Influenced by Berlioz, whom he had known in Paris, and the ‘Monster Concerts’ the Frenchman organized, Gottschalk
set about initiating his own. In 1857 he had begun a two-year concert tour of the West Indies with the fourteen-yearold
soprano prodigy Adelina Patti. Instead of returning to the States, Gottschalk remained in the Caribbean until 1862.
In the spring of 1859 he completed his first symphony, the first movement (‘Night in the tropics’) probably composed
in 1858, the second movement (‘Une Fete sous les tropiques’) the following year. The first movement was performed
in Havana in February 1860 and the complete work was given in the same city fourteen months later as part of one of
Gottschalk’s Monster Concerts.
The score, first recorded in 1971 in an edition by Igor Buketoff, calls for a total of one hundred and fifty players,
including a full symphony orchestra, an extra band and a host of extra percussion including bamboulas and other
Afro-Caribbean instruments.
The second movement is an extraordinary conception, probably the earliest symphonic setting of a samba and not
so very different from the Brazilian-inspired works of Darius Milhaud three-quarters of a century later. The Andante
is more European than tropical, heard here in an arrangement -
by the pianist Artur Napoleao (or Napoleon)
(1843–1925), born in Oporto of Italian-Portuguese parents.
A student of Thalberg and Herz in Paris, Napoleao
gave concerts with Gottschalk in Havana in 1860, after three years of successful tours of South America and the
United States. He settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1867 where he founded a publishing firm. Artur Rubinstein, in his
autobiography My Many Years, recalled that Napoleao ‘at the ripe age of ninety-eight [more likely seventy-eight]
played for me, with astonishing precision, a piece by Gottschalk’.
Frenchman organized, Gottschalk
set about initiating his own. In 1857 he had begun a two-year concert tour of the West
Indies with the fourteen-yearold
soprano prodigy Adelina Patti. Instead of returning to the States, Gottschalk remained in
the Caribbean until 1862.
In the spring of 1859 he completed his first symphony, the first movement (‘Night in the
tropics’) probably composed
in 1858, the second movement (‘Une Fete sous les tropiques’) the following year. The
first movement was performed
in Havana in February 1860 and the complete work was given in the same city fourteen
months later as part of one of
Gottschalk’s Monster Concerts.
The score, first recorded in 1971 in an edition by Igor Buketoff, calls for a total of
one hundred and fifty players,
including a full symphony orchestra, an extra band and a host of extra percussion
including bamboulas and other
Afro-Caribbean instruments.
The second movement is an extraordinary conception, probably the earliest symphonic
setting of a samba and not
so very different from the Brazilian-inspired works of Darius Milhaud three-quarters of a
century later. The Andante
is more European than tropical, heard here in an arrangement -
by the pianist Artur Napoleao (or Napoleon)
(1843–1925), born in Oporto of Italian-Portuguese parents.
A student of Thalberg and Herz in Paris, Napoleao
gave concerts with Gottschalk in Havana in 1860, after three years of successful tours of
South America and the
United States. He settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1867 where he founded a publishing firm.
Artur Rubinstein, in his
autobiography My Many Years, recalled that Napoleao ‘at the ripe age of ninety-eight
[more likely seventy-eight]
played for me, with astonishing precision, a piece by Gottschalk’.