Marshall's Civic Band

    Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-?) is one of those talented but frustrated gentlemen 
whose art is necessarily at the service of Soviet Russia.  In freer days he 
wrote some good music, being a man of strong creative impulse, marked talent, 
and intelligence. 
    The overture to "Colas Breugnon" is the prelude to an opera which Kabalevsky 
wrote in 1937 - an opera called "The Master Of Clamecy", the book of which was 
derived from the novel by Romain Rolland, "Colas Breugnon, Burgundian". 
    Romain Rolland, on revisiting the particular part of France where he was 
born, was overcome with a keen desire to write a story about his friends and 
neighbors in Burgundy.  He says, "I felt an absolute need for something gay, in 
the true Gallic spirit - even, perhaps, verging on impropriety."  So M. Rolland 
wrote a delightful tale full of bawdy humor and homespun philosophy.  Colas 
Breugnon is a kind of Frenchified version of Robin Hood, but touched, perhaps, 
with a certain decadence which some people regard as peculiarly French. 
    Such a subject probably appealed strongly to the Soviet composer, but 
whether or not Kabalevsky cared about the political implications, he did make a 
piece shich appeals strongly to capitalistic American conductors.  The overture 
to "Colas Breugnon, Master of Clamecy" is a gay, almost Mozartian piece, 
delicate, sophisticated, stntimental, ironical, and utterly delightful. 
Kabalevsky's opera means nothing and itl life is already spent, but the 
overture, like some of the overtures of Mozart, will probably live for a while, 
as will any music that is gay, intriguing, delightful.