make music part of your life series: Maurizio Pollini – Frederic Chopin – Barcarolle in F sharp op.60 (excerpt)

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Maurizio Pollini – Frederic Chopin – Barcarolle in F sharp op.60 (excerpt)

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Fabulous rendition: Mozart Concerto D Minor K466 Freiburger Mozart-Orchester, Michael Erren,Valentina Lisitsa

Mozart Concerto D Minor K466 Freiburger Mozart-Orchester, Michael Erren,Valentina Lisitsa

ValentinaLisitsa

Published on Aug 15, 2012

Filmed live May 20, 2012, Freiburg im Breisgau ,Germany
Cadenzas by Mozart’s favorite student – and billiards pal, Jan Nepomuk Hummel 🙂
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Piano Concerto No. 20 (Mozart)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 Neuer Markt in Vienna with Capuchin Church and Haus zur Mehlgrube on the right, painting by Bernardo Bellotto, 1760

The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785. The first performance took place at the Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on February 11, 1785, with the composer as the soloist.^[1]

Background

A few days after the first performance, the composer’s father, Leopold, visiting in Vienna, wrote to his daughter Nannerl about her brother’s recent success: “[I heard] an excellent new piano concerto by Wolfgang, on which the copyist was still at work when we got there, and your brother didn’t even have time to play through the rondo because he had to oversee the copying operation.”^[1]

It is written in the key of D minor. Other works by the composer in that key include the Fantasia K. 397 for piano, Requiem, a Kyrie, the aria “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” from the opera The Magic Flute and parts of the opera Don Giovanni. It is the first of two piano concertos written in a minor key (No. 24 in C minor being the other).

The young Ludwig van Beethoven admired this concerto and kept it in his repertoire.^[1] A bass run from the first movement appears for comic effect in Variation 22 of the Diabelli Variations. Daniel Barenboim contends that this concerto was Joseph Stalin‘s favorite piece of music.^[2] Composers who wrote cadenzas for it include Beethoven (WoO 58), Charles-Valentin Alkan, Johannes Brahms (WoO 16), Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ferruccio Busoni, and Clara Schumann.

Movements

The concerto is scored for solo piano, flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. As is typical with concertos, it is in three movements:

1. Allegro (in D minor)
2. Romanze (in B-flat major)
3. Allegro assai (in D minor, ending in D major)

The first movement starts off the concerto in the dark tonic key of D minor with the strings restlessly but quietly building up to a full forte. The theme is quickly taken up by the piano soloist and developed throughout the long movement. A slightly brighter mood exists in the second theme, but it never becomes jubilant. The timpani further heighten the tension in the coda before the cadenza. The movement ends on a quiet note.

The ‘Romanze’ second movement is a five-part rondo (ABACA)^[3] with a coda. The beginning features a solo piano playing the flamboyant and charming main B-flat major melody without accompaniment. This lyrical, passionate, tender and romantic melody, played at a relatively dainty tempo, paints a picture of peace and a sense of harmony between the piano and the orchestra, and has also inspired its title ‘Romanze’. Halfway through, the piece moves on to the second episode (part C), where the beautiful melody is replaced with a turbulent, agitated and ominous theme in the relative minor key of G minor, which greatly contrasts the peaceful mood at the starting of the movement. Finally, we are greeted once again with the aforeheard melody which returns as the movement is nearing the end. The piece ends with an ascending arpeggio that is light and delicate, gradually until it becomes a faint whisper.

The final movement, a rondo, begins with the solo piano rippling upward in the home key before the full orchestra replies with a furious section. (This piano “rippling” is known as the Mannheim Rocket and is a string of eighth notes (d-f-a-d-f) followed by a quarter note (a). A second melody is touched upon by the piano where the mood is still dark but strangely restless. A contrasting cheerful melody in F major ushers in not soon after, introduced by the orchestra before the solo piano rounds off the lively theme. A series of sharp piano chords snaps the bright melody and then begin passages in D minor on solo piano again, taken up by full orchestra. Several modulations of the second theme (in A minor and G minor) follow. Thereafter follows the same format as above, with a momentary pause for introducing the customary cadenza. After the cadenza, the mood clears considerably and the bright happy melody is taken up this time by the winds. The solo piano repeats the theme before a full orchestral passage develops the passage, thereby rounding up the concerto with a jubilant D major finish.

In other media

The second movement (minus the more tumultuous C part of the rondo) plays in the final scene and during the end credits of the 1984 movie Amadeus. The melody begins right before Antonio Salieri tells the priest sent to hear his confession that he is the patron saint of mediocrities. In the final shot of the film, Salieri announces, “Mediocrities everywhere, I absolve you.” Right before the screen fades to black, Mozart’s laugh is heard. At this point, the piano concerto picks up in volume, continuing through the end of the credits.

The first movement was also played in the ballet scene in Series 1 Episode 8 of the television series Mr. Robot.

great compositions/performances: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, in C minor, Op. 37, Daniel Barenboim / Dresden Staatskapelle 2007

Beethoven : Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 Daniel Barenboim / Dresden Staatskapelle 2007

Adagio fukax2

Beethoven : Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 : Daniel Barenboim / Dresden Staatskapelle 2007
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Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 Title page, first edition

The Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1800 and was first performed on 5 April 1803, with the composer as soloist. The year for which the concerto was composed (1800) has however been questioned by contemporary musicologists.^[1] It was published in 1804. During that same performance, the Second Symphony and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives were also premiered.^[2] The composition was dedicated to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. The first primary theme is reminiscent of that of Mozart’s 24th Piano Concerto.

Structure

The concerto is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in E-flat, 2 trumpets in C, timpani, strings and piano soloist.

As is standard for Classical/Romantic-era concertos, the work is in three movements:

1. Allegro con brio
2. Largo
3. Rondo. Allegro

I. Allegro con brio

	First movement  Menu       0:00
Problems playing this file? See media help.

 Cadenza of the first movement

This movement is known to make forceful use of the theme (direct and indirect) throughout.

Orchestral exposition: In the orchestral exposition, the theme is introduced by the strings, and used throughout the movement. It is developed several times. In the third section (second subject), the clarinet and violin 1 introduce the second main theme, which is in the relative major key, E-flat major.

Second exposition: The piano enters with an ascending scale motif. The structure of the exposition in the piano solo is similar to that of the orchestral exposition.

Development: The piano enters, playing similar scales used in the beginning of the second exposition, this time in D major rather than C minor. The music is generally quiet.

Recapitulation: The orchestra restates the theme in fortissimo, with the wind instruments responding by building up a minor ninth chord as in the exposition. For the return of the second subject, Beethoven modulates to the tonic major, C major. A dark transition to the cadenza occurs, immediately switching from C major to C minor.

Cadenza: Beethoven wrote one cadenza for this movement. The cadenza Beethoven wrote is at times stormy and ends on a series of trills that calm down to pianissimo. Many other composers and pianists have written alternative cadenzas.

Coda: Beethoven subverts the expectation of a return to the tonic at the end of the cadenza by prolonging the final trill and eventually arriving on a dominant seventh. The piano plays a series of arpeggios before the music settles into the home key of C minor. Then the music intensifies before a full tutti occurs, followed by the piano playing descending arpeggios, the ascending scale from the second exposition, and finally a resolute ending on C.

II. Largo

	Second movement  Menu       0:00     Third movement  Menu       0:00
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The second movement is in the key of E major, in this context a key relatively remote from the concerto’s opening key of C minor (another example being Brahms’s first symphony.). If the movement adhered to traditional form, its key would be E-flat major (the relative key) or A-flat major (the submediant key). The movement opens with the solo piano and the opening is marked with detailed pedalling instructions.

III. Rondo – Allegro

The finale is in sonata rondo form. The movement begins in C minor with an agitated theme played only by the piano. The movement ends with a C major coda marked presto.

First performance

The score was incomplete at its first performance. Beethoven’s friend, Ignaz von Seyfried, who turned the pages of the music for him that night, later wrote:^[2]

“I saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly unintelligible to me were scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all the solo part from memory since, as was so often the case, he had not had time to set it all down on paper.”

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historic musical bits: Beethoven, Sonata para piano Nº 24 en Si flat major op.78 ‘À Thérèse’. Daniel Barenboim, piano

Beethoven, Sonata para piano Nº 24 en Si flat major op.78 ‘À Thérèse’. Daniel Barenboim, piano

Pakito Palote

Published on Apr 2, 2013

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata para piano Nº 24 en Fa sostenido mayor, Opus 78,
“À Thérèse”.
(Escrita en 1809 para la condesa Thérèse von Brunswick)
1. Adagio cantabile – Allegro ma non troppo
2. Allegro vivace
Daniel Barenboim, piano.
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Piano Sonata No. 24 (Beethoven)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78, nicknamed “à Thérèse” (because it was written for Countess Thérèse von Brunswick) was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1809. It consists of two movements:

1. Adagio cantabile – Allegro ma non troppo
2. Allegro vivace

A typical performance takes 10 minutes. The common practice of leaving out long repeated sections, such as the development and recapitulation in the first movement, would make two or three minutes’ difference to the total duration.

Maynard Solomon notes that this and the “Appassionata” sonata, op.57, were Beethoven’s favorite of his piano sonatas prior to the “Hammerklavier.” ^[1]

First movement

Second movement

 

Make music part of your life series: Brahms – 16 Waltzes Op. 39, Karin Lechner, Piano

Brahms – 16 Waltzes Op. 39, Karin Lechner, Piano

TopClassicalMusic

Published on Apr 20, 2015

Johannes Brahms

16 Waltzes Op. 39

1. em Si Maior 0:55
2. em Mi Maior 1:29
3. em Sol Sostenido Maior 0:58
4. em mi Menor 1:16
5. em Mi Maior 1:21
6. em Do Sostenido Maior 1:02
7. em Do Sostenido Menor 2:12
8. em Si Bemol Maior 1:35
9. em Re Menor 1:24
10. em Sol Maior 0:35
11. em Si Menor 1:46
12. em Mi Maior 1:35
13. em Si Maior 0:42
14. em Sol Sostenido Menor 1:21
15. em La Bemol Maior 1:35
16. em Do Sostenido Menor 1:21

For more:
http://www.melhoresmusicasclassicas.b…

• Music

  • “Sixteen Waltzes, Op. 39: No. 3 In G-Sharp Minor” by Karin Lechner (Google Play • iTunes • AmazonMP3)

Find out more about Karin Lechner @ http://www.karinlechner.com/

historic Musical Bits: Wilhelm Kempff plays Chopin Impromptu No. 3 in G flat Op. 51 (rec.1958)

Wilhelm Kempff plays Chopin Impromptu No. 3 in G flat Op. 51 (rec.1958)

gullivior

Uploaded on Jul 28, 2011

rec. 1958

Fabulous Renditions: Beethoven “Für Elise” Valentina Lisitsa Seoul Philharmonic

Beethoven “Für Elise” Valentina Lisitsa Seoul Philharmonic

ValentinaLisitsa

Uploaded on Dec 7, 2008

Live in Seoul. Encore #4 Please come to London on June 19th of 2012 if you want to hear this piece live ! I am making my debut at Royal Albert Hall 🙂
Валентина Лисица

Valentina Lisitsa Live at the Royal Albert Hall
US iTunes – http://bit.ly/iTunesUSVal
US Amazon – http://bit.ly/ValRAH
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Für Elise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

“Für Elise”, opening

 

First edition, 1867

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59 and Bia 515) for solo piano, commonly known as “Für Elise” or “Fuer Elise” (German: [fyːʁ eːˈliːzə] ( listen), English: “For Elise”, sometimes written without the German umlaut mark as “Fur Elise”), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven‘s most popular compositions.^[1][2][3] It is usually classified as a bagatelle, but it is also sometimes referred to as an Albumblatt.

History

The score was not published until 1867, 40 years after the composer’s death in 1827. The discoverer of the piece, Ludwig Nohl, affirmed that the original autographed manuscript, now lost, was dated 27 April 1810.^[4]

The version of “Für Elise” heard today is an earlier version that was transcribed by Ludwig Nohl. There is a later version, with drastic changes to the accompaniment which was transcribed from a later manuscript by Barry Cooper. The most notable difference is in the first theme, the left-hand arpeggios are delayed by a 16th note beat. There are a few extra bars in the transitional section into the B section; and finally, the rising A minor arpeggio figure is moved later into the piece. The tempo marking Poco moto is believed to have been on the manuscript that Ludwig Nohl transcribed (now lost). The later version includes the marking Molto grazioso. It is believed that Beethoven intended to add the piece to a cycle of bagatelles.^{[citation needed]}

Therese Malfatti, widely believed to be the dedicatee of “Für Elise”

The pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore (es) argued in his thesis and his 2010 book Beethoven al piano that Beethoven might not have been the person who gave the piece the form that we know today. Chiantore suggested that the original signed manuscript, upon which Ludwig Nohl claimed to base his transcription, may never have existed.^[5] On the other hand, the musicologist Barry Cooper stated, in a 1984 essay in The Musical Times, that one of two surviving sketches closely resembles the published version.^[6]

Identity of “Elise”

It is not certain who “Elise” was. Max Unger suggested that Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named “Für Therese”,^[7] a reference to Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792–1851). She was a friend and student of Beethoven’s to whom he supposedly proposed in 1810, though she turned him down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816.^[8] Note that the piano sonata no.24, dedicated to Countess Thérèse von Brunswick, is also referred to sometimes as “für Therese”.

