Hiller: Kakadu Overture

[mikehopf]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sp9rOq3PvI

Just chanced upon this delightful overture by Ferdinand Hiller.

[tpaloj]

Thanks mikehopf, strictly speaking not a recording yet, at least a real one. I just love this Overture! I went to the little extra trouble to make the score and parts which are on IMSLP in order to make it more accessible to performers...

As far as I know "Prinz Papagei" is the only incidental music by Hiller. It was composed during his very productive period of 1870s, during which Hiller had turned his attention to orchestral music after focusing on operas for the better part of the 1850-60s (none of Hiller's operas gained traction or success). This 1870s period saw the composition of many large scale pieces such as his Violin Concerto, cantatas, Piano Concerto 3 and the Symphony in C major among other things.

"Prinz Papagei" consists of this Overture plus 22 numbered sections and a few unnumbered short cues. Full manuscript digitized by GUF.

Text of the play in German which was written by Carl August Görner.

[Mark Thomas]

As Mike wrote, it's delightful. The shade of Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream hovers very near. Thank you Tuomas.

[semloh]

Does anyone know where the title "Kakadu" comes from?

[tpaloj]

Does anyone know where the title "Kakadu" comes from?

Carl August von Görner's play "Prinz Papagei" that this Overture was composed for features a prince turned into a parrot because he kept talking too much. I'm guessing calling it Kakadu-Ouverture was just Hiller's fancy. Besides the name, there's no connection to Offenbach's Vert-vert "Kakadu" overture that I can hear.

...However, in the play the parrot the prince turned into was actually a lori, not a kakadu. So shouldn't it be called Lori-Overture? Surely an unpardonable oversight by Hiller, this.

[eschiss1]

Does it use the same theme Beethoven varied?

[tpaloj]

No, there's no relation to Beethoven's Kakadu, Eric.