Howard Series
Chi Yong Yun
March 27, 2010
Bach: Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in d minor, BWV 903 | Schumann: Piano Sonata No.2 in g minor, Op.22 | Liszt: Ballade No.2 in b minor | Ravel: Mirroirs
The composer/performers of all of tonight's works wrote not only competently, but also passionately, for their instrument, the piano (or its predecessors–harpsichord and clavichord). In addition to favoring us to a feast of music of great beauty and drama, these works give us a sampling of some of the great transformative developments in piano repertoire of the past 200 years.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in d minor, BWV 903
The great Johann Sebastian Bach, creator of hundreds of works for all the keyboard instruments available to him, was himself a virtuoso performer, a teacher of many fine students, and the father/teacher of additionally superb keyboard performers/composers/teachers. He spent much of his life as a church musician, and in that role he created a vast body of work for the organ. It was during his time serving the Calvinist court at Cöthen (1717-1723) that he had the time and the resources to focus on harpsichord, orchestral and chamber music. This was a particularly fruitful period for harpsichord music, including the Inventions, French and English Suites, and the Well-tempered Clavier, Book I. Perhaps Bach's most unique keyboard work, the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, also came from this period. This virtuoso showpiece written by the “Prince of Clavier Players” was not published until 1821, but was known to his pupils as an example of the type of piece that Bach would improvise, but it was said that his extempore fantasies were even more free than what he wrote down.
The Fantasia begins by sporting toccata-like flourishes, extreme contrasts presented with dramatic abandon, while the harmonic structure takes full advantage of the chromaticism made possible by equal tempered tuning. The fireworks of the opening give way to a short expressive recitative section. The two elements are combined in the final section of the Fantasia. The Fugue commences in strict contrapuntal form making use of chromatic elements but as it moves along it breaks free adding full chords, octaves, and fantasia elements bringing the work to a triumphant conclusion.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Piano Sonata No.2 in g minor, Op.22
So rasch wie moglich
Andantino
Scherzo
Rondo
Robert Schumann’s greatest musical legacy is generally accepted to be found in the lyrical intimacy of his songs and piano character pieces–miniatures often gathered in song cycles or piano collections. In his twenties the composer did journey to Beethoven’s architectural world of the piano sonata with the composition of three works framed in that genre. Completed in 1838, the Piano Sonata in g minor, op.22 is the shortest of the three, but the most dramatically intense. It is filled with passionate outbursts utilizing diverse colors of the keyboard pallette, and yes, includes very Schumannesque moments of intimacy and nostalgia.
The first movement opens with a flourish and an impassioned first theme, abruptly interrupted by its lyrical counterpart. Perhaps tongue-in-check, perhaps literally, the composer asks for the movement to be played So rasch wie möglich (As fast as possible) and the coda Schneller (faster) and then Noch schneller (faster still). The Andantino movement is a transformation of one of the composer’s earlier unpublished songs, Im Herbst (In Spring). The short, brusque Scherzo is quite to the point, albeit again interspersed with a brief lyrical interlude. The final movement of this work strongly bears the influence of his wife-to-be Clara. She felt that his original Rondo would not be understood by the public, so Robert obligingly tamed it down for the sonata (the original was later published as a separate work Presto Passionato). Even in its “tamed down” form, the movement sports a plethora of exciting musical ideas, coming to a close with a bravura Coda.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Ballade No.2 in b minor
In his time known as the wizard of the piano, Franz Liszt is generally considered today as the foremost piano virtuoso of the 19th century. He was also a conductor, teacher, author, and composer of more than 700 works in virtually all genres. The preponderance of his legacy rests with more than 400 compositions for his instrument, the piano, and with his status as a virtuoso. Additionally, Liszt was known as a innovator in conventions that pianists follow to this day. He was the first to play entire programs from memory and to select programs encompassing a wide range of piano repertoire. He introduced the concept of the solo concert, first naming such an event “recital” for a 1840 London performance. Until recent years, performance of Liszt's works were generally restricted to a few tone poems, the two Piano Concertos , the B Minor Piano Sonata , and a handful of showpieces used as encores to ensure an impressive conclusion to a recital. Today, the tide has turned and Liszt's piano music is staple fare for pianists who have the technical skill to play it. In addition to expanding piano music's formal, harmonic, and technical horizons, Liszt also succeeded in broadening the instrument's expressive capacity, creating “poetic speech that ... has its being in the impenetrable depths of unquenchable longing.”
Written during Liszt's tenure as Kappelmeister in Leipzig at approximately the same time as his great Sonata in b minor , the Ballade No. 2 in b minor is a masterpiece of “poetic speech” and “unquenchable longing.” While this is also the period when the composer was developing the symphonic tone poem, he resisted applying a program to this piece and most consider it absolute music with leanings toward sonata form. In the spirit of the “ballade,” (a narrative poem), the piece is bold, tranquil, and lyrical. The rumbling, restless first theme, and gently winsome second theme do return in a recapitulation, and while the Coda builds relentlessly toward a presumed grand climax, in the end, the story dies away with a whisper of the second theme.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Mirroirs
Une Barque sur l'ocean
Alborado del gracioso
Maurice Ravel was devoted to the piano, he played it, wrote for it, and transcribed piano pieces for orchestra, but first and foremost he relished the infinite variety of sounds that he was able to exploit in writing for his instrument. He was also innovative in his approach to composition, a characteristic which did not endear him to the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire to the point that time after time he was denied the usual prizes and academic awards. His music, however, has stood the test of time and concert audiences and musicians alike recognize his distinctive genius and enjoy his colorful works. In 1902 Ravel joined a bohemian group of artists who called themselves Le Club des Apaches . This group of promoters of the avant garde chose Apaches , the French slang term for “rowdy young men” and enjoyed weekly meetings, attending concerts of new music, and playing music far into the night. It was for this group that Ravel wrote his Mirrors , a group of five pieces for piano, each dedicated to an Apache brother. Each piece of the group bears a descriptive title, while the composer intended them to freely express poetic ideas suggested as a reflection seen in a mirror.
Une Barque sur l'océan (The ship on the ocean) presents the impression of a little sail boat being propelled along by the breeze through the sea. While liquid left hand arpeggios, supplemented by lots of pedal, push the little boat, a melodic thread emerges through the mists, and the strength of the sea is manifest through the ebb and flow of the music.
The Alborada del Gracioso (Morning serenade of the Jester) draws on Ravel's affinity with Spanish idioms (his mother was Basque). The piano is a guitar with clattering castanets, a singer, or even an orchestra. The fact that Ravel later set the Alborada for orchestra does not take away one bit from its vitality, color and variety as a piano piece. Listen for the Spanish rhythms, lyricism, humor, and the jaw-dropping technical demands made of the pianist.
Program notes by Linda Mack. Copyright 2010.
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