According to a 2010 study by Klaus Martin Kopitz (de), there is evidence that the piece was written for the German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel (1793–1883), later the wife of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. “Elise”, as she was called by a parish priest (she called herself “Betty” too), had been a friend of Beethoven’s since 1808.^[9] In the meantime, the Austrian musicologist Michael Lorenz^[10] has shown that Rudolf Schachner, who in 1851 inherited Therese von Droßdik’s musical scores, was the son of Babette Bredl, born out of wedlock. Babette in 1865 let Nohl copy the autograph in her possession. Thus the autograph must have come to Babette Bredl from Therese von Droßdik’s estate and Kopitz’s hypothesis is refuted.

In 2012, the Canadian musicologist Rita Steblin suggested that Juliane Katharine Elisabet Barensfeld (de), who used “Elise” as a variant first name, might be the dedicatee. Born in Regensburg and treated for a while as child prodigy, she first travelled on concert tours with Beethoven’s friend Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, also from Regensburg, and then lived with him for some time in Vienna, where she received singing lessons from Antonio Salieri. Steblin argues that Beethoven dedicated this work to the 13-year-old Elise Barensfeld as a favour to Therese Malfatti who lived opposite Mälzel’s and Barensfeld’s residence and who might have given her piano lessons.^[11] Steblin admits that question marks remain for her hypothesis.^[12]

Music

	Bagatelle in A minor (“Für Elise”)   Menu       0:00
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The piece is in A minor and is set in 3/8 time. It begins with an A minor theme marked Poco moto (little movement), with the left hand playing arpeggios alternating between A minor and E major. It then moves into a brief section based around C major and G major, before returning to the original theme. It then enters a lighter section in the subdominant key of the relative major of A minor (C major), F major. It consists of a similar texture to the A section, where the right hand plays a melody over left hand arpeggios. It then enters a 32nd note C major figure before returning to the A section. The piece then moves to an agitated theme in D minor^{[citation needed]} with an A pedal point, as the right hand plays diminished chords. This section then concludes with an ascending A minor arpeggio before beginning a chromatic descent over two octaves, and then returning to the A section. The piece ends in its starting key of A minor with an authentic cadence. Despite being called a bagatelle, the piece is in rondo form. The structure is A–B–A–C–A. The first theme is not technically difficult and is often taught alone as it provides a good basic exercise for piano pedalling technique. However, much greater technique is required for the B section as well as the rapid rising A minor figure in the C section.

Kopitz presents the finding by the German organ scholar Johannes Quack that the letters that spell Elise can be decoded as the first three notes of the piece. Because an E♭ is called an Es in German and is pronounced as “S”, that makes E–(L)–(I)–S–E: E–(L)–(I)–E♭–E, which by enharmonic equivalents sounds the same as the written notes E–(L)–(I)–D♯–E.^[10][13]

fabulous musical renditions: Freiburger Mozart-Orchester, Michael Erren,Valentina Lisitsa

Freiburger Mozart-Orchester, Michael Erren,Valentina Lisitsa

ValentinaLisitsa

Published on Aug 15, 2012

Filmed live May 20, 2012, Freiburg im Breisgau ,Germany
Cadenzas by Mozart’s favorite student – and billiards pal, Jan Nepomuk Hummel
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Piano Concerto No. 20 (Mozart)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 Neuer Markt in Vienna with Capuchin Church and Haus zur Mehlgrube on the right, painting by Bernardo Bellotto, 1760

The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785. The first performance took place at the Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on February 11, 1785, with the composer as the soloist.^[1]

Background

A few days after the first performance, the composer’s father, Leopold, visiting in Vienna, wrote to his daughter Nannerl about her brother’s recent success: “[I heard] an excellent new piano concerto by Wolfgang, on which the copyist was still at work when we got there, and your brother didn’t even have time to play through the rondo because he had to oversee the copying operation.”^[1]

It is written in the key of D minor. Other works by the composer in that key include the Fantasia K. 397 for piano, Requiem, a Kyrie, the aria “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” from the opera The Magic Flute and parts of the opera Don Giovanni. It is the first of two piano concertos written in a minor key (No. 24 in C minor being the other).

The young Ludwig van Beethoven admired this concerto and kept it in his repertoire.^[1] A bass run from the first movement appears for comic effect in Variation 22 of the Diabelli Variations. Daniel Barenboim contends that this concerto was Joseph Stalin‘s favorite piece of music.^[2] Composers who wrote cadenzas for it include Beethoven (WoO 58), Charles-Valentin Alkan, Johannes Brahms (WoO 16), Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ferruccio Busoni, and Clara Schumann.

Movements

The concerto is scored for solo piano, flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. As is typical with concertos, it is in three movements:

1. Allegro (in D minor)

2. Romanze (in B-flat major)

3. Allegro assai (in D minor, ending in D major)

The first movement starts off the concerto in the dark tonic key of D minor with the strings restlessly but quietly building up to a full forte. The theme is quickly taken up by the piano soloist and developed throughout the long movement. A slightly brighter mood exists in the second theme, but it never becomes jubilant. The timpani further heighten the tension in the coda before the cadenza. The movement ends on a quiet note.

The ‘Romanze’ second movement is a five-part rondo (ABACA)^[3] with a coda. The beginning features a solo piano playing the flamboyant and charming main B-flat major melody without accompaniment. This lyrical, passionate, tender and romantic melody, played at a relatively dainty tempo, paints a picture of peace and a sense of harmony between the piano and the orchestra, and has also inspired its title ‘Romanze’. Halfway through, the piece moves on to the second episode (part C), where the beautiful melody is replaced with a turbulent, agitated and ominous theme in the relative minor key of G minor, which greatly contrasts the peaceful mood at the starting of the movement. Finally, we are greeted once again with the aforeheard melody which returns as the movement is nearing the end. The piece ends with an ascending arpeggio that is light and delicate, gradually until it becomes a faint whisper.

The final movement, a rondo, begins with the solo piano rippling upward in the home key before the full orchestra replies with a furious section. (This piano “rippling” is known as the Mannheim Rocket and is a string of eighth notes (d-f-a-d-f) followed by a quarter note (a). A second melody is touched upon by the piano where the mood is still dark but strangely restless. A contrasting cheerful melody in F major ushers in not soon after, introduced by the orchestra before the solo piano rounds off the lively theme. A series of sharp piano chords snaps the bright melody and then begin passages in D minor on solo piano again, taken up by full orchestra. Several modulations of the second theme (in A minor and G minor) follow. Thereafter follows the same format as above, with a momentary pause for introducing the customary cadenza. After the cadenza, the mood clears considerably and the bright happy melody is taken up this time by the winds. The solo piano repeats the theme before a full orchestral passage develops the passage, thereby rounding up the concerto with a jubilant D major finish.

In other media

The second movement (minus the more tumultuous C part of the rondo) plays in the final scene and during the end credits of the 1984 movie Amadeus. The melody begins right before Antonio Salieri tells the priest sent to hear his confession that he is the patron saint of mediocrities. In the final shot of the film, Salieri announces, “Mediocrities everywhere, I absolve you.” Right before the screen fades to black, Mozart’s laugh is heard. At this point, the piano concerto picks up in volume, continuing through the end of the credits.

The first movement was also played in the ballet scene in Series 1 Episode 8 of the television series Mr. Robot.
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FABULOUS MUSICAL RENDITIONS: Exploding Beethoven: Tempest Sonata Live from Paris Valentina Lisitsa

Exploding Beethoven: Tempest Sonata Live from Paris Valentina Lisitsa

ValentinaLisitsa

Published on Jun 1, 2014

Watch at your own risk – I warned you  🙂
Live from Paris, Salle Gaveau , May 21, 2014.
Sonata No. 17, Op 31 No.2 D Minor
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The Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, was composed in 1801/02 by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is usually referred to as “The Tempest” (or Der Sturm in his native German), but the sonata was not given this title by Beethoven, or indeed referred to as such during his lifetime. The name comes from a claim by his associate Anton Schindler that the sonata was inspired by the Shakespeare play. However, much of Schindler’s information is distrusted by classical music scholars. The British music scholar Donald Francis Tovey says in A Companion to Beethoven’s Pianoforte Sonatas:

With all the tragic power of its first movement the D minor Sonata is, like Prospero, almost as far beyond tragedy as it is beyond mere foul weather. It will do you no harm to think of Miranda at bars 31–38 of the slow movement… but people who want to identify Ariel and Caliban and the castaways, good and villainous, may as well confine their attention to the exploits of Scarlet Pimpernel when the Eroica or the C minor Symphony is being played (pg. 121).

Structure

The piece consists of three movements and takes approximately twenty-five minutes to perform:

1. Largo – Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Allegretto

Each of the movements is in sonata form, though the second lacks a substantial development section.

First movement

The first movement alternates brief moments of seeming peacefulness with extensive passages of turmoil, after some time expanding into a haunting “storm” in which the peacefulness is lost. This musical form is unusual among Beethoven sonatas to that date. Concerning the time period and style, it was thought of as an odd thing to write; a pianist’s skills were demonstrated in many ways, and showing changes in tone, technique and speed efficiently many times in one movement was one of them. The development begins with rolled, long chords, quickly ending to the tremolo theme of the exposition. There is a long recitative section at the beginning of this movement’s recapitulation, again ending with fast and suspenseful passages.

Second movement

The second movement in B-flat major is slower and more dignified. The rising melodic ideas in the opening six measures are reminiscent of the first movement’s recitative. Other ideas in this movement mirror the first, for instance, a figure in the eighth measure and parallel passages of the second movement are similar to a figure in the sixth measure of the first.

Third movement

The third movement is a sonata-rondo hybrid in the key of D minor. It is at first flowing with emotion and then reaching a climax, before moving into an extended development section which mainly focuses on the opening figure of the movement, reaching a climax at measures 169–173. The recapitulation, which is preceded by an extensive cadenza-like passage of sixteenth notes for the right hand, is followed by another transition and then another statement of the primary theme. The refrain undergoes phrase expansion to build tension for the climax of the movement at measure 381, a fortissimo falling chromatic scale.

 

Best musical Interpretations: Beethoven Sonata Op 57 “Appassionata” Mov1, ,3, Valentina Lisitsa, piano

Beethoven Sonata Op 57 “Appassionata” Mov1

ValentinaLisitsa

Uploaded on Jan 10, 2009

Rehearsal run before recital in Musikverein, Vienna

historic musical bits: Claudio Arrau Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 30

Claudio Arrau Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 30

Farookhq17

Uploaded on Jan 17, 2012

Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

I. Vivace ma non troppo – Adagio espressivo
II. Prestissimo
III. Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung.
Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Claudio Arrau (1903-1991)

great compositions/performances: Beethoven Piano Sonata 10 G major Barenboim

Beethoven Piano Sonata 10 G major Barenboim

Sonorum Concentus

Published on Sep 23, 2014

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14, No. 2
Daniel Barenboim, piano
-Allegro in G major
-Andante variations in C major, subdominant of G major 7:15
-Scherzo: Allegro assai in G major 12:46

 

Historic Musical Bits: Mozart: Piano concerto n. No. 21 in C major, K.467(“Elvira Madigan”) Pollini-Muti

Mozart: Piano concerto n. No. 21 in C major, K.467 (“Elvira Madigan”) Pollini-Muti

Alessandro152

Uploaded on Sep 12, 2011

Mozart:Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467

Orchestra filarmonica della Scala
Maurizio Pollini, piano
Riccardo Muti, conductor
(2004)
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart –

Piano Concerto No. 21,

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, was completed on March 9, 1785 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, four weeks after the completion of the previous D minor concerto, K. 466.^[1][2]

Structure

	Third movement Performed by: Giorgi Latso, piano
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The concerto has three movements:

1. Allegro maestoso; in common time. The tempo marking is in Mozart’s catalog of his own works, but not in the autograph manuscript.^[3]
2. Andante in F major. In both the autograph score and in his personal catalog, Mozart notated the meter as Alla breve. ^[3]
3. Allegro vivace assai

The opening movement begins quietly with a march figure, but quickly moves to a more lyrical melody interspersed with a fanfare in the winds. The music grows abruptly in volume, with the violins taking up the principal melody over the march theme, which is now played by the brass. This uplifting theme transitions to a brief, quieter interlude distinguished by a sighing motif in the brass. The march returns, eventually transitioning to the entrance of the soloist. The soloist plays a brief Eingang (a type of abbreviated Cadenza) before resolving to a trill on the dominant G while the strings play the march in C major. The piano then introduces new material in C major and begins transitioning to the dominant key of G major. Immediately after an orchestral cadence finally announces the arrival of the dominant, the music abruptly shifts to G minor in a passage that is reminiscent of the main theme of the Symphony No. 40 in that key.^[4] A series of rising and falling chromatic scales then transition the music to the true second theme of the piece, an ebullient G major theme which Mozart had previously used in his Third Horn Concerto. The usual development and recapitulation follow. There is a cadenza at the end of the movement, although Mozart’s original has been lost.

The famous Andante is in three parts. The opening section is for orchestra only and features muted strings. The first violins play with a dreamlike melody over an accompaniment consisting of second violins and violas playing repeated-note triplets and the cellos and bass playing pizzicato arpeggios. All of the major melodic material of the movement is contained in this orchestral introduction, in either F major or F minor. The second section introduces the solo piano and starts off in F major. It is not a literal repeat, though, as after the first few phrases, new material is interjected which ventures off into different keys. When familiar material returns, the music is now in the dominant keys of C minor and C major. More new material in distant keys is added, which transitions to the third section of the movement. The third section begins with the dreamlike melody again, but this time in A-flat major. Over the course of this final section, the music makes it way back to the tonic keys of F minor and then F major and a short coda concludes the movement.

