Chess (Madetoja)

The Finnish author Eino Leino (right), who was an avid chess player, wrote the one-act play Shakkipeli in 1909.

Chess premiered on 15 February 1910 in Helsinki at Finnish National Theatre. The occasion was a lottery soirée organized by the Association for Feeding Elementary School Children.[lower-alpha 3] As the musicologist Glenda Dawn Goss has written about turn-of-the-century Finland, such charitable evenings were common:

The faintly distasteful act of giving money to gamble for prizes was masked by the elaborate spectacle ... which proved to be an ideal device for raising money in support of national causes and ... promoting social cohesion and Finnish identity in a guise that the imperial censors would approve ... These entertainments ... with music, drama, dancing, drinking, and eating mingled with the fund-raising ... [comprised] lavish tableaux vivants in which key events from Finland's myths, landscapes, and history were colorfully dramatized ... Choruses, orchestras, and other musicians were brought to sing, play dance music, and perform new works, which the country's composers were prevailed upon to compose ... The very spectacle was enough to take one's breath away.[2]

The soirée opened with the Apostol's Concert Orchestra playing the overture from the opera The Merry Wives of Windsor (1849) by the German composer Otto Nicolai.[1] After this, the program included three short one-act stage works, the first of which was Leino's historical tableau Chess; Madetoja's incidental music, which he conducted and the Apostol performed, accompanied the pantomime divertissement (including dances choreographed by Maggie Gripenberg) in the middle of the play.[1] The finale of Chess included an additional musical number, albeit not by Madetoja: Jesu dulcis memoria a Christian hymn attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, which was sung backstage by the 40-member mixed choir Suomen Laulu.[1][3][lower-alpha 4] The next day, Hufvudstadsbladet characterized the score by "our promising young composer Leevi Madetoja" as "appealing and beautiful",[4] while and Uusi Suometar described its as "rich in atmosphere".[1]

Additional praise followed Madetoja's first composition concert in Helsinki on 26 September 1910, at which he conducted the Piano Trio and excerpts from the Symphonic Suite and Chess.[5] For example, Martin Wegelius wrote in Helsingin Sanomat: "Rarely it is possible to return from a first-timer's concert with such great feelings of satisfaction. Indeed very few of us Finns are equipped with such extensive spiritual gifts, that he is able to 'break through' with those so quickly, to conquer the audience in only one evening. Leevi Madetoja did it yesterday and did it in a way which can only be called unique."[5] The positive reviews did, however, contain a note of concern: given Madetoja's plans to travel to Paris for additional education, the critic Evert Katila of Uusi Suometar worried about the negative influence "French modern atonal composition" could have on "this fresh northern nature [Madetoja]".[5]

Leino's play is in one act; a pantomime divertissement occurs in the middle, during which Madetoja's music is played. As such, the only characters that interact with his score are the 32 chess pieces that the protagonist, Niilo Olavinpoika, has dreamt to life. The score lasts about 16 minutes.

Chess has been recorded commercially just once: