Divertimento was not played in the same order as it appeared in the ballet. For example, the second movement of the Divertimento appears as parts 2–4 in the Prelude, with parts 1 and 5 in "Flora and Zephyr" separate and in reverse order. Movements III and VIII of the Divertimento were not part of Bygone Celebrations, neither were parts of movement V.
The ballet was performed at the Munich opera 5 times on the 1940/41 season. Its premiere in France was in Paris 1947. When Pino Mlakar became the Ballet Director at the Munich opera, the ballet was performed around Bavaria in 1953 and 1954. The Yugoslav premiere was held in Dubrovnik in 1956. Portions of Bygone Celebrations were performed in Slovenia in December 2006 to mark Pino Mlakar's death, and March 2007 for the centenary of his birth
There are no recordings of the ballet as performed. There is a recording titled Verklungene Feste by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, but this is just the two pieces Dance Suite and Divertimento, not the original ballet score.