The final rondo movement begins with the full orchestra espousing a joyous “jumping” theme. After a short cadenza, the piano joins in and further elaborates. A “call and response” style is apparent, with the piano and ensemble exchanging parts fluidly. The soloist gets scale and arpeggio figurations that enhance the themes, as well as a short cadenza that leads right back to the main theme. The main theme appears one final time, leading to an upward rush of scales that ends on a triumphant note.

Cultural references

The second movement was featured in the 1967 Swedish film Elvira Madigan.^[1][5] This has led to an anachronistic nickname of Elvira Madigan for the concerto.^[6][7][8]

Neil Diamond‘s 1972 song “Song Sung Blue” was based on a theme from the andante movement of the concerto.^[9]

An electronic arrangement of the concerto’s first movement was used as the main theme of the TV series Whiz Kids.
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historic musical bits: Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Shostakovich Plays Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Published on Apr 10, 2013

Dmitri Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Dmitri Shostakovich, piano

Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
André Cluytens, conductor
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Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano, three flutes (third doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, timpani, snare drum and strings.

Movements

The concerto lasts around 20 minutes and has three movements, with the second movement played attacca, thereby moving directly into the third (although the second movement does come to an acceptable resolution in C minor, such that the third movement is not entirely necessary to bring the music to a conclusion):

1. Allegro

   The jolly main theme of the first movement is played first by the bassoon, then soon accompanied by the clarinets and oboes. The piano enters unobtrusively with an answering theme, played as single notes in both hands an octave apart. A new theme in D minor, unisons two octaves apart on the piano, gives a song-like effect, winding down to nothing when an abrupt blast from the orchestra leads into tumultuous and jumping octaves in the lower piano register while the orchestra plays a variation on the original piano melody fortissimo. The piano builds in a triplet pattern to introduce the D minor theme (now in D major) in an augmentation in a triumphant tutti. At the climax, everything comes to a silent pause, and the piano comes in with a fugue-like counterpoint solo. After a minute of the fugue, the orchestra comes back in, playing the melody in the high winds. The orchestra builds on the main melody while the piano plays scales and tremolos, which lead into a joyous few lines of chords and octaves by the piano, with the main theme finally resurfacing and bringing the movement to a close.

2. Andante

   The second movement is subdued and romantic. The mood can be considered tender with a touch of melancholy. Strings start gently in C minor, with a short introduction before the piano comes in with a gentle triplet theme in C major. Although it remains slow throughout, and works within a comparatively small range, it is marked by the recurrence of two- or four-on-three rhythms. The expressiveness of this movement is notable.

3. Allegro

   The finale is a lively dance in duple time, making much use of pentatonic scales and modes. Soon, the second theme is introduced, in 7/8 time, with the piano accompanied by balalaika-like pizzicato strings. This carries on for a short time before a new motif arrives in “Hanon” exercise mode, with scales in sixths and semiquaver runs, this being the joke for Maxim’s graduation. These three themes are then developed and interwoven before a final statement of the 7/8 theme and finally a virtuoso coda in F major.

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Dmitri Shostakovich

“Shostakovich” redirects here. For the conductor and son of Dmitri Shostakovich, see Maxim Shostakovich.

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Dmitriyevich and the family name is Shostakovich.

Dmitri Shostakovich in 1950

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian:  Дми́трий Дми́триевич Шостако́вич , tr. Dmitriy Dmitrievich Shostakovich, pronounced [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ˈdmʲitrʲɪɪvʲɪtɕ ʂəstɐˈkovʲɪtɕ]; 25 September^[1] 1906 – 9 August 1975) was a Russian composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music.^[2]

Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but later had a complex and difficult relationship with the government. Nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (1947–1962) and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union (from 1962 until his death).

A poly-stylist, Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his music. Shostakovich’s music is characterized by sharp contrasts, elements of the grotesque, and ambivalent tonality; the composer was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and (especially in his symphonies) by the post-Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler.

Shostakovich’s orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti. His chamber output includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. His piano works include two solo sonatas, an early set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Other works include three operas, several song cycles, ballets, and a substantial quantity of film music; especially well known is The Second Waltz, Op. 99, music to the film The First Echelon (ru) (1955–1956), as well as the Suites composed for The Gadfly.^[3][4]

Biography

Early life

Birthplace of Shostakovich (now School No. 267). Commemorative plaque at left

Born at Podolskaya street in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. Shostakovich’s paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Polish Roman Catholic descent (his family roots trace to the region of the town of Vileyka in today’s Belarus), but his immediate forebears came from Siberia.^[5] A Polish revolutionary in the January Uprising of 1863–4, Bolesław Szostakowicz would be exiled to Narym (near Tomsk) in 1866 in the crackdown that followed Dmitri Karakozov‘s assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II.^[6] When his term of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia. He eventually became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the composer’s father, was born in exile in Narim in 1875 and studied physics and mathematics in Saint Petersburg University, graduating in 1899. He then went to work as an engineer under Dmitri Mendeleev at the Bureau of Weights and Measures in Saint Petersburg. In 1903, he married another Siberian transplant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Russian Siberian native.^[6]

Their son, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, displayed significant musical talent after he began piano lessons with his mother at the age of nine. On several occasions, he displayed a remarkable ability to remember what his mother had played at the previous lesson, and would get “caught in the act” of playing the previous lesson’s music while pretending to read different music placed in front of him.^[7] In 1918, he wrote a funeral march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors.^[8]

In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov, who monitored Shostakovich’s progress closely and promoted him.^[9] Shostakovich studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev after a year in the class of Elena Rozanova, composition with Maximilian Steinberg, and counterpoint and fugue with Nikolay Sokolov, with whom he became friends.^[10] Shostakovich also attended Alexander Ossovsky‘s history of music classes.^[11] Steinberg tried to guide Shostakovich in the path of the great Russian composers, but was disappointed to see him ‘wasting’ his talent and imitating Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. He also suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal, and initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major musical achievement was the First Symphony (premiered 1926), written as his graduation piece at the age of nineteen.

Shostakovich in 1925

Early career

After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a dual career as concert pianist and composer, but his dry style of playing was often unappreciated (his American biographer, Laurel Fay, comments on his “emotional restraint” and “riveting rhythmic drive”). He nevertheless won an “honorable mention” at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. After the competition Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by the composer’s First Symphony that he conducted it at its Berlin premiere later that year. Leopold Stokowski was equally impressed and gave the work its U.S. premiere the following year in Philadelphia and also made the work’s first recording.

Thereafter, Shostakovich concentrated on composition and soon limited his performances primarily to those of his own works. In 1927 he wrote his Second Symphony (subtitled To October), a patriotic piece with a great pro-Soviet choral finale. Due to its experimental nature, as with the subsequent Third Symphony, the pieces were not critically acclaimed with the enthusiasm granted to the First.

The year 1927 also marked the beginning of Shostakovich’s relationship with Ivan Sollertinsky, who remained his closest friend until the latter’s death in 1944. Sollertinsky introduced the composer to the music of Gustav Mahler, which had a strong influence on his music from the Fourth Symphony onwards.

While writing the Second Symphony, Shostakovich also began work on his satirical opera The Nose, based on the story by Gogol. In June 1929, the opera was given a concert performance, against Shostakovich’s own wishes, and was ferociously attacked by the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM).^[12] Its stage premiere on 18 January 1930 opened to generally poor reviews and widespread incomprehension amongst musicians.^[13]

Shostakovich composed his first film score for the 1929 silent movie, The New Babylon, set during the 1871 Paris Commune.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Shostakovich worked at TRAM, a proletarian youth theatre. Although he did little work in this post, it shielded him from ideological attack. Much of this period was spent writing his opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, which was first performed in 1934. It was immediately successful, on both popular and official levels. It was described as “the result of the general success of Socialist construction, of the correct policy of the Party”, and as an opera that “could have been written only by a Soviet composer brought up in the best tradition of Soviet culture”.^[14]

Shostakovich married his first wife, Nina Varzar, in 1932. Initial difficulties led to a divorce in 1935, but the couple soon remarried when Nina became pregnant with their first child.^[15]

First denunciation

Muddle instead of music, article published on Pravda on January 18, 1936, harshly criticizing Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

In 1936, Shostakovich fell from official favour. The year began with a series of attacks on him in Pravda, in particular an article entitled, “Muddle Instead of Music“. Shostakovich was away on a concert tour in Arkhangelsk when he heard news of the first Pravda article. Two days before the article was published on the evening of 28 January,^[16] a friend had advised Shostakovich to attend the Bolshoi Theatre production of Lady Macbeth. When he arrived, he saw that Joseph Stalin and the Politburo were there. In letters written to his friend Ivan Sollertinsky, Shostakovich recounted the horror with which he watched as Stalin shuddered every time the brass and percussion played too loudly. Equally horrifying was the way Stalin and his companions laughed at the love-making scene between Sergei and Katerina. Eyewitness accounts testify that Shostakovich was “white as a sheet” when he went to take his bow after the third act.^[17]

The article condemned Lady Macbeth as formalist, “coarse, primitive and vulgar”.^[18] Consequently, commissions began to fall off, and his income fell by about three quarters. Even Soviet music critics who had praised the opera were forced to recant in print, saying they “failed to detect the shortcomings of Lady Macbeth as pointed out by Pravda”.^[19] Shortly after the “Muddle Instead of Music” article, Pravda published another, “Ballet Falsehood,” that criticized Shostakovich’s ballet The Limpid Stream. Shostakovich did not expect this second article because the general public and press already accepted this music as “democratic” – that is, tuneful and accessible. However, Pravda criticized The Limpid Stream for incorrectly displaying peasant life on the collective farm.^[20]

More widely, 1936 marked the beginning of the Great Terror, in which many of the composer’s friends and relatives were imprisoned or killed. These included his patron Marshal Tukhachevsky (shot months after his arrest); his brother-in-law Vsevolod Frederiks (a distinguished physicist, who was eventually released but died before he got home); his close friend Nikolai Zhilyayev (a musicologist who had taught Tukhachevsky; shot shortly after his arrest); his mother-in-law, the astronomer Sofiya Mikhaylovna Varzar (sent to a camp in Karaganda); his friend the Marxist writer Galina Serebryakova (20 years in camps); his uncle Maxim Kostrykin (died); and his colleagues Boris Kornilov and Adrian Piotrovsky (executed).^[21] His only consolation in this period was the birth of his daughter Galina in 1936; his son Maxim was born two years later.

Withdrawal of the Fourth Symphony

The publication of the Pravda editorials coincided with the composition of Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony. The work marked a great shift in style for the composer due to the substantial influence of Gustav Mahler and a number of Western-style elements. The symphony gave Shostakovich compositional trouble, as he attempted to reform his style into a new idiom. The composer was well into the work when the fatal articles appeared. Despite this, Shostakovich continued to compose the symphony and planned a premiere at the end of 1936. Rehearsals began that December, but after a number of rehearsals Shostakovich, for reasons still debated today, decided to withdraw the symphony from the public. A number of his friends and colleagues, such as Isaak Glikman, have suggested that it was in fact an official ban which Shostakovich was persuaded to present as a voluntary withdrawal.^[22] Whatever the case, it seems possible that this action saved the composer’s life: during this time Shostakovich feared for himself and his family. Yet Shostakovich did not repudiate the work; it retained its designation as his Fourth Symphony. A piano reduction was published in 1946, and the work was finally premiered in 1961, well after Stalin’s death.

During 1936 and 1937, in order to maintain as low a profile as possible between the Fourth and Fifth symphonies, Shostakovich mainly composed film music, a genre favored by Stalin and lacking in dangerous personal expression.^[23]

“A Soviet artist’s creative response to just criticism”

The composer’s response to his denunciation was the Fifth Symphony of 1937, which was musically more conservative than his earlier works. Premiering on 21 November 1937 in Leningrad, it was a phenomenal success: many in the Leningrad audience had lost family or friends to the mass executions. The Fifth drove many to tears and welling emotions.^[24] Later, Shostakovich wrote in his supposed memoirs, Testimony: “I’ll never believe that a man who understood nothing could feel the Fifth Symphony. Of course they understood, they understood what was happening around them and they understood what the Fifth was about.”^[25]

The success put Shostakovich in good standing once again. Music critics and the authorities alike, including those who had earlier accused Shostakovich of formalism, claimed that he had learned from his mistakes and had become a true Soviet artist. The composer Dmitry Kabalevsky, who had been among those who disassociated himself from Shostakovich when the Pravda article was published, praised the Fifth Symphony and congratulated Shostakovich for “not having given in to the seductive temptations of his previous ‘erroneous’ ways.”^[26]

It was also at this time that Shostakovich composed the first of his string quartets. His chamber works allowed him to experiment and express ideas which would have been unacceptable in his more public symphonic pieces. In September 1937, he began to teach composition at the Leningrad Conservatory, which provided some financial security but interfered with his own creative work.

