Valdez
Hill, Piano
Toccata,
Adagio, and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564 is an organ composition
by Johann Sebastian Bach, written in 1708 in Weimar. The autograph
score simply bears the title "Toccata in C Major", but the
piece has become known exclusively by this title. It is unique among
Bach's organ works in interpolating a slow section between the prelude
and fugue, although he had apparently been toying with the idea for
years - the Prelude and Fugue in C Major BWV 545 exists in an alternate
early version (transposed down to B-flat major) with what later turned
up as the slow movement from the C major organ sonata. Apart from
its florid, quasi-improvised opening, the toccata almost entirely
eschews the virtuosity typically associated with the genre, instead
focusing very intently on the contrapuntal development of a few short
motives treated in concertato style, with alternation between full
and comparatively sparse textures corresponding to the tutti and solo
groups of a concerto grosso. The Adagio is written in
two very different sections. The first features a gentle, aria-like
melody in the right hand over a simple chordal accompaniment; the
second, and much shorter, section, marked Grave, emphasizes chromatic
progressions, suspensions, and dissonances. The fugue is built on
a striking, strongly violinistic subject in 6/8, and returns to the
concerto-like style of the toccata, with very free, brilliant episodes
and a virtuosic cadenza at the very end. Busoni wrote a well-known
transcription for the piano.
Franz Liszt
- Funerailles (Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses-Poetic and
Religious Harmonies) written in 1849 upon the death
of Frederick Chopin, was a dear friend of Liszt. This devout, almost
symphonic piece is a eloquent lament for a lost friend and is considered
one of Liszt great masterpieces. The opening theme (open the gates
of heaven for I have arrived: a Hero has arrived) This is a dramatic
testament to the prophetic genius of Liszt as he salutes his lost
friend and rages against death and the striking down of a hero. The
middle section March is a tribute and more detailed version of Chopin's
Polonaise in A Flat. Liszt also had in mind and secondary statue to
the fallen leaders of the Hungarian uprising in his home country.
Six leaders, who Liszt considered heroes, were murdered by the countries
oppressors.
Additional Notes:
Funérailles, have established itself in the core repertoire
of many pianist. A monumental (in both senses) and heroic elegy, subtitled
'Octobre 1849', this is a magnificent tribute to the memory of those
who died in the failed Hungarian uprising in that month (including
acquaintances of Liszt's), specifically the Hungarian prime minister
Lajos Batthyány and thirteen of his generals, whose mass execution
on 6 October 1849 seems to have been the catalyst for the composition.
Coincidentally, this was also the month that Chopin died, and it soon
became an established Romantic fiction that Funérailles was
Liszt's musical memorial to the Pole, an idea reinforced by the apparent
reference in the work's fourth section to the rotating left-hand octaves
of Chopin's A flat major Polonaise Op 53. Perhaps Liszt, whether consciously
or subconsciously, threaded in this reference as a complementary tribute
to his respected friend and peer. Either way, Liszt was quite explicit
about the Hungarian origin of the work, and indeed the title of the
first sketch was 'Magyar'. From the opening tolling bells, resonating
from the depths of the instrument's range, to the succeeding minor-key
lament and major-key poignancy, this is a work of almost palpable
anguish and utmost nobility. The culmination of the octave storm Liszt
builds is achieved without any over-inflated bombast; rhetorical and
dramatic gesture is a key part of Liszt's musical language, and in
Funérailles such physicality brings a powerful immediacy to
the music's emotional force.
La Valée
d'Obermann (The Valley of Obermann) Années de
Pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage" or "Years
of Travel"). Suisse is comprised of nine pieces, each inspired
by scenes or moods associated with Liszt's Swiss travels. Années
de Pèlerinage is a set of three suites by Franz Liszt for solo
piano. Liszt's complete musical style is evident in this masterwork,
which ranges from virtuosic compositions to sincerely moving emotional
statements. His musical maturity can be seen evolving through his
experience and travel. The third volume is especially notable as an
example of his later style: it was composed well after the first two
volumes and displays more harmonic experimentation. When Franz Liszt
was 23 years old and involved in what was considered a scandalous
relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult, he left Paris for Basel
in June 1835 to begin a series of sojourns over the next four years
with his paramour. Switzerland, with Geneva as a base, was the first
country, followed by a return to France, then on to Italy.
Vallée d'Obermann comes from an earlier collection
called Album d'un Voyageur (1835-36), and portrays the
sights and sounds of nature in Switzerland. The sixth and the longest
piece from the collection (15 Minutes), this set of nine pieces is
based on Liszt's impressions of the sights and sounds of his stay
in Switzerland during 1835-36. In spite of its title (Vallée
d'Obermann), this piece is not the musical representation of a Swiss
landscape, but an emotional experience inspired by the French writer
Etienne Pivert de Sénancour's Obermann (1804), a popular romantic
novel of the time. Vallée d'Obermann may be the most profound
work in the collection. A melancholy theme establishes the mood here
to depict not just a locale, but also the eponymous character in the
novel. Cast in three sections, the piece
contains themes that are beautiful, transforming from sadness and
gloomy pensiveness at the outset which leads into a middle section
in which it is transformed into a theme of great beauty, evoking emotions
of ardor and yearning. The final section that closes the piece in
a triumphant manner, with fiery chord passages and double octaves,
but with a hint of the initial sadness and solitude expressed with
the return to the original descending pattern at the very end
It is a philosophical not emotional triumph that Liszt arrives at
in the end. Obermann is a novel without a plot: it is a collection
of letters written by an imaginary solitary and melancholy character,
most likely autobiographical, from a lonely valley of the Jura Alps.
Liszt's treatment reflects the sentimental nature of this novel and
the melancholy and solitude of its protagonist. Années de Pèlerinage
was published in 1855, and a later reprint included a quotation from
Sénancour, and also verses from Lord Byron's narrative poem
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III 97, as the epigraph to the sixth
piece. This quotation expresses the stark mood of Vallée d'Obermann
in terms of the inner struggles of Byron's character:
"Could I embody and unbosom now. That which is most within
me, --could I wreak
My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw. Soul, heart, mind, passions,
feelings, strong or weak,All that I would have sought, and all I seek,
Bear, know, feel and yet breathe --into one word,And that one word
were Lightning, I would speak;But as it is, I live and die unheard,
With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword."
Published in 1855. Nos. 1-4, 6, 8 and 9 are revisions, composed 1848-1854,
of pieces in the cycle Album d'un voyageur, composed 1835-1836 and
published in 1842.
Chapelle de Guillaume Tell (William Tell's Chapel)
Au Lac de Wallenstadt (At the Lake of Wallenstadt)
Pastorale
Au Bord d'une Source (Beside a Spring)
Orage (Storm)
Vallée d'Obermann (Obermann's Valley)
Eglogue (Eclogue
Le Mal du Pays (Homesickness)
Les cloches de Genève: Nocturne (The Bells of Geneva: Nocturne
Charmes
(1920/1) They are literally 'spells' which are conjured up
for A specific purposes: 'to alleviate suffering' ... 'to penetrate
the soul' ... 'to inspire love' ... 'to effect a cure' ... 'to evoke
an image of the past' ... 'to call up joy'.
What is unusual about Mompou here is his penchant for slow tempos:
only the fifth, "Pour évoquer l'image du passé,"
has anything approaching a lively tempo. The set's first work, "Pour
endormir la souffrance," features simple harmonies and a playful,
long-breathed Debussyian theme that is heard four times, after which
the piece quietly ends. The ensuing "Pour pénétrer
les âmes" is glacial in its slow-moving manner. It is more
about atmosphere than melody, textures than structure. The music sounds
from a haze, gloomy and floating, amid dark gray clouds. The third,
"Pour inspirer l'amour," sounds relatively lively by contrast;
its middle section, in fact, exhibiting much cheer and a measure of
animation in its bell-ringing sonorities. The outer sections are sedate
and lovely in their Satie-tinged barrenness. "Pour les guérisons"
presents a theme whose similarity to Chopin's famous Funeral March
is obvious. It is as if Satie took the theme, bleached it of its ominous
drama, slowed its fateful tread, and distorted its balanced contour,
the whole sounding ethereal, dark, and weird. The aforementioned "Pour
évoquer l'image du passé" is bright and playful,
with notes swirling around an attractive though emotionally neutral
theme. The central episode features dramatic, Debussyian chords, which
quickly yield back to a gentle reprise of the main theme. The last
piece, "Pour appeler la joie," begins with a lively bright
theme, but then slows its pace, never regaining its lost momentum.
