Within the group of so-called minor composers, who have always flourished – just saying – in all styles and at all times, the French composer Paul Dukas is the one who took the cake. Today, he is remembered for only one work that is better known than he himself is. In this withdrawal from the public's favor, it must be said, the composer played an outstanding role: driven by a severe sense of self-criticism, he destroyed a large part of his work, which in his opinion was not worth publishing.
In 1888, at the age of 23, he left the Paris Conservatory – which he had entered six years earlier – after considering it useless to continue trying to win the famous Prix de Rome, which was becoming more and more elusive. However, he was not so far from it because he once won the Second Prize with one of his early works. But around the same time, he had to undergo military service, another reason to leave the Conservatory, compulsory this time.
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| Paul Dukas (1865 - 1935) |
After serving his country he returned to civilian life as a composer and critic. A few years later, he was to compose his two best-known orchestral works: the Symphony in C major of 1896 and the symphonic poem The Sorcerer's Apprentice of 1897, gaining with it the recognition of his peers. The latter is a scherzo for orchestra based on a Goethe poem of the same name published a hundred years earlier. Although the work was immediately included in the repertoire of the conductors of the time, its recognition by the ordinary public was greatly favored by its inclusion in the soundtrack of the film Fantasia, shot in 1940, five years after the composer's death.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
A genuine embodiment of programmatic music, the play faithfully describes each scene of Goethe's original work, where a young apprentice, wishing to imitate his master, an old magician, enchants a broom to perform for him the assigned tasks, among them, carrying water, a situation that gets out of hand when he realizes that he does not know how to stop the enchantment. Only the return of his master will save him from disaster.
The rendition is by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. After a brief introduction, Dukas uses the bassoon to bring the enchanted broom to life.