Second World War

In 1939, before the Soviet forces attempted to invade Finland, the Party Secretary of Leningrad Andrei Zhdanov commissioned a celebratory piece from Shostakovich, entitled Suite on Finnish Themes to be performed as the marching bands of the Red Army would be parading through the Finnish capital Helsinki. The Winter War was a bitter experience for the Red Army, the parade never happened, and Shostakovich would never lay claim to the authorship of this work.^[27] It was not performed until 2001.^[28]

Lev A. Russov. The Leningrad Symphony conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, 1980

After the outbreak of war between the Soviet Union and Germany in 1941, Shostakovich initially remained in Leningrad. He tried to enlist for the military but was turned away because of his poor eyesight. To compensate, Shostakovich became a volunteer for the Leningrad Conservatory’s firefighter brigade and delivered a radio broadcast to the Soviet people  listen . The photograph for which he posed was published in newspapers throughout the country.^[29]

But his greatest and most famous wartime contribution was the Seventh Symphony. The composer wrote the first three movements in Leningrad and completed the work in Kuibyshev (now Samara) where he and his family had been evacuated. Whether or not Shostakovich really conceived the idea of the symphony with the siege of Leningrad in mind, it was officially claimed as a representation of the people of Leningrad’s brave resistance to the German invaders and an authentic piece of patriotic art at a time when morale needed boosting. The symphony was first premiered by the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra in Kuibyshev and was soon performed abroad in London and the United States. However, the most compelling performance was the Leningrad premiere by the Radio Orchestra in the besieged city. The orchestra had only fourteen musicians left, so the conductor Karl Eliasberg had to recruit anyone who could play a musical instrument to perform the symphony.^[30]

In spring 1943, the family moved to Moscow. At the time of the Eighth Symphony‘s premiere, the tide had turned for the Red Army. Therefore, the public, and most importantly the authorities, wanted another triumphant piece from the composer. Instead, they got the Eighth Symphony, perhaps the ultimate in sombre and violent expression within Shostakovich’s output. In order to preserve the image of Shostakovich (a vital bridge to the people of the Union and to the West), the government assigned the name “Stalingrad” to the symphony, giving it the appearance of a mourning of the dead in the bloody Battle of Stalingrad. However, the symphony did not escape criticism. Shostakovich is reported to have said: “When the Eighth was performed, it was openly declared counter-revolutionary and anti-Soviet. They said, ‘Why did Shostakovich write an optimistic symphony at the beginning of the war and a tragic one now? At the beginning we were retreating and now we’re attacking, destroying the Fascists. And Shostakovich is acting tragic, that means he’s on the side of the fascists.'”^[31] The work was unofficially but effectively banned until 1956.^[32]

The Ninth Symphony (1945), in contrast, was much lighter in tone. Gavriil Popov wrote that it was “splendid in its joie de vivre, gaiety, brilliance, and pungency!!^[33] By 1946, however, it was the subject of criticism. Israel Nestyev asked whether it was the right time for “a light and amusing interlude between Shostakovich’s significant creations, a temporary rejection of great, serious problems for the sake of playful, filigree-trimmed trifles.”^[34] The New York World-Telegram of 27 July 1946 was similarly dismissive: “The Russian composer should not have expressed his feelings about the defeat of Nazism in such a childish manner”. Shostakovich continued to compose chamber music, notably his Second Piano Trio (Op. 67), dedicated to the memory of Sollertinsky, with a bittersweet, Jewish-themed totentanz finale.

Second denunciation

From left to right: Sergei Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, 1945^[35]

In 1948, Shostakovich, along with many other composers, was again denounced for formalism in the Zhdanov decree. Andrei Zhdanov, Chairman of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, accused Shostakovich and other composers (such as Sergei Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian) for writing inappropriate and formalist music. This was part of an ongoing anti-formalism campaign intended to root out all Western compositional influence as well as any perceived “non-Russian” output. The conference resulted in the publication of the Central Committee’s Decree “On V. Muradeli’s opera The Great Friendship,” which was targeted towards all Soviet composers and demanded that they only write “proletarian” music, or music for the masses. The accused composers, including Shostakovich, were summoned to make public apologies in front of the committee.^[36][37] Most of Shostakovich’s works were banned, and his family had privileges withdrawn. Yuri Lyubimov says that at this time “he waited for his arrest at night out on the landing by the lift, so that at least his family wouldn’t be disturbed.”^[38]

The consequences of the decree for composers were harsh. Shostakovich was among those who were dismissed from the Conservatoire altogether. For Shostakovich, the loss of money was perhaps the largest blow. Others still in the Conservatory experienced an atmosphere that was thick with suspicion. No one wanted their work to be understood as formalist, so many resorted to accusing their colleagues of writing or performing anti-proletarian music.^[39]

In the next few years, he composed three categories of work: film music to pay the rent, official works aimed at securing official rehabilitation, and serious works “for the desk drawer”. The latter included the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the song cycle From Jewish Folk Poetry. The cycle was written at a time when the post-war anti-Semitic campaign was already under way, with widespread arrests including of I. Dobrushin and Yiditsky, the compilers of the book from which Shostakovich took his texts.^[40]

The restrictions on Shostakovich’s music and living arrangements were eased in 1949, when Stalin decided that the Soviets needed to send artistic representatives to the Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace in New York City, and that Shostakovich should be amongst them. For Shostakovich, it was a humiliating experience culminating in a New York press conference where he was expected to read a prepared speech. Nicolas Nabokov, who was present in the audience, witnessed Shostakovich starting to read “in a nervous and shaky voice” before he had to break off “and the speech was continued in English by a suave radio baritone”.^[41] Fully aware that Shostakovich was not free to speak his mind, Nabokov publicly asked the composer whether he supported the then recent denunciation of Stravinsky’s music in the Soviet Union. Shostakovich, who was a great admirer of Stravinsky and had been influenced by his music, had no alternative but to answer in the affirmative. Nabokov did not hesitate to publish that this demonstrated that Shostakovich was “not a free man, but an obedient tool of his government.”^[42] Shostakovich never forgave Nabokov for this public humiliation.^[43] That same year Shostakovich was obliged to compose the cantata Song of the Forests, which praised Stalin as the “great gardener.” In 1951 the composer was made a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of RSFSR.

Stalin’s death in 1953 was the biggest step towards Shostakovich’s rehabilitation as a creative artist, which was marked by his Tenth Symphony. It features a number of musical quotations and codes (notably the DSCH and Elmira motifs, Elmira Nazirova being a pianist and composer who had studied under Shostakovich in the year prior to his dismissal from the Moscow Conservatoire),^[44] the meaning of which is still debated, whilst the savage second movement, according to Testimony, is intended as a musical portrait of Stalin himself. The Symphony ranks alongside the Fifth and Seventh as one of his most popular works. 1953 also saw a stream of premieres of the “desk drawer” works.

During the forties and fifties, Shostakovich had close relationships with two of his pupils: Galina Ustvolskaya and Elmira Nazirova. In the background to all this remained Shostakovich’s first, open marriage to Nina Varzar until her death in 1954. He taught Ustvolskaya from 1937 to 1947. The nature of their relationship is far from clear: Mstislav Rostropovich described it as “tender”. Ustvolskaya rejected a proposal of marriage from him after Nina’s death.^[45] Shostakovich’s daughter, Galina, recalled her father consulting her and Maxim about the possibility of Ustvolskaya becoming their stepmother.^[46] Ustvolskaya’s friend, Viktor Suslin, said that she had been “deeply disappointed” in Shostakovich by the time of her graduation in 1947. The relationship with Nazirova seems to have been one-sided, expressed largely through his letters to her, and can be dated to around 1953 to 1956. He married his second wife, Komsomol activist Margarita Kainova, in 1956; the couple proved ill-matched, and divorced three years later.

In 1954, Shostakovich wrote the Festive Overture, opus 96, that was used as the theme music for the 1980 Summer Olympics.^[47] In addition his ‘”Theme from the film Pirogov, Opus 76a: Finale” was played as the cauldron was lit at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

In 1959, Shostakovich appeared on stage in Moscow at the end of a concert performance of his Fifth Symphony, congratulating Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for their performance (part of a concert tour of the Soviet Union). Later that year, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic recorded the symphony in Boston for Columbia Records.

Joining the Party

The year 1960 marked another turning point in Shostakovich’s life: he joined the Communist Party. The government wanted to appoint him General Secretary of the Composers’ Union, but in order to hold that position he was required to attain Party membership. It was understood that Nikita Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party from 1958 to 1964, was looking for support from the leading ranks of the intelligentsia in an effort to create a better relationship with the Soviet Union’s artists.^[48] This event has been interpreted variously as a show of commitment, a mark of cowardice, the result of political pressure, or as his free decision. On the one hand, the apparat was undoubtedly less repressive than it had been before Stalin’s death. On the other, his son recalled that the event reduced Shostakovich to tears,^[49] and he later told his wife Irina that he had been blackmailed.^[50] Lev Lebedinsky has said that the composer was suicidal.^[51] Once he joined the Party, several articles denouncing individualism in music were published in Pravda under his name, though he did not actually write them. In addition, in joining the party, Shostakovich was also committing himself to finally writing the homage to Lenin that he had promised before. His Twelfth Symphony, which portrays the Bolshevik Revolution and was completed in 1961, was dedicated to Vladimir Lenin and called “The Year 1917.”^[52] Around this time, his health also began to deteriorate.

Shostakovich in 1950

Shostakovich’s musical response to these personal crises was the Eighth String Quartet, composed in only three days. He subtitled the piece, “To the victims of fascism and war”,^[53] ostensibly in memory of the Dresden fire bombing that took place in 1945. Yet, like the Tenth Symphony, this quartet incorporates quotations from several of his past works and his musical monogram: Shostakovich confessed to his friend Isaak Glikman “I started thinking that if some day I die, nobody is likely to write a work in memory of me, so I had better write one myself.”^[54] Several of Shostakovich’s colleagues, including Natalya Vovsi-Mikhoels^[55] and the cellist Valentin Berlinsky,^[56] were also aware of the Eighth Quartet’s biographical intent.

In 1962 he married for the third time, to Irina Supinskaya. In a letter to Glikman, he wrote “her only defect is that she is 27 years old. In all other respects she is splendid: clever, cheerful, straightforward and very likeable.”^[57] According to Galina Vishnevskaya, who knew the Shostakoviches well, this marriage was a very happy one: “It was with her that Dmitri Dmitriyevich finally came to know domestic peace… Surely, she prolonged his life by several years.”^[58] In November he made his only venture into conducting, conducting a couple of his own works in Gorky;^[59] otherwise he declined to conduct, citing nerves and ill health as his reasons.

That year saw Shostakovich again turn to the subject of anti-Semitism in his Thirteenth Symphony (subtitled Babi Yar). The symphony sets a number of poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the first of which commemorates a massacre of Ukrainian Jews during the Second World War. Opinions are divided how great a risk this was: the poem had been published in Soviet media, and was not banned, but it remained controversial. After the symphony’s premiere, Yevtushenko was forced to add a stanza to his poem which said that Russians and Ukrainians had died alongside the Jews at Babi Yar.

In 1965 Shostakovich raised his voice in defense of poet Joseph Brodsky, who was sentenced to five years of exile and hard labor. Shostakovich co-signed protests together with Yevtushenko and fellow Soviet artists Kornei Chukovsky, Anna Akhmatova, Samuil Marshak, and the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. After the protests the sentence was commuted, and Brodsky returned to Leningrad. Shostakovich also joined a group of 25 distinguished intellectuals in signing a letter to Leonid Brezhnev asking not to rehabilitate Stalin.^[60]

• (Russian) Original: “Pismo 25-ti deyatelei kulturi Brezhnevu o tendezii reabilitazii Stalina” [About the tendency toward Stalin’s rehabilitation: The letter to Brezhnev signed by twenty-five intellectuals], Sobranie Documentov Samizdata [Collection of Samizdat Documents, SDS], vol. 4, AC no. 273 (1966)

• (Russian) Online: “Письмо 25 деятелей советской науки, литературы и искусства Л. И. Брежневу против реабилитации И. В. Сталина”. Институт истории естествознания и техники им. С.И. Вавилова РАН. Retrieved 26 February 2013.

Later life

In 1964 Shostakovich composed the music for the Russian film Hamlet, which was favourably reviewed by the New York Times: “But the lack of this aural stimulation – of Shakespeare’s eloquent words – is recompensed in some measure by a splendid and stirring musical score by Dmitri Shostakovich. This has great dignity and depth, and at times an appropriate wildness or becoming levity”.^[61]

In later life, Shostakovich suffered from chronic ill health, but he resisted giving up cigarettes and vodka. Beginning in 1958 he suffered from a debilitating condition that particularly affected his right hand, eventually forcing him to give up piano playing; in 1965 it was diagnosed as poliomyelitis. He also suffered heart attacks the following year and again in 1971, and several falls in which he broke both his legs; in 1967 he wrote in a letter:

“Target achieved so far: 75% (right leg broken, left leg broken, right hand defective). All I need to do now is wreck the left hand and then 100% of my extremities will be out of order.”^[62]

A preoccupation with his own mortality permeates Shostakovich’s later works, among them the later quartets and the Fourteenth Symphony of 1969 (a song cycle based on a number of poems on the theme of death). This piece also finds Shostakovich at his most extreme with musical language, with twelve-tone themes and dense polyphony used throughout. Shostakovich dedicated this score to his close friend Benjamin Britten, who conducted its Western premiere at the 1970 Aldeburgh Festival. The Fifteenth Symphony of 1971 is, by contrast, melodic and retrospective in nature, quoting Wagner, Rossini and the composer’s own Fourth Symphony.

Shostakovich died of lung cancer on 9 August 1975 and after a civic funeral was interred in the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow. Even before his death he had been commemorated with the naming of the Shostakovich Peninsula on Alexander Island, Antarctica.