All these works are fairly direct, featuring piano writing whose textures
are light and whose challenges to the performer are modest. Each piece
lasts between one and three minutes, the whole collection having a
duration of ten to twelve minutes.
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Six Moments Musicaux is a sophisticated
work that is of longer duration, thicker textures, and greater virtuosic
demands on the performer than any of Rachmaninoff's previous solo
piano works. It is similar to Alexander Scriabin's momentous Étude
in D-sharp minor (Op. 8, No. 12)-in both compositions detail is more
functional than ornamentative in their musical argument. It is here,
rather than in Morceaux de Fantaisie (Op. 3, 1892) or Morceaux de
Salon (Op. 10, 1894), that Rachmaninoff places specific qualities
of his own playing into his music. There is passionate lyricism in
numbers three and five, but the others require a pianist with virtuoso
technique and musical perception. The set is inspired by Franz Schubert's
piano cycle, also called Six Moments Musicaux (Op. 94, 1828).
Andante Cantabile in B minor No. 3
The entire Andante Cantabile has low, dark, and thick melodies reminiscent
of a funeral march. This piece is described as a mixture between the
song without words and funeral march genres to create what is called
"the most Russian" piece of the set, containing both sonorous
bass and a solid melody, characteristics of Russian music. Comprising
only 55 measures, this piece is one of the shortest but has one of
the longer playing times of about seven minutes. The piece is structured
as a three-part form. The theme of the first section is played entirely
in minor thirds, accompanied by a left hand figure of open fifths
and octaves. The middle section has the melody in minor sixths, alongside
a staccato octave bass. The lament of the opening theme transforms
into an explicit funeral march as the left-hand octaves become regular.
Musica Callada (Music of Silence or Music
without Sound)
The title of Mompou's masterpiece Musica Callada comes from
the Cantico Espiritual of the Spanish mystic, St John of the Cross,
where the expression Musica Callada (music without sound) is complemented
by soledad sonora (solitude that clamours). Mompou's music is highly
personal and original, and instantly recognizable for its apparent
childlike simplicity and gently dissonant harmonic flow and sublime
melodicism. He avoided any unnecessary clutter or rambling in his
music, preferring to condense the music down to its barest and purest
of expressive means He often would spend weeks or even months over
a single melody line or pharse. Mompou often set traditional Catalan
melodies, using his highly original harmonic language, and with some
occasional jazzy rhythmic figures. Indeed, the harmonies were often
quite jazzlike and seem to have been "ahead of their time".
Such as his "Music Callada", (1959 -1967) which has a blend
of classical and jazz elements. One can just sit back and take in
the various layers of this deceptively simple music. Mompou also would
take a melody line and repeat it several time and just end the piece.
In this way, he felt the listener could walk away and finish the piece
base on there own life feeling and interpretation.
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Mayumi
Pierce
Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.
64 is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part
of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most
frequently performed violin concertos of all time. Mendelssohn had
originally promised a violin concerto in 1838 to Ferdinand David,
a close friend who was a talented violinist. However, the work took
another six years to complete and was not premiered until the following
year in 1845. The work itself was one of the first violin concertos
of the Romantic era and was influential to the compositions of many
other composers. Although the concerto consists of three movements
in a standard fast-slow-fast structure and each movement follows
a traditional form, the concerto was innovative and included many
novel features for its time. Distinctive aspects of the concerto
include the immediate entrance of the violin at the beginning of
the work and the linking of the three movements with each movement
immediately following the previous one.
The concerto was initially well received and soon became regarded
as one of the greatest violin concertos of all time. The concerto
remains popular and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto
for all aspiring concert violinists to master, and usually one of
the first Romantic era concertos they learn. Many professional violinists
have recorded the concerto and the work is regularly performed in
concerts and classical music competitions.
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Program notes for Albeniz, Chopin, Shankar and O'Carolan:
1) Malaguena by Issac Albeniz,
a Spanish composer from the 19th century, is known chiefly for
his piano compositions, some of which have become famous as classical
guitar transcriptions.
2)Andante Spianato by Frederick Chopin
was one of the most important composers of the 19th century
for having developed and perfected the romantic style of music.
Dan Reiter's transcriptions of Chopin's piano music are carefully
chosen for being sonorous and flowing on the harp, combined with
the rich, melodic capabilities of the cello.
3. Sonata No. 1 - Cello & Harp
by Ravi Shankar was composed in 1998 for Mstislav
Rostropovich. The Sonata is in the form of a classical Indian
raga (a series of notes following various rules of movement),
one that begins with a low, out -of - time improvisation, and
a faster in- tempo exploration of the raga. As well as being the
foremost sitar virtuoso in the world, Ravi Shankar is well known
for his compositions for film, Chamber works for violinist Yehudi
Menuhin and concertos for sitar and orchestra.
4. Faery Queen and O'Carolan's Concerto
by Turlough O'Carolan.
This ancient Irish melody is older than O' Carolan although it
is attributed to him. O' Carolan's contribution was adding variations
to the tune and new original material.
One of O' Carolan's most famous pieces, the so-called "Concerto"
was one of many attempts at writing in the style of his contemporaries.
Handel and Geminiani. this piece has been "messed - with
" by many a composer and arranger, Dan Reiter included. Here
he tries to keep the piece sounding as Baroque as possible.
Steve
Wedgwood
Steve Wedgwood, Baritone, with Bob Fowler, Piano
Selections from La Bonne Chanson Gabriel
Fauré
(poems of Paul Verlaine) (1845-1924)
1. A Saint in her halo. The poet hears all the qualities contained
in her noble and ancient name.
2. Because dawn is spreading. Day and new hope inspire the poet. He
asks for no other paradise than to walk with her and sing to her
3. The pale moon gleams. A nocturnal scene of melancholy and peace.
6. Before you depart, pale morning star. He projects shining thoughts
of love into her dreams while the night awakens into glorious day.
7. So it will be, on a clear summer day. The sun among her garments
makes her even more beautiful and heightens their sense of joy and
anticipation. The evening stars peacefully bless their union.
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Bob
Fowler
Six Moments Musicaux-Presto
in E minor No.4
The fourth piece reveals resemblance to Chopin's Revolutionary étude
in the taxing left hand figure place throughout. Further it looks,
sounds, and feels as if it were an improvisation on Chopin's Prelude
in G major (Op. 28, No. 3). The piece is 67 measures long, with a
duration of about three minutes, and has the fastest tempo of the
set, Presto (quick) and is the shortest work in terms of playing time.
The piece begins with a fortissimo introduction with a thick texture
in the left hand consisting of chromatic sextuplets. The melody is
a "rising quasi-military" idea, interspersed between replications
of the left hand figur the mostly two-note melody being a strong unifying
element. The middle section is a brief period of pianississimo falling
figures in the right hand and rising scales in the left. The third
section is marked Più vivo (More life) and is played even faster
than the intro The ending, a coda in Prestissimo (very quick), 116
quarter notes per minute, is a final, sweeping reiteration of the
theme that closes in a heavy E minor chord,[14] which revisits Rachmaninoff's
preoccupation with bell sounds, prominent in his Piano Concerto No.
2 and Prelude in C-sharp minor (Op. 3, No. 2). The piece is a major
exercise in endurance and accuracy: the introduction opens in a left
hand figure requiring span of a tenth interval. Additionally, octave
intervals invariably appear before fast sextuplet runs, making quick
wrists and arm action necessary. The double melodies Rachmaninoff
uses in this work exists purposely to "keep both hands occupied",
obscuring the melody and making it difficult for the right hand to
project. This is the only piece in the set with indicated pedal markings.
Franz Liszt- Un Sospiro
Trois Études de Concert (Three Concert Etudes No.3).
It is also sometimes referred to as Etude No. 39, and is a piano solo
in D-flat major.The etude is a study in crossing hands, playing a
simple melody with alternating hands, and arpeggios. It is also a
study in the way hands should affect the melody with its many accentuations,
or phrasing with alternating hands.The etude is s extremely difficult
to count its four beats to every measure because the underlying harmony
has a varying amount of notes per bar; usually it is around 28, but
sometimes it rises to 32 or more, and also comes to uneven numbers
at times, unsynchronizing the harmony from the pulse occasionally.
Its melody is quite dramatic, almost Impressionistic, radically changing
in dynamics at times, and has inspired many listeners. Un Sospiro
consists of a flowing background superimposed by a simple melody.
The background alternates between the left and right hands in such
a way that for most of the piece, while the left hand is playing the
harmony, the right hand is playing the melody, and vice versa, with
the left hand crossing over the right as it continues the melody for
a short while before regressing again. This etude, along with the
other Trois Etudes, was written in dedication to Liszt's uncle, Eduard
Liszt (1817-1879), the youngest son of Liszt's grandfather and the
stepbrother of his own father. Eduard handled Liszt's business affairs
for more than thirty years until his death in 1879.
