Programme Notes
Written for the insert of my first amateur CD, A Piano
Odyssey.
This B minor Prelude and Fugue completed
Book 1 of “The 48” of 1722; Book 2 appeared some twenty
years later. These important volumes demonstrated
the possibility of playing in all 24 keys on a
Well-Tempered keyboard, which differs only slightly from
our modern Equal-Temperament tuning. In the
prelude, two upper parts alternate in overlapping
phrases over a busy bass, that in this reading is
repeated detached. The four-part fugue
incorporates a lyrical two-part canon in three places,
expanding a motif from the prelude.
This bright, single-movement work is one of
around 550 sonatas, originally “exercises”, composed
around 1754 while in the service of the Spanish
courts. Scarlatti introduced a freedom of style to
the harpsichord exploiting all manner of keyboard
effects, as Chopin did later for the piano. It
follows the late Baroque structure that was to evolve
into the Classical sonata form of Haydn, Mozart and
Beethoven.
Although the “Moonlight” nickname has
stuck, Beethoven’s own title, “Almost a Fantasy”, is a
better reflection of the work as a whole. It
bridges the classical (sonata) and romantic (fantasia)
idioms in a brilliant progression from dreamy to
tempestuous moods over an established formal
structure. 1801 marked a turning point in
Beethoven’s style as his worsening deafness influenced
his compositions. Some liken the adagio to a
funeral march, reflecting his depressive state of mind
at the time. Liszt called the allegretto “a flower
between two chasms”, a light dance figure bonding the
contrasting outer movements with perfect
neutrality. The dramatic presto mixes menace with
grace and tragedy in a flurry of agitation that must
have taxed Beethoven’s new Erard piano to its limits.
The Wedding Day piece of 1896
commemorated Edvard and Nina Grieg’s silver wedding
spent at Troldhaugen, their mountain villa, where Grieg
composed much of his music in a lake side cabin.
It is one of many Lyric Pieces, musical poems of mostly
Nordic themes, and was later orchestrated.
Throughout is a conversational interplay between the
parts, from the opening jovial march, through the
reflective, pastoral middle section, to the resuming
march and merry conclusion.
These are a collection of 20 character
pieces; allegretto (1916) is a forging locomotion of
sound whilst ridicolosamente (1915) is mischievous and
plainly ridiculous.
The Grandmother’s Tales were
composed in New York in 1918 while away from troubled
Russia a long time. Prokofiev wrote: “Some
recollections had become half erased from her memory;
others could never be erased”. The first Tale
moves through a range of reflections before resuming its
laborious theme. The andantino is a profoundly
expressive and engaging miniature, a sublime melody with
a haunting dark side.
The C major
Novelette is one of a pair and is typically light, with
bright colours, strong, clear rhythms and novel
harmonies. A third Novelette was added to the set
some years later.
The Pastourelle
(Shepherdess) was Poulenc’s offering for the
collaborative ballet “L’Eventail de Jeanne” (Jeanne’s
Fan, 1927) where ten composers were each given a leaf
from the fan of Jeanne Dubost, a Parisian arts
patroness, in return for a dance composition for her
ballet students. It is a musical dialogue,
traditionally between a shepherdess and an admiring
knight.
The 11th
Improvisation here adheres strictly to Poulenc’s tempo
markings that he was often particular about but seldom
followed in his own performances. The last
Improvisation, dedicated to Edith Piaf, would make a
perfect song accompaniment; it is a true Song Without
Words.
Prokofiev,
Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich were the three great
Russian composer-pianists of the last century.
Shostakovich embraced a wide range of styles: his 24
Preludes and Fugues in each key reflect those of Bach
with which they are often played. The five early
pieces (1920-1) were his contribution to a collaborative
collection of 24 preludes with fellow students Klements
and Feldt. Like his own set of 24 Preludes
(1932-3), they are concentrated and packed with
interest. The andantino is particularly beautiful:
whispering chimes vanishing into stillness.
From the last volume of Mikrokosmos, a
collection of progressive teaching pieces, the Diary of
a Fly is a microcosm of intensity mimicking the fly’s
unpredictable motion and buzzing and frantic struggle
with a cobweb. An analysis of this piece reveals a
complex structure combining canonic progressions, pace
and register variations and asymmetries within
symmetries: overall, a manipulation of patterns on many
levels with remarkable effect. The fate of the fly
is uncertain but it clearly had a bad day.
Brubeck studied under Schoenberg and
Milhaud, a compatriot of Poulenc. His unique style
with its intriguing time meters and innovative jazz
devices demonstrates a mathematical approach to his art,
as had Bartok and Schoenberg before. The Raggy
Waltz (1961) combines ragtime and waltz time in a
sandwich consisting of outer 12-bar blues sections and
three inner improvisations. The syncopated ragtime
rhythm arises from shifted accents superimposed over a
waltz measure: an old musical trick but intriguing
phasing for its genre. Another interesting feature
is the contrasting 8-bar bridge passage linking the
12-bar sections, with its descending bass line.