Shostakovich voting in the election of the Council of Administration of Soviet Musicians in Moscow in 1974

He was survived by his third wife, Irina; his daughter, Galina; and his son, Maxim, a pianist and conductor who was the dedicatee and first performer of some of his father’s works. Shostakovich himself left behind several recordings of his own piano works, while other noted interpreters of his music include his friends Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Maria Yudina, David Oistrakh, and members of the Beethoven Quartet.

His last work was his Viola Sonata, which was first performed on 28 December 1975, four months after his death.

Shostakovich’s musical influence on later composers outside the former Soviet Union has been relatively slight, although Alfred Schnittke took up his eclecticism, and his contrasts between the dynamic and the static, and some of André Previn‘s music shows clear links to Shostakovich’s style of orchestration. His influence can also be seen in some Nordic composers, such as Lars-Erik Larsson.^[63] Many of his Russian contemporaries, and his pupils at the Leningrad Conservatory, however, were strongly influenced by his style (including German Okunev, Boris Tishchenko, whose 5th Symphony of 1978 is dedicated to Shostakovich’s memory, Sergei Slonimsky, and others). Shostakovich’s conservative idiom has grown increasingly popular with audiences both within and beyond Russia, as the avant-garde has declined in influence and debate about his political views has developed.

Music

For a complete list of Shostakovich’s compositions, see List of compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich.

For a thematical selection of works by Shostakovich, see Category:Compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Overview

Shostakovich’s works are broadly tonal and in the Romantic tradition, but with elements of atonality and chromaticism. In some of his later works (e.g., the Twelfth Quartet), he made use of tone rows. His output is dominated by his cycles of symphonies and string quartets, each totaling fifteen works. The symphonies are distributed fairly evenly throughout his career, while the quartets are concentrated towards the latter part. Among the most popular are the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies and the Eighth and Fifteenth Quartets. Other works include the operas Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, The Nose and the unfinished The Gamblers based on the comedy of Nikolai Gogol; six concertos (two each for piano, violin and cello); two piano trios; and a large quantity of film music.

Shostakovich’s music shows the influence of many of the composers he most admired: Bach in his fugues and passacaglias; Beethoven in the late quartets; Mahler in the symphonies and Berg in his use of musical codes and quotations. Among Russian composers, he particularly admired Modest Mussorgsky, whose operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina he re-orchestrated; Mussorgsky’s influence is most prominent in the wintry scenes of Lady Macbeth and the Eleventh Symphony, as well as in his satirical works such as “Rayok“.^[64] Prokofiev‘s influence is most apparent in the earlier piano works, such as the first sonata and first concerto.^[65] The influence of Russian church and folk music is very evident in his works for unaccompanied choir of the 1950s.

Shostakovich’s relationship with Stravinsky was profoundly ambivalent; as he wrote to Glikman, “Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise.”^[66] He was particularly enamoured of the Symphony of Psalms, presenting a copy of his own piano version of it to Stravinsky when the latter visited the USSR in 1962. (The meeting of the two composers was not very successful, however; observers commented on Shostakovich’s extreme nervousness and Stravinsky’s “cruelty” to him.)^[67]

Many commentators have noted the disjunction between the experimental works before the 1936 denunciation and the more conservative ones that followed; the composer told Flora Litvinova, “without ‘Party guidance’ … I would have displayed more brilliance, used more sarcasm, I could have revealed my ideas openly instead of having to resort to camouflage.”^[68] Articles published by Shostakovich in 1934 and 1935 cited Berg, Schoenberg, Krenek, Hindemith, “and especially Stravinsky” among his influences.^[69] Key works of the earlier period are the First Symphony, which combined the academicism of the conservatory with his progressive inclinations; The Nose (“The most uncompromisingly modernist of all his stage-works”^[70]); Lady Macbeth. which precipitated the denunciation; and the Fourth Symphony, described in Grove’s Dictionary as “a colossal synthesis of Shostakovich’s musical development to date”.^[71] The Fourth Symphony was also the first in which the influence of Mahler came to the fore, prefiguring the route Shostakovich was to take to secure his rehabilitation, while he himself admitted that the preceding two were his least successful.^[72]

In the years after 1936, Shostakovich’s symphonic works were outwardly musically conservative, regardless of any subversive political content. During this time he turned increasingly to chamber works, a field that permitted the composer to explore different and often darker ideas without inviting external scrutiny.^[73] While his chamber works were largely tonal, they gave Shostakovich an outlet for sombre reflection not welcomed in his more public works. This is most apparent in the late chamber works, which portray what is described in Grove’s Dictionary as a “world of purgatorial numbness”;^[74] in some of these he included the use of tone rows, although he treated these as melodic themes rather than serially. Vocal works are also a prominent feature of his late output, setting texts often concerned with love, death and art.

Jewish themes

Even before the Stalinist anti-Semitic campaigns in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Shostakovich showed an interest in Jewish themes. He was intrigued by Jewish music’s “ability to build a jolly melody on sad intonations”.^[75] Examples of works that included Jewish themes are the Fourth String Quartet (1949), the First Violin Concerto (1948), and the Four Monologues on Pushkin Poems (1952), as well as the Piano Trio in E minor (1944). He was further inspired to write with Jewish themes when he examined Moisei Beregovski’s thesis on the theme of Jewish folk music in 1946.

In 1948, Shostakovich acquired a book of Jewish folk songs, and from this he composed the song cycle From Jewish Poetry. He initially wrote eight songs that were meant to represent the hardships of being Jewish in the Soviet Union. However in order to disguise this, Shostakovich ended up adding three more songs meant to demonstrate the great life Jews had under the Soviet regime. Despite his efforts to hide the real meaning in the work, the Union of Composers refused to approve his music in 1949 under the pressure of the anti-Semitism that gripped the country. From Jewish Poetry could not be performed until after Stalin’s death in March 1953, along with all the other works that were forbidden.^[76]

Posthumous publications

In 2004, the musicologist Olga Digonskaya discovered a trove of Shostakovich manuscripts at the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture, Moscow. In a cardboard file were some “300 pages of musical sketches, pieces and scores” in the hand of Shostakovich. “A composer friend bribed Shostakovich’s housemaid to regularly deliver the contents of Shostakovich’s office waste bin to him, instead of taking it to the garbage. Some of those cast-offs eventually found their way into the Glinka. … The Glinka archive ‘contained a huge number of pieces and compositions which were completely unknown or could be traced quite indirectly,’ Digonskaya said.”^[77]

Among these were Shostakovich’s piano and vocal sketches for a prologue to an opera, Orango (1932). They have been orchestrated by the British composer Gerard McBurney and this work was premiered in December 2011 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.^{[77][78][79][80][81]}

Criticism

According to Shostakovich scholar Gerard McBurney, opinion is divided on whether his music is “of visionary power and originality, as some maintain, or, as others think, derivative, trashy, empty and second-hand”.^[82] William Walton, his British contemporary, described him as “the greatest composer of the 20th century”.^[83] Musicologist David Fanning concludes in Grove’s Dictionary that, “Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of his fellow countrymen, and his personal ideals of humanitarian and public service, he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power.”^[84]

Some modern composers have been critical. Pierre Boulez dismissed Shostakovich’s music as “the second, or even third pressing of Mahler“.^[85] The Romanian composer and Webern disciple Philip Gershkovich called Shostakovich “a hack in a trance”.^[86] A related complaint is that Shostakovich’s style is vulgar and strident: Stravinsky wrote of Lady Macbeth: “brutally hammering … and monotonous”.^[87] English composer and musicologist Robin Holloway described his music as “battleship-grey in melody and harmony, factory-functional in structure; in content all rhetoric and coercion.”^[88]

In the 1980s, the Finnish conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen was critical of Shostakovich and refused to conduct his music. For instance, he said in 1987:

Shostakovich is in many ways a polar counter-force for Stravinsky. […] When I have said that the 7th symphony of Shostakovich is a dull and unpleasant composition, people have responded: “Yes, yes, but think of the background of that symphony.” Such an attitude does no good to anyone.^[89]

However, Salonen has since performed and recorded several of Shostakovich’s works, including the Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (1999), the Violin Concerto No. 1 (2010), the Prologue to “Orango” and the Symphony No. 4 (2012).

It is certainly true that Shostakovich borrows extensively from the material and styles both of earlier composers and of popular music; the vulgarity of “low” music is a notable influence on this “greatest of eclectics”.^[90] McBurney traces this to the avant-garde artistic circles of the early Soviet period in which Shostakovich moved early in his career, and argues that these borrowings were a deliberate technique to allow him to create “patterns of contrast, repetition, exaggeration” that gave his music the large-scale structure it required.^[91]

Personality

Shostakovich with close friend Ivan Sollertinsky

Shostakovich was in many ways an obsessive man: according to his daughter he was “obsessed with cleanliness”;^[92] he synchronised the clocks in his apartment; he regularly sent cards to himself to test how well the postal service was working. Elizabeth Wilson‘s Shostakovich: A Life Remembered (1994 edition) indexes 26 references to his nervousness. Mikhail Druskin remembers that even as a young man the composer was “fragile and nervously agile”.^[93] Yuri Lyubimov comments, “The fact that he was more vulnerable and receptive than other people was no doubt an important feature of his genius”.^[94] In later life, Krzysztof Meyer recalled, “his face was a bag of tics and grimaces”.^[95]

In his lighter moods, sport was one of his main recreations, although he preferred spectating or umpiring to participating (he was a qualified football referee). His favourite football club was Zenit Leningrad, which he would watch regularly.^[96] He also enjoyed playing card games, particularly patience. He was fond of satirical writers such as Gogol, Chekhov and Mikhail Zoshchenko. The influence of the latter in particular is evident in his letters, which include wry parodies of Soviet officialese. Zoshchenko himself noted the contradictions in the composer’s character: “he is … frail, fragile, withdrawn, an infinitely direct, pure child … [but he is also] hard, acid, extremely intelligent, strong perhaps, despotic and not altogether good-natured (although cerebrally good-natured)”.^[97]

He was diffident by nature: Flora Litvinova has said he was “completely incapable of saying ‘No’ to anybody.”^[98] This meant he was easily persuaded to sign official statements, including a denunciation of Andrei Sakharov in 1973; on the other hand he was willing to try to help constituents in his capacities as chairman of the Composers’ Union and Deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Oleg Prokofiev commented that “he tried to help so many people that … less and less attention was paid to his pleas.”^[99] When asked if he believed in God, Shostakovich said “No, and I am very sorry about it.”^[100]

 

Orthodoxy and revisionism

Shostakovich represented himself in some works with the DSCH motif, consisting of D-E♭-C-B.

Main article: Testimony (book)

Shostakovich’s response to official criticism and, what is more important, the question of whether he used music as a kind of covert dissidence is a matter of dispute. He outwardly conformed to government policies and positions, reading speeches and putting his name to articles expressing the government line.^[101] But it is evident he disliked many aspects of the regime, as confirmed by his family, his letters to Isaak Glikman, and the satirical cantata “Rayok“, which ridiculed the “anti-formalist” campaign and was kept hidden until after his death.^[102] He was a close friend of Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who was executed in 1937 during the Great Purge.

It is also uncertain to what extent Shostakovich expressed his opposition to the state in his music. The revisionist view was put forth by Solomon Volkov in the 1979 book Testimony, which was claimed to be Shostakovich’s memoirs dictated to Volkov. The book alleged that many of the composer’s works contained coded anti-government messages, that would place Shostakovich in a tradition of Russian artists outwitting censorship that goes back at least to the early 19th century poet Alexander Pushkin. It is known that he incorporated many quotations and motifs in his work, most notably his signature DSCH theme.^[103] His longtime collaborator Yevgeny Mravinsky said that “Shostakovich very often explained his intentions with very specific images and connotations.”^[104]

The revisionist perspective has subsequently been supported by his children, Maxim and Galina, and many Russian musicians. Volkov has further argued, both in Testimony and in Shostakovich and Stalin, that Shostakovich adopted the role of the yurodivy or holy fool in his relations with the government. Other prominent revisionists are Ian MacDonald, whose book The New Shostakovich put forward further revisionist interpretations of his music, and Elizabeth Wilson, whose Shostakovich: A Life Remembered provides testimony from many of the composer’s acquaintances.

Musicians and scholars including Laurel Fay^[105] and Richard Taruskin contest the authenticity and debate the significance of Testimony, alleging that Volkov compiled it from a combination of recycled articles, gossip, and possibly some information direct from the composer. Fay documents these allegations in her 2002 article ‘Volkov’s Testimony reconsidered’,^[106] showing that the only pages of the original Testimony manuscript that Shostakovich had signed and verified are word-for-word reproductions of earlier interviews given by the composer, none of which are controversial. (Against this, it has been pointed out by Allan B. Ho and Dmitry Feofanov that at least two of the signed pages contain controversial material: for instance, “on the first page of chapter 3, where [Shostakovich] notes that the plaque that reads ‘In this house lived [Vsevolod] Meyerhold‘ should also say ‘And in this house his wife was brutally murdered’.”)^[107]

Recorded legacy

A Russian stamp in Shostakovich’s memory

In May 1958, during a visit to Paris, Shostakovich recorded his two piano concertos with André Cluytens, as well as some short piano works. These were issued by EMI on an LP, reissued by Seraphim Records on LP, and eventually digitally remastered and released on CD. Shostakovich recorded the two concertos in stereo in Moscow for Melodiya. Shostakovich also played the piano solos in recordings of the Cello Sonata, Op. 40 with cellist Daniil Shafran and also with Mstislav Rostropovich; the Violin Sonata, Op. 134, with violinist David Oistrakh; and the Piano Trio, Op. 67 with violinist David Oistrakh and cellist Miloš Sádlo. There is also a short sound film of Shostakovich as soloist in a 1930s concert performance of the closing moments of his first piano concerto. A colour film of Shostakovich supervising one of his operas, from his last year, was also made.^[108] A major achievement was the recording of the original, unexpurgated score for Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by EMI. There was at least one recording of the cleaned up version, Katerina Ismailova that Shostakovich had made to satisfy Soviet censorship. But when conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya were finally allowed to emigrate to the West, the composer begged them to record the full original score, which they did in 1979. It features Vishnevskaya as Katerina, Nicolai Gedda as Sergei, Dimiter Petkov as Boris Ismailov and a brilliant supporting cast under Rostropovich’s direction.