Mephisto Waltz by Franz Liszt-Gino Tagliapietra
Mefisto Valzer (Mephisto Waltz) arranged by Ferruccio Busoni (Gino
Tagliapietra) The Mephisto Waltzes are four waltzes composed by Franz
Liszt in 1859-62, 1880-81, 1883 and 1885. Nos. 1-2 were composed for
orchestra, later arranged for piano, piano duet and two pianos, whereas
3 and 4 were written for piano only. Of the four, the first is the
most popular and has been frequently performed in concert and recorded.
The Waltz is a typical example of program music, taking for its
program an episode from Faust, not by Goethe but by Nikolaus Lenau
(1802-50). The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau,
appears in the printed score of the Mephisto Waltz No. 1:
Liszts Notes:
There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music,
dancing, carousing. Mephistopheles and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles
induces
Faust to enter and take part in the festivities. Mephistopheles snatches
the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it
indescribably
seductive and intoxicating strains. The amorous Faust whirls about
with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in
mad abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods. The
sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightengale warbles
his love-laden song.
Transcribe Version- The poet transplants us to a couintry
tavern where peasants are dancing merrily to the strains of a little
band. enter Mephistopheles and Faust. the latter spies a beautiful
girl adn eager to possess her, ask Mephi,stopheles to help him. the
Devil consents and seizing a violin from one of the players, he breaks
into a sensual waltz, the passionate throbs of which drive Faust and
the maiden forth from the tavern. the two, caught in the tolis of
irresistable love disappear into the woods.
Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke (The Dance in the
Village Inn) is the second of two short works he wrote for orchestra.
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Carlo
del Conte, Tenor
O Magnum Mysterium
is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas. A number
of composers have reworked the chant into a contemporaneous setting;
the settings by Byrd, Victoria, Gabrieli, Palestrina, Poulenc, Harbison,
Sinigaglio, and Lauridsen are particularly notable.
Latin
text
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile,
sacramentum,
ut animalia um cujus viscera
meruerunt.
portare Dominum
portare dominUm Christum.
Alleluia. AllelUia.
Domine, audivi auditum tuum et timui: consideravi opera tua, et expavi,
et expavi in medio. duum animalium
English translation
O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!
Vieni
Sul Mar
This is a traditional Italian song that has received considerable
attention, though in the early and mid-twentieth century it was widely
performed, even appearing in films, including a popular 1945 Three
Stooges' short Micro-Phonies, where it was sung by the dead-serious
Gino Corrado, whose performance was thoroughly sabotaged by the fruit-tossing
Stooges.
The opening of the song is charming and offers
a sense of the music blossoming, developing toward some greater expression
of beauty. It is a sort of prelude for the big theme, which comes
with the title words, Vieni Sul Mar (Come to the Sea). Here the music
soars, rising to a heavenly brightness before gliding joyously downward,
filled with a sense of passion. The text tells of a love-struck sailor
who entreats his sweetheart to come out with him on the sea to "feel
your sailor's ecstasy!"
Renaissance (1450-1599)
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Chris
Erwin, Piano
Selections of Jazz improvisations and standards.
Chopin
- Mazurka in C, Opus 56 No. 2
A mazurka is a stylized Polish folk dance in triple meter with a
lively tempo that has a heavy accent on the third or second beat.
Chopin - Ballade in F, Opus 38
The Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38
is the second of the four ballades for piano solo by Frédéric
Chopin. It was composed from 1836 to 1839 in Nohant, France and
on the Spanish island of Majorca. Chopin dedicated this work to
Robert Schumann, who had dedicated his Kreisleriana, Op. 16 to Chopin.
Although the term "Ballade" usually suggests a poetic
or dramatic narrative, Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) viewed his ballades
as purely musical narratives. The four Ballades were composed between
1831 and 1842. These works are the product of a superb craftsman
and an inventive musical intellect. Within the four pieces there
is an astonishingly varied musical palette. The First Ballade (1831-35)
alternates two lyrical, passionate themes. The Second Ballade (1832-34)
is dedicated to Robert Schumann. A strong sense of contrast ensues
between a lilting theme and the stormy musical motif that interrupts
it. Here Chopin introduces new concluding material as well as a
poetic reference to earlier themes. Chopin introduces new ideas
in the stormy coda but with a sense of musical inevitability. This
is Chopin - the poet, the Romanticist, the pianistic visionary!
The second section of the ballade opens with a dramatic A minor
arpeggioed outburst marked "presto con fuoco" ("fast
with fire"). Although clearly differing in tempo and key,
these two contrasting sections are actually united through subtle
melodic and rhythmic variations of the initial motif. The ballade
concludes with a recapitulation of the "presto con fuoco"
section; this time in D minor and races into a coda in the dominant
A minor key. Suddenly, it stops, and the opening barcarolle-like
melody is briefly echoed, this time in a minor key. The ballade
concludes, never returning to its tonic key of F major.
Rubinstein interpreted this piece as "Flower-Storm-Flower",
with the Flower broken at the end. A typical performance
of this ballade usually lasts seven to eight minutes.
Eric Anderson, Piano
Ballade No. 2 in B minor. Immortalised
by Chopin, Liszt too wrote a Ballade. One of his most powerful
and finest piano works, the Ballade was finished in 1853 but he
revised the ending and was only published in 1854. Sacherverell
Sitwell found in the work “great happenings on an epic scale,
barbarian invasions, and cities in flames – tragedies of public,
rather than private import”. It is fully narrative and programmatic
and explores subtle methods of thematic transformation to achieve
a range of evocative moods, bounded by their motivic similarity.
This Ballade opens with a darkly chromatic rumble accompaniment
and a scalic voice line and contrasted by an ‘Allegretto’
theme in chords. He then repeats a semitone lower in B flat minor.
The powerful broken octaves, fast scalic passages and the attractive
‘aria’ line are highlights of the piece.
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Women's
Antique Vocal Ensemble -WAVE
O virgo
splendens
O virgin resplendent on this high mountain
Miraculous glowing wonders
Where faithful of all lands climb
Eye of love and gentleness
Behold those caught in the bonds of sin
Le the burden of hell pass over them
Let them be blessed by your prayerful intercession.
Program selections and translations
available for viewing ro download. (PDF)
Click
Here
Rocky
Nevin, Piano
The Nocturne
& Chopin
The nocturne is generally credited to John Field, an Irish composer
and pianist, who published his first three nocturnes in 1814. These
romantic character pieces are written in a somewhat melancholy style,
with an expressive, dreamy melody over broken-chord accompaniment.
The majority of Chopin's nocturnes adopt a simple A-B-A form. The
A part is usually in a dreamy bel canto style, whereas the B part
is of a more dramatic content. In distinction of melody, wealth
of harmony and originality of piano style, Chopin's nocturnes leave
Field's far behind. The similarity of Chopin's nocturnes to Bellini's
cavatinas (such as Casta diva from Norma) has often been noticed,
though there is little evidence of direct influence in either direction.
The nocturne is a mood piece "night music" by
its title. Most of Chopin's compositions make one think of love
in some aspect or another. Chopin wanted the listener to think of
rose gardens under the midnight moon, couples strolling with hands
intertwined and exchanging whispers of love.
Nocturne in C Minor, Op. 48 No. 1 -
Lento
The Nocturne in C minor, Op.48, No.1 is one of the grandest, in
terms of both size and nobility of expression, of all Chopin's character
pieces. This one reaches beyond the accepted domain of the nocturne:
its virtuoso piano writing is reminiscent of the ballades. Robert
Schumann reviewed both nocturnes of opus 48, but his admiration
was tinged with certain reservations. This piece was composed in
October 1841 and published in 1841/42; it is dedicated to Laura
Duperre.
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Timothy
Yee , Piano
The three Liebesträume,
(Dreams of Love), which Liszt also called notturnos
(nocturnes, in English), are based on the following three songs:
1. "Hohe Liebe," S. 307, to a text by Johann Ludwig Uhland
and probably composed in 1849, 2. "Gestorben war ich,"
S. 308, likewise Uhland and 1849, 3. "O Lieb, so lang du lieben
kannst," S. 298, with a text by Ferdinand Freiligrath and first
sketched by Liszt nearly six years before the other two. In the
piano versions, as in his other piano transcriptions, Liszt moves
in and out of the original musical text as he feels need to-here
is a passage virtually identical to the parallel one in the lied,
but over there is a far more soloistic episode that would seem altogether
out of place in a song. A handful of mini-cadenzas (of the type,
not coincidentally, found in Chopin's nocturnes) pop up in each
Liebestraum, usually to bridge one section of music to another.Two
of the S. 541 pieces, No. 1 and No. 3, are in the warm, ingratiating
key of A flat major, a favorite tonal location of nocturne composers.