Awards

Soviet Union

• Hero of Socialist Labor (1966)
• Order of Lenin (1946, 1956, 1966)
• Order of the October Revolution (1971)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1940)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (1972)
• People’s Artist of the USSR (1954)
• People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1948)
• International Peace Prize (1954)
• Lenin Prize (1958 – for the 11th symphony “1905”)
• Stalin Prize in arts (1941 – 1st class, for Piano Quintet; 1942 – 1st class, for the 7th (“Leningrad”) Symphony; 1946 – 2nd class, for Trio; 1950 – 1st class, for the music for the film Encounter at the Elbe; 1952 – 2nd class, for 10 poems for chorus)
• USSR State Prize (1968 – for the poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin” for bass, chorus and orchestra)
• Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (1974 – for the 14th string quartet and choral cycle “Fidelity”)
• National Prize of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko (posthumously, 1976 – USSR State Prize named after Taras Shevchenko – for the opera “Katerina Ismailov,” staged in KUGATOB Shevchenko)

United Kingdom

• Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1966)

Finland

• Sibelius Award (1958)

United States

• Oscar nomination for Khovanshchina, Best Score (Musical) in 1961

Austria

• Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in Silver (1967)

Denmark

• Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1974)

 

 

historic musical bits: Rudolf Firkušný: Humoresques op. 101, Antonín Dvořák

Rudolf Firkušný: Humoresques op. 101, Antonín Dvořák

Tournesol Hélianthème

Published on Jun 14, 2013

The Humoresques in the “right” order!

00:00 n°1
02:19 n°2
04:43 n°3
08:24 n°4
10:46 n°6
13:44 n°7
16:25 n°8

Enr. 1972

http://www.bruceduffie.com/firkusny.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgID..

historic musical bits: Paul Tortelier “Cello Sonata in D minor” by Debussy (1959)

Paul Tortelier “Cello Sonata D minor” Debussy

Addiobelpassato

Published on Jun 12, 2013

Cello Sonata in D minor by
Claude Debussy
1. Prologue
2. Sérénade
3. Finale
Paul Tortelier, cello
Ernest Lush, piano
10.II.1959

historic musical bits: Itzhak Perlman – Pugnani Kreisler-Preludium and Allegro

Itzhak Perlman-Pugnani Kreisler-Preludium and Allegro

Mario Palermo

Uploaded on Jun 23, 2008/ 1,531,550 views

• Music

  • “Prelude and Allegro in the style of Pugnani” by Itzhak Perlman (Google Play)

Great compositions/performances: Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major Op 10, No. 3. Daniel Barenboim, piano

Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major Op 10, No. 3.
Daniel Barenboim, piano

Pakito Palote

Published on Feb 20, 2013

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata para piano Nº 7 en Re mayor, Opus 10 Nº 3
1. Presto
2. Largo e mesto
3. Menuetto: Allegro
4. Rondo: Allegro

Daniel Barenboim, piano

The Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major Op 10 No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven is the largest of Opus 10. It was composed in 1798 and dedicated to Countess Anna Margarete von Browne.
The third movement is a minuet with trio next to a scherzo style. The fourth movement is famous for its silences. ( Google Translate)

La Sonata para piano Nº 7 en Re mayor Opus 10 Nº 3 de Ludwig van Beethoven es la más extensa del Opus 10. Fue compuesta en 1798 y está dedicada a la Condesa Anna Margarete von Browne.
El tercer movimiento es un minué con trio, de estilo próximo al de un scherzo. El cuarto movimiento es famoso por sus silencios.

great compositions/performances: Anne-Sophie Mutter – Brahms – Violin Sonata No 2 in A major, Op 100

Anne-Sophie Mutter – Brahms – Violin Sonata No 2 in A major, Op 100

Classical Vault 1

Published on Sep 28, 2013

Johannes Brahms
Violin Sonata No 2 in A major, Op 100

1 Allegro amabile
2 Andante tranquillo – Vivace
3 Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante)

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Lambert Orkis, piano
*********************************************************************

Violin Sonata No. 2 (Brahms)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100 (“Thun” or “Meistersinger”), by Johannes Brahms was written while spending the summer of 1886 in Thun in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.

It was a very fertile and refreshing time for Brahms. His friend the Swiss pastor and poet Josef Victor Widmann (1842–1911) lived in Berne and they visited each other. He was also visited by the poet Klaus Groth and the young German contralto Hermine Spies. Both Groth and Brahms were somewhat enamoured of Spies.^[1] He found himself so invigorated by the genial atmosphere and surroundings that he said the area was “so full of melodies that one has to be careful not to step on any”. In a short space of time, he produced, in addition to this violin sonata, the Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99, the Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101, and various songs.

The 2nd Violin Sonata is the shortest^[2] and is considered the most lyrical of Brahms’s three violin sonatas.^[3] It is also considered the most difficult of the three to bring off successfully, and to exhibit its balance of lyricism and virtuosity.^[4] It maintains a radiant, happy mood throughout.^[2][5]

It consists of three movements, with the middle movement doing service as both a slow movement and a scherzo:^[1]

• 1. Allegro amabile
• 2. Andante tranquillo – Vivace – Andante – Vivace di più – Andante – Vivace
• 3. Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante).

By giving the work the formal title of “Sonata for Piano and Violin”, rather than the more usual “Sonata for Violin and Piano”, Brahms indicated the piano part was just as important as the violin part.^[2] In keeping with this, he allowed the piano to announce the opening theme. The first three notes of the first movement are very similar in both melody and harmony^[6] to the first three notes of “Walther’s Prize Song” (Morgenlich leuchtend im rosigen Schein) from Richard Wagner‘s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Although they were musical rivals, Brahms was a great admirer of Wagner’s music,^[6] but whether this was a deliberate quotation on Brahms’s part is open to speculation. Nevertheless, the sonata has often been subtitled the “Meistersinger” Sonata.^[4] It is also sometimes called the “Thun” Sonata from the place of its creation.

Motives from three of the songs Brahms wrote that summer with Hermine Spies’s voice in mind^[1] appear fleetingly in the sonata: “Wie Melodien zieht es mir leise durch den Sinn”, Op. 105/1 (“Like melodies it steals softly through my mind”; words by Klaus Groth) makes an appearance in the second subject of the first movement. “Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer”, Op. 105/2 (“Ever gentle is my sleep”; words by Hermann Lingg) and “Auf dem Kirchhofe”, Op. 105/4 (words by Detlev von Liliencron) are quoted in the final movement.^[1][7] The song “Komm bald”, Op. 97/5 (“Come soon”; words by Groth) is also said have provided thematic inspiration for the sonata.^[8]

The Violin Sonata No. 2 was premiered in Vienna on 2 December 1886 by the violinist Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. and Brahms himself at the piano.^[1][2]

Brahms’s friend the poet Josef Widmann later wrote a poem to be accompanied by the sonata.^[9]

External links

• Violin Sonata No. 2 (Brahms): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

historic musical bits: Pollini Chopin Mazurka op.56 No.3 Vienna 1986

Pollini Chopin Mazurka op.56 No.3 Live

StockhausenIsMyCat .

Uploaded on Jul 23, 2011

Chopin Mazurka in C minor op. 56 No.3;
Pollini live,
Vienna 1986

great compositions/performances: Julia Fischer – Tchaikovsky – Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42

Julia Fischer – Tchaikovsky – Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42

Cantus 5

Published on Feb 17, 2015

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42

Julia Fischer, violin
Yakov Kreizberg, piano

Hilversum, April 2006

great compositions/performances: Saint-Saëns – Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) (1886)

Saint-Saëns – Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) (1886)

musicanth

Uploaded on May 24, 2011

Le carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) (1886)

I. Introduction et marche royale du lion (Introduction and Royal March of the Lion) [0:00]
II. Poules et coqs (Hens and Roosters) [1:58]
III. Hémiones – animaux véloces (Wild Asses – quick animals) [2:42]
IV. Tortues (Tortoises) [3:22]
V. L’éléphant (The Elephant) [5:24]
VI. Kangourous (Kangaroos) [6:55]
VII. Aquarium [7:51]
VIII. Personnages à longues oreilles (Characters with Long Ears) [9:58]
IX. Le coucou au fond des bois (The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Woods) [10:35]
X. Volière (Aviary) [12:40]
XI. Pianistes (Pianists) [13:52]
XII. Fossiles (Fossils) [15:15]
XIII. Le cygne (The Swan) [16:41]
XIV. Finale [19:40]

This is a famous musical suite by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), written while on vacation in Austria in 1886. It is scored for a chamber ensemble of flute/piccolo, clarinet (B flat and C), two pianos, glass harmonica, xylophone, two violins, viola, cello and double bass – in this recording, a full orchestral string section is used, and instead of the glass harmonica, there is a glockenspiel. Saint-Saëns believed that the work was too frivolous to publish during his lifetime, and for this reason, he only gave private performances to his close friends. He left a provision for it to be published posthumously, so the Carnival of the Animals only received a formal premiere one year after the composer’s death.

Each of the fourteen movements depicts a different animal, often with plenty of humour and wit. The first is the majestic march of the king of the animals – the lion – played by strings and pianos. The low, rumbling octave figure passed between the pianos is, of course, the lion’s mighty roar. The second movement (for pianos, clarinet, violins and violas) sees hens and roosters squawking while pecking at grains on the ground. The distinctive theme played by the piano is the rooster’s “cock a doodle doo” call. Next, Tibetan wild asses – portrayed by the two pianos in unison – gallop frenetically through the scene. In contrast, the next movement for strings and piano depicts the slow, laborious movement of tortoises. This satirical section takes its main theme from the famous Galop infernal (or the can-can) in Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld” – but it is played exceedingly slowly. Then, the double bass and piano play a pompous, heavy-handed dance for the elephant. The thematic material derives from the scherzo in Mendelssohn’s incidental music to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and the ballet of the sylphs in Berlioz’s “The Damnation of Faust”. The brief sixth movement sees two pianos play an abrupt, bouncy figure depicting hopping kangaroos. Next, we find ourselves inside the shimmering water of an aquarium full of graceful fish. This movement is played by strings, pianos, flute, and glockenspiel. The pianos play a high rolling ostinato – one in decuplets and the other in sextuplets. There follows a short movement for violins that sound like braying donkeys; perhaps Saint-Saëns meant the donkeys to represent asinine music critics. Next, the pianos and an offstage clarinet play a slow movement where a cuckoo’s call breaks the quiet of the woods. The tenth movement for flute, piano and strings depicts an aviary abuzz with quiet activity, over which a tropical bird (the flute) sings a melody full of trills and scales. Then, we see a very different type of animal – pianists (who, after all, are primates). The two pianists awkwardly practice scale patterns similar to those found in Hanon exercises. The whole time, they stumble over notes and break unison – evidently they need more practice. Three loud unresolved chords lead into the next movement for strings, pianos, clarinet and xylophone, depicting fossils. The hollow sound of the xylophone evokes bones clacking together. The melody is from Saint-Saëns’ “Danse macabre”, the dance of skeletons. Other musical allusions in this movement include “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman” (a.k.a. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”), “Partant pour la Syrie”, the nursery rhymes “Au clair de la lune” and “J’ai du bon tabac”, and a snippet from the aria “Una voce poco fa” from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville”. The series of allusions is itself a musical joke, since these old tunes are cultural fossils. The penultimate movement played by the cello and pianos shows the graceful gliding of a swan over a rippling lake. This very well-known section has become a stand-alone staple of the cello repertoire as well as the brief Fokine ballet “The Dying Swan”. Last comes the finale for the full ensemble, where themes from previous movements are reprised and combined to close the suite with excitement and panache.

Pianists: Vivian Troon, Roderick Elms
Conductor: Andrea Licata
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

great compositions/performances: Tchaikovsky Overture 1812 for Piano| Valentina Lisitsa

Tchaikovsky Overture 1812 for Piano | Valentina Lisitsa

ValentinaLisitsa

Published on Oct 7, 2015

Piano arrangement by Yessipov. Freely available on IMSLP .
Warning: one of the most technically challenging pieces ever 🙂

Recorded September 5-9 2015 at the wonderful http://www.schaubuehne.com/

Performers – me at the piano,
Benjamin at bells, Chimemaster and cannons :-))))

My heartfelt thanks to ©MDR Klassik Symphony Orchestra http://www.mdr.de/konzerte/artikel111…
and personally to Franziska Simon for letting me use their great piano.
And to Echoschall Verleih http://www.echoschall.de/ for best-sounding microphones.
Full credit for the bells to Ohio-based http://www.chimemaster.com/

great compositions/performances: 12 Variations in E-Flat Major on “Je suis Lindor,” K. 354| Karl Engel (Piano)

12 Variations in E-Flat Major on “Je suis Lindor,” K. 354

#KarlEngel

Published on Feb 24, 2015

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises

12 Variations in E-Flat Major on “Je suis Lindor,” K. 354

· Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart · Karl Engel (Piano)

Mozart: Piano Variations

℗ 2010 The Reader’s Digest Assocation, Inc.

Released on: 2010-12-13

Auto-generated by YouTube.

Beethoven, Sonata para piano Nº 24 en Fa♯ (F sharp Major) major op.78 ‘À Thérèse’. Daniel Barenboim, piano

Beethoven, Sonata para piano Nº 24 en Fa♯ (F sharp major) mayor op.78 ‘À Thérèse’. Daniel Barenboim, piano

Pakito Palote

Published on Apr 2, 2013

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata para piano Nº 24 en Fa sostenido mayor, Opus 78,
“À Thérèse”.
(Escrita en 1809 para la condesa Thérèse von Brunswick)
1. Adagio cantabile – Allegro ma non troppo
2. Allegro vivace
Daniel Barenboim, piano.
****************************************************

Piano Sonata No. 24 (Beethoven)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78, nicknamed “à Thérèse” (because it was written for Countess Thérèse von Brunswick) was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1809. It consists of two movements:

1. Adagio cantabile – Allegro ma non troppo
2. Allegro vivace

A typical performance takes 10 minutes. The common practice of leaving out long repeated sections, such as the development and recapitulation in the first movement, would make two or three minutes’ difference to the total duration.

Maynard Solomon notes that this and the “Appassionata” sonata, op.57, were Beethoven’s favorite of his piano sonatas prior to the “Hammerklavier.” ^[1]

Structure

First movement

Second movement

great compositions/performances: ENRIQUE GRANADOS.- Danzas Españolas (Piano: Alicia de Larrocha)

ENRIQUE GRANADOS.- Danzas Españolas

Carlos Garcia

Published on Oct 15, 2013

ENRIQUE GRANADOS.-

Danzas Españolas

Nº 1 Minueto
Nº 2 Oriental
Nº 3 Zarabanda
Nº 4 Villanesca
Nº 5 Andaluza
Nº 6 Rondalla aragonesa
Nº 7 Valenciana
Nº 8 Asturiana
Nº 9 Mazurca
Nº 10 Danza triste
Nº 11 Zambra
Nº 12 Arabesca

Piano: Alicia de Larrocha

Las Doce danzas españolas para piano son una serie de doce piezas pianísticas compuestas por el compositor Enrique Granados. Se desconocen las fechas exactas de composición de cada una de ellas, si bien se ha dicho que fueron escritas entre 1892 y 1900, si bien el propio compositor declaró que la mayoría son de 1883 (cuando contaba 16 años). Cabe la posibilidad de que, por otro lado, escritas en fechas tempranas, fuesen perfeccionadas más tarde por Granados, lo cual haría incompatible dos de sus cualidades: por una parte, su sencillez de escritura, generalmente tripartita A-B-A, alejada de las complejidades de su obra insigne Goyescas, y ello llevaría a pensar que son obras de juventud; por otra parte, la maestría, la elegancia y el dominio rítmico indicarían que estamos ante un compositor maduro. Sea como fuere, estas partituras constituyen una de las máximas aportaciones al piano español del siglo XIX.

Las Doce danzas españolas

Danza española
nº1. Denominada Minueto, es una especie de bolero en sol mayor que Granados dedicó a Amparo Gal, su futura esposa. Se inicia con una sección allegro, que modula a modo menor en una sección central más reposada, poco andante y regresa a la parte inicial.
Danza española
nº2. Denominada Oriental, es una bella danza escrita en do menor. La primera sección es un andante en el que la mano izquierda dibuja un sentido acompañamiento, mientras que la derecha entona la melancólica melodía principal. La sección central, lento assai, emana un lirimo sentimental.
Danza española
nº3. Esta danza recibe dos denominaciones, Fandango o Danza gallega. La partitura señala enérgico, y está en la tonalidad de re mayor. Es interesante por su garbo, su sentido rítmico y algún asomo de lirismo que sirve de contraste.
Danza española
nº4. Denominada Villanesca, está inspirada por Torquato Tasso. Es de carácter cortesano y, al mismo tiempo, popular. Señalada allegro alla pastorale, su aire pastoril, suave y melodioso es su mayor encanto. La canción y el estribillo de la sección central derivan del tema principal.
Danza española
nº5. Denominada Andaluza o Playera, es un andantino, quasi allegretto. Es la más conocida de todas estas danzas. Tiene cierto clima flamenco, por ello recibe la primera apelación. La mano izquierda hace una especie de punteado que recuerda el rasgueo de la guitarra.
Danza española
nº6. Se la denomina Rondalla aragonesa, siendo pues, una verdadera jota. Alegretto, poco a poco scherzando es su Tempo, con una primera sección brillante y de difícil plasmación para el pianista. La parte central es a modo de copla y posteriormente vuelve a aparecer la primera sección. Es una de las más brillantes.
Danza española
nº7. Se la conoce con el nombre de Valenciana o Calesera. Es un allegro arioso en sol mayor. Se trata de una jota valenciana con curiosos acordes sincopados y ritmo sostenido, evocación estilizada del baile popular. Granados la dedicó al compositor César Cui.
Danza española
nº8. Es una sardana, que utilizada su autor en homenaje a su tierra. Esta sardana aparece a través de su peculiar ritmo, con una dotación melódica variada y original. Está en do menor y es un assai moderato.
Danza española
nº9. Se denomina comúnmente Mazurca o Romántica. Es un molto allegro brillante en si bemol menor. Algunos estudiosos han visto en ella un zortzico vasco, pero el ritmo es distinto. Otros han hallado una proximidad al chotis. Como otros también la han considerado una página simplemente romántica.
Danza española
nº10. Denominada Danza triste o Melancólica, es un allegretto en sol mayor. Es una de las más difundidas de la serie. Desde el punto de vista formal es un tanto deslavazada, pero ahí reside su encanto.
Danza española
nº11. Denominada Zambra, es una hermosa e inspirada página que muestra reminiscencias de la música de raíces moriscas junto al virtuosismo y el rigor habituales en Granados.
Danza española
nº12. Está denominada Arabesca. Es de inspiración morisca, como la anterior danza. Se trata también de la última danza de la colección. Pieza de gran delicadeza, la melodía de la sección central tiene una gracia muy especial.

Martha Argerich plays Schumann – Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) Op. 15

Martha Argerich Schumann – Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) Op. 15

martha argerich

Kinderszenen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

First edition title page

Kinderszenen (German pronunciation: [ˈkɪndɐˌst͡seːnən]; original spelling Kinderscenen, “Scenes from Childhood”), Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. In this work, Schumann provides us with his adult reminiscences of childhood. Schumann had originally written 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version.^[1] Robert Polansky has discussed the unused movements.^[2]

Nr. 7, Träumerei, is one of Schumann’s best known pieces; it was the title of a 1944 German biographical film on Robert Schumann.^[3] Träumerei is also the opening and closing musical theme in the 1947 Hollywood film Song of Love, starring Katharine Hepburn as Clara Wieck Schumann.^[4]

Schumann had originally labeled this work Leichte Stücke (Easy Pieces). Likewise, the section titles were only added after the completion of the music, and Schumann described the titles as “nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation”.^[5] Timothy Taylor has discussed Schumann’s choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music in 19th century culture and economics.^[6]

In 1974, Eric Sams noted that there was no known complete manuscript of Kinderszenen.^[7]

Movements

Title	Key	Play
1. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen Of Foreign Lands and Peoples	G major
2. Kuriose Geschichte A Curious Story[8]	D major
3. Hasche-Mann Blind Man’s Bluff	B minor
4. Bittendes Kind Pleading Child	D major
5. Glückes genug Happy Enough	D major
6. Wichtige Begebenheit An Important Event	A major
7. Träumerei Dreaming	F major
8. Am Kamin At the Fireside[9]	F major
9. Ritter vom Steckenpferd Knight of the Hobbyhorse	C major
10. Fast zu ernst Almost Too Serious	G-sharp minor
11. Fürchtenmachen Frightening	E minor
12. Kind im Einschlummern Child Falling Asleep	E minor
13. Der Dichter spricht The Poet Speaks	G major

great compositions/performances: Annie Fischer plays Beethoven – Piano Sonata 26,Op.81a Les Adieux’ (Color-Coded Analysis)

Beethoven – Piano Sonata 26,Op.81a “Farewell” (Color-Coded Analysis)

The Daily Beethoven

Uploaded on Dec 15, 2011

(Make sure “Annotations” is ON to see section labels)

Piano Sonata No.26 in Eb, Op.81a (‘Les Adieux’)
1.Adagio. Allegro (‘Les Adieux’) @0:00
2.Andante espressivo (‘L’Absence’) @6:36
3.Vivacissimamente (‘Le Retour’) @10:20

Piano: Annie Fischer
Note: at this time the annotations will not appear on mobile devices, so if possible please watch from a computer.

For more videos of this type see:
Color-Coded Analysis of Beethoven’s Music (INDEX):
http://lvbandmore.blogspot.com/p/colo…

Introduction to Sonata Form:
http://lvbandmore.blogspot.com/p/abou…

This analysis was assisted in large part by Donald Tovey’s “Companion to Beethoven’s Pianoforte Sonatas”.

My Analysis Cheat Sheet:
-SONATA FORM: Most common form, almost always in the 1st movement and often last movement of a work. The basic sequence is Intro, Exposition, Development, Recapitulation and Coda.
-EXPOSITION: Main theme(s) are presented, usually in the home key and then a modulated key
-THEME / THEME GROUP: musical “paragraph”. These can be broken down into 1 or more “tunes”. These are grouped according to key and end on cadences. The 1st Theme Group is in the home key. The 2nd Theme Group is in the dominant or other key.
-CLOSING/CADENCE SECTION: a theme group which closes the Expo or Recap (it follows the 2nd theme) and revives Theme 1 to provide closure.
-MODULATING BRIDGE/TRANSITION: material to get from 1 key/theme group to another, often w sequencing.
-DEVELOPMENT: free-form “working out”/”fantasia” section where earlier themes are subjected to variations and atomizations. Possibly a new theme is introduced (“Eroica”).
-RECAPITULATION: Repeat of the Expo, except that this section remains in the same key throughout and there can be theme variations from the initial Expo versions of themes.
-CODA: Follows the Recap, kind of a second development designed to finish off the work.
-SEQUENCING: repeating a phrase on different starting notes (keys)
-TERNARY FORM: 3-part form in A-B-A, usually a Scherzo or Minuet
-SCHERZO/MINUET: 1st pt. of a 3-pt. Scherzo form, usually AA.BA’.BA’ in 3/4 time. Lively.
-TRIO: Middle section of a Scherzo movement, slower, broader than the Scherzo section
-RONDO: Similar to Sonata form except that the Development is replaced by a new section and there is less transition material. A principal theme (A) alternates with contrasting themes (BCD…). (Ex.ABACABA.)
-FUGUE: form in which a subject(s) undergoes canonical permutations
-VARIATION: repeat of a theme with variation
-CADENZA: unaccompanied instrumental solo
-BINARY FORM: Structure in AB. 2-Part Song form.
(Disclaimer: I do not have a music degree, all of the above is purely from memory and observation)

historic musical bits: BIZET Jeux d’enfants Op.22 | Duo Kontarsky | 1982 *vinyl*

BIZET Jeux d’enfants Op.22 | Duo Kontarsky | 1982 *vinyl*

Emilio Pessina

Published on Mar 23, 2013

Georges BIZET: «Jeux d’enfants» Op.22, 12 pieces for piano 4 hands
0:05 / 1. L’Escarpolette (Reverie. Andantino) [2’52”]
2:57 / 2. La Toupie (Impromptu. Allegro vivo) [0’57”]
3:53 / 3. La Poupée (Berceuse. Andantino semplice) [2’49”]
6:42 / 4. Les Chevaux de Bois (Scherzo. Allegro vivo) [1’18”]
8:01 / 5. Le Volant (Fantaisie. Andantino molto) [1’14”]
9:15 / 6. Trompette et Tambour (Marche. Allegretto) [2’07”]
11:22 / 7. Les Bulles de Savon (Rondino. Allegretto) [1’22”]
12:44 / 8. Les Quatre Coins (Esquisse. Allegro vivo) [2’07”]
14:52 / 9. Colin-Maillard (Nocturno. Andante non troppo) [1’58”]
16:50 / 10. Saute-Mouton (Caprice. Allegro molto) [1’21”]
18:10 / 11. Petit Mari, petite Femme! (Duo. Andantino) [3’00”]
21:10 / 12. Le Bal (Galop. Presto) [1’39”]
Alfons & Aloys Kontarsky, piano
(rec: 1982)
original release: LP, DGG 2531 389 – ℗1983
transfer: Emilio Pessina, 2013
_______________
Duo Kontarsky – remastered legacy : http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…
_______________
(c) COPYRIGHT Disclaimer, Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976. Allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

Saint-Saëns – Concerto no 1 pour piano et orchestre – Jeanne-Marie Darré

gfdsab

Uploaded on Feb 21, 2012

Camille Saint-Saëns

Concerto pour piano et orchestre no 1
en ré majeur – opus 17

Jeanne-Marie Darré

Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
Louis Fourestier

Enregistré en 1956

I- Andante – Allegro assai 00:00

II- Andante sostenuto quasi adagio 10:19

III- Allegro con fuoco 17:52

Amazing music/golden performances: Schumann Symphonic Etudes Op. 13 & Op.Posth. Valentina Lisitsa

Schumann Symphonic Etudes Op. 13 & Op.Posth. Valentina Lisitsa

ValentinaLisitsa

Published on Mar 27, 2015

Recorded March 1 2015 at http://www.schaubuehne.com/
Special thanks to Boesendorfer and http://www.fluegelfink.de/

Download or get a CD here :
Valentina Lisitsa. Etudes Decca 2014 http://www.amazon.com/%C3%89tudes-Val…
*******************************************************************

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Symphonic Etudes (French: Études Symphoniques), Op. 13, is a set of études for solo piano by Robert Schumann. It began in 1834 as a theme and sixteen variations on a theme by Baron von Fricken, plus a further variation on an entirely different theme by Heinrich Marschner.

Composition

The first edition in 1837 carried an annotation that the tune was “the composition of an amateur”: this referred to the origin of the theme, which had been sent to Schumann by Baron von Fricken, guardian of Ernestine von Fricken, the Estrella of his Carnaval Op. 9. The baron, an amateur musician, had used the melody in a Theme with Variations for flute. Schumann had been engaged to Ernestine in 1834, only to break abruptly with her the year after. An autobiographical element is thus interwoven in the genesis of the Études symphoniques (as in that of many other works of Schumann’s).^[1]

Of the sixteen variations Schumann composed on Fricken’s theme, only eleven were published by him. (An early version, completed between 1834 and January 1835, contained twelve movements). The final, twelfth, published étude was a variation on the theme from the Romance Du stolzes England freue dich (Proud England, rejoice!), from Heinrich Marschner‘s opera Der Templer und die Jüdin, which was based on Sir Walter Scott‘s Ivanhoe (as a tribute to Schumann’s English friend, William Sterndale Bennett). The earlier Fricken theme occasionally appears briefly during this étude. The work was first published in 1837 as XII Études Symphoniques. Only nine of the twelve études were specifically designated as variations. The sequence was as follows:

• Theme – Andante
• Etude I (Variation 1) – Un poco più vivo
• Etude II (Variation 2) – Andante
• Etude III – Vivace
• Etude IV (Variation 3) – Allegro marcato
• Etude V (Variation 4) – Scherzando
• Etude VI (Variation 5) – Agitato
• Etude VII (Variation 6) – Allegro molto
• Etude VIII (Variation 7) – Sempre marcatissimo
• Etude IX – Presto possibile
• Etude X (Variation 8) – Allegro con energia
• Etude XI (Variation 9) – Andante espressivo
• Etude XII (Finale) – Allegro brillante (based on Marschner’s theme).

Other titles had been considered in September 1834: Variations pathétiques and Etuden im Orchestercharakter von Florestan und Eusebius. In this latter case the Études would have been signed by two imaginary figures in whom Schumann personified two essential, opposite and complementary aspects of his own personality and his own poetic world. ‘Florestan and Eusebius’ then signed the Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6; but only in the 1835 version of the Études symphoniques were the pieces divided so as to emphasize the alternation of more lyrical, melancholy and introvert pages (Eusebius) with those of a more excitable and dynamic nature (Florestan). In the 1837 version Florestan prevails.

Fifteen years later, in a second edition (Leipzig 1852), the 1837 title Études symphoniques became Études en forme de variations, two etudes (Nos. 3 and 9) that did not correspond to the new title (not being exactly variations) were eliminated, and some revisions were made in the piano writing.

The entire work was dedicated to Schumann’s English friend, the pianist and composer William Sterndale Bennett. Bennett played the piece frequently in England to great acclaim, but Schumann thought it was unsuitable for public performance and advised his wife Clara not to play it.

Historic Musical Bits: Michelangeli Debussy Preludes Book 1

Michelangeli Debussy Preludes
Book 1

mightysmeagol

Published on Jun 9, 2012

As a tribute to greatest among artists to be dedicated towards Yuu aka 225cess
– Hommage à Rameau; Images set 1 Paris 05/01/1965
– Preludes: book 1 Paris 22/10/1978
***********************************************************************

Préludes (Debussy)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Claude Debussy‘s Préludes are 24 pieces for solo piano, divided into two books of 12 preludes each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, such as those of J.S. Bach and Chopin’s Op. 28, Debussy’s does not follow a strict pattern of key signatures.

Each book was written in a matter of months, at an unusually fast pace for Debussy. Book I was written between December 1909 and February 1910, and Book II between the last months of 1912 and early April 1913.
Movements:

1. Danseuses de Delphes: Lent et grave
   (Dancers of Delphi)
2. Voiles: Modéré
   (Veils / sails)
3. Le vent dans la plaine: Animé
   (The Wind in the Plain)
4. «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir»: Modéré
   (“The sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air”)
5. Les collines d’Anacapri: Très modéré
   (The Hills of Anacapri)
6. Des pas sur la neige: Triste et lent
   (Footsteps in the Snow)
7. Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest: Animé et tumultueux
   (What the West Wind has seen)
8. La fille aux cheveux de lin: Très calme et doucement expressif
   (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
9. La sérénade interrompue: Modérément animé
   (Interrupted Serenade)
10. La cathédrale engloutie: Profondément calme
    (The Submerged Cathedral)
11. La danse de Puck: Capricieux et léger
    (Puck‘s Dance)
12. Minstrels: Modéré

Two of the titles were set in quotation marks by Debussy because they are, in fact, quotations: «Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir» is from Charles Baudelaire‘s poem Harmonie du soir (“Evening Harmony”). «Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses» is from J. M. Barrie‘s book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, which Debussy’s daughter had received as a gift.

 

 

Saint-Saëns – Concerto no 1 pour piano et orchestre – Jeanne-Marie Darré

Saint-Saëns – Concerto no 1 pour piano et orchestre – Jeanne-Marie Darré

gfdsab

Uploaded on Feb 21, 2012

Camille Saint-Saëns

Concerto pour piano et orchestre no 1
en ré majeur – opus 17

Jeanne-Marie Darré

Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
Louis Fourestier

Enregistré en 1956

I- Andante – Allegro assai 00:00

II- Andante sostenuto quasi adagio 10:19

III- Allegro con fuoco 17:52

Schumann Kinderszenen op. 15 Radu Lupu

CSBstif

Published on Oct 18, 2013

Robert Schumann Kinderszenen, op. 15
Radu Lupu , January 1993

Kinderszenen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

First edition title page

Kinderszenen (German pronunciation: [ˈkɪndɐˌst͡seːnən]; original spelling Kinderscenen, “Scenes from Childhood”), Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. In this work, Schumann provides us with his adult reminiscences of childhood. Schumann had originally written 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version.^[1] Robert Polansky has discussed the unused movements.^[2]

Nr. 7, Träumerei, is one of Schumann’s best known pieces; it was the title of a 1944 German biographical film on Robert Schumann.^[3] Träumerei is also the opening and closing musical theme in the 1947 Hollywood film Song of Love, starring Katharine Hepburn as Clara Wieck Schumann.^[4]

Schumann had originally labeled this work Leichte Stücke (Easy Pieces). Likewise, the section titles were only added after the completion of the music, and Schumann described the titles as “nothing more than delicate hints for execution and interpretation”.^[5] Timothy Taylor has discussed Schumann’s choice of titles for this work in the context of the changing situation of music in 19th century culture and economics.^[6]

In 1974, Eric Sams noted that there was no known complete manuscript of Kinderszenen.^[7]

Parts/Movements

1. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen (Of Foreign Lands and Peoples),  G major
2. Curiose Geschichte (A Curious Story),  D major
3. Hasche-Mann (Blind Man’s Buff), B minor
4. Bittendes Kind (Pleading Child), D major
5. Glückes genug (Quite Happy), D major
6. Wichtige Bebebenheit (An Important Event), A major
7. Träumerei (Dreaming), F major
8. Am Camin (At the Fireside), F major
9. Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the Hobby-Horse), C major
10. Fast zu ernst (Almost too Serious), G-sharp minor
11. Fürchtenmachen (Frightening), E minor
12. Kind im Einschlummern (Child Falling Asleep), E minor
13. Ffrom Der Dichter spricht (The Poet Speaks), G major

Description by Blair Johnston  (ALL MUSIC)

The 13 pieces that constitute Robert Schumann‘s Kinderszenen for piano (Scenes from Childhood), Op. 15 (1838) showcase their creator’s musical imagination at the peak of its poetic clarity. As a result, the Kinderszenen have long been staples of the repertoire as utterly charming yet substantial miniatures, the sort of compact keyboard essays in which Schumann‘s genius found full expression. Kinderszenen was one of the projects Schumann worked on during the spring of 1838 to get through a difficult period of separation from his fiancée, Clara Wieck, who was on tour as a pianist and whose father objected to the idea of her marriage to the composer. In March of that year, Schumann wrote to Clara, “I have been waiting for your letter and have in the meantime filled several books with pieces…. You once said to me that I often seemed like a child, and I suddenly got inspired and knocked off around 30 quaint little pieces…. I selected several and titled them Kinderszenen. You will enjoy them, though you will need to forget that you are a virtuoso when you play them.” The Kinderszenen are a touching tribute to the eternal, universal memories and feelings of childhood from a nostalgic adult perspective; unlike a number of Schumann‘s collections of piano character pieces (e.g. Album for the Young, Op. 68), the Kinderszenen are not intended to be played by children. Schumann claimed that the picturesque titles attached to the pieces were added as an afterthought in order to provide subtle suggestions to the player, a model Debussy followed decades later in his Preludes. Almost all of the Kinderszenen are miniature ternary (ABA) forms. Scene No. 1, “Von fremden Ländern und Menschen” (Of Foreign Lands and People), opens with a lovely melody whose basic motivic substance, by appearing in several vague guises throughout many of the other pieces, serves as a general unifying element. The seventh Scene, “Träumerei” (Reverie), is easily the most famous piece in the set; its charming melody and quieting power have recommended it to generations of concert pianists who wish to calm audiences after a long series of rousing encores. The Kinderszenen contain many delicate musical touches; Scene No. 4, “Bittendes Kind” (Pleading Child), for example, is harmonically resolved only when an unseen force (a parent?) gives in and grant the child’s wish at the beginning of No. 5, “Glückes genug” (Quite Happy). In the final piece, “Der Dichter spricht” (The Poet Speaks), Schumann removes himself just a bit from the indulgent reverie to formulate a narrator’s omniscient view of the child. Quietly, gently, the many moods and feelings that Schumann touched upon over the course of this remarkable 20-minute work are lovingly recalled, and the composition concludes, contentedly, in the same key of G major in which it began.

great compositions/performances: Maurice Ravel – Sonatine pour piano: Gabriele Tomasello, piano.

Maurice Ravel – Sonatine pour piano

Gabriele Tomasello

Published on Jul 10, 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonatine…)

I. Modéré
II. Mouv de Menuet (starts at 4.04)
III. Animé (starts at 6.54)

Gabriele Tomasello, piano.
rec. 02.02.2012

モーリス·ラヴェル
ソナチネ

ガブリエル・トマセロ
ピアノ
カタニア
イタリア 2012

historic musical bits: Sviatoslav Richter – Chopin – Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major, Op 22

Sviatoslav Richter – Chopin – Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major, Op 22

Classical Vault 1

Published on May 19, 2013

Frederic Chopin
Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major, Op 22

Sviatoslav Richter, piano

London Symphony Orchestra
Kyrill Kondrashin, conductor

great compositions/performances: Beethoven, Sonata para piano Nº 1 en fa menor Opus 2 Nº 1. Daniel Barenboim, piano

 

Beethoven, Sonata para piano Nº 1 en fa menor Opus 2 Nº 1. Daniel Barenboim, piano

Pakito Palote

Published on Jan 8, 2013

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
Sonata para piano Nº 1 en fa menor Opus 2 Nº 1.
[F minor/fa mineur]
1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Menuetto, Allegretto
4. Prestissimo
Daniel Barenboim, piano.

La sonata para piano n.º 1 en fa menor Opus 2 n.º 1 de Ludwig van Beethoven data de 1796 y está dedicada a Joseph Haydn. Pese a que esta inaugura su ciclo de 32 sonatas para piano, no es la más temprana. Antes de su publicación fueron compuestas las sonatas n.º 19 y n.º 20, y sus tres Sonatinas WoO 47.

 

great compositions/performances: Evgeny Kissin – Schumann-Liszt – Widmung (Liebeslied)

Evgeny Kissin – Schumann-Liszt – Widmung (Liebeslied)

Classical Vault 1

Published on Apr 21, 2015

Robert Schumann – Franz Liszt
Widmung (Liebeslied)

Evgeny Kissin, piano

Verbier, July 2010

great compositions/performances: Arabesque No. 1 from Deux Arabesques , Aldo Chiccolini

 

Debussy – Arabesque No. 1 (Ciccolini)

ClassicalScores

Uploaded on Sep 23, 2009

Arabesque No. 1 from Deux Arabesques

Aldo Ciccolini, piano

The Deux arabesques, L. 66 (Two Arabesques) is a pair of arabesques composed by Claude Debussy. The arabesques are two of Debussy’s earliest works, composed between the years 1888 and 1891. Debussy was still in his twenties. Although quite an early work, the arabesques contain hints of Debussy’s developing musical style. The suite is one of