No. 2 is set in E major. All are sewn from the smoothest melodic
silk and the kind of rich, semi-chromatic harmonies so beloved of
middle-Romantic composers. But it isn't hard to see, or rather hear,
why No. 3 is universally known and the other two are only infrequently
heard. Liszt's third Liebesträume eventually became so popular
and overplayed that by the mid-20th century pianists began dropping
it from their repertory. Though that trend eventually reversed,
the piece is still not as often performed as it once was.
Duo
ViVo, Valdez Hill & Verna Lim, Piano
Fantasy in F Minor for
Piano Four Hands, Op. 103
Piano duets are sometimes written off as living room entertainment.
Nothing could be further from the truth with Schubert's F Minor
Fantasy of 1828. It is one of the greatest piano works, not only
of the four-hand repertoire, but of Schubert's entire glorious output.
Within his short lifespan of 31 years he composed no less than nine
symphonies, twenty string quartets, two piano trios, a variety of
other significant chamber works such as the famous "Trout"
Quintet and Cello Quintet, numerous operas, 21 piano sonatas as
well as other solo piano works including the Wanderer Fantasy and
two glorious sets of impromptus. Looming over all this is his vast
collection of over 600 songs. Within this catalogue, the Fantasy
stands apart. It was written in the last year of his life when syphilis,
so rampant in Vienna, had consumed him. In the opening statement
the secondo is the harmonic and rhythmic underpinning of the piece.
The primo, enters out of nowhere with the beautiful, otherworldly
melody that haunts the work. Things develop slowly in minor, are
pulled briefly into major, and then thrust again into the minor,
this time more darkly. We are pulled back and forth between major
and minor until a mysterious chromatic ascent when we are thrust
into the intense largo with its dotted rhythms. In typical Schubertian
fashion, the tension is relieved by a lovely song. We are cast back
again into the complex dotted rhythms, breathe for a moment on the
fermata at the end of the section, and then welcomed into the bright
allegro vivace. The pianists crescendo together on six octaves,
which modulate back to the original minor key, then the pianists
take a terrifying scale in unison followed by silence, and begin
again with the opening minor haunting theme. This time the development
is briefer before we hear the magnificent double fugue. We are given
only a brief instant of relief before a thunderous climax. There
is a whole bar of silence before the pianists reenter quietly for
the last time. They take a descending staccato scale in unison to
the resounding conclusion. As long as this wonderful piece is, it
leave you not only breathless, but leaves you wanting more.
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Ravel originally wrote Ma
Mère l'Oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children,
Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7. Ravel dedicated this work for four
hands to the children (just as he had dedicated an earlier work,
Sonatine to their parents). Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony
premiered the work. The piece was transcribed for solo piano by
Ravel's friend Jacques Charlot the same year as it was published
(1910). The first movement of Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin is
dedicated to Charlot. Both piano versions bear the subtitle "cinq
pièces enfantines" (five children's pieces). The five
"pieces" were as follows:
I. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant
Pavane of Sleeping Beauty
Lent
II. Petit Poucet
Little Tom Thumb / Hop o' My Thumb
Très modéré
III. Laideronnette, Impératrice des pagodes
Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas
Mouvt de Marche
IV. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête
Conversation of Beauty and the Beast
Mouvt de Valse très modéré
V. Le jardin féerique
The Fairy Garden
Debussy
Ballade Slave
A Ballade is a musical epic, generally of love in its more somber
moods, but can also be used to represent a fairy tale or epic. Many
composers wrote ballades to interpret poems or reflect the experience
of life in all its forms. This Ballade by Debussy takes the listener
through various moods. It has a gentle shyness, while slowly building
to a more serious mood with deep rich sounds. Gradually, it fades
back to light sounds and tones. Debussy originally wrote this piece
as a Piano Duet. His harmonic and melodic innovations gave pianists
more to think about than any other composer since Chopin. He always
tried to capture an impression or mood for the listener in his music.
He strongly believed that music should not be cast into a traditional
and fixed form. He used and developed unique new sounds, pedaling,
and rhythms for the piano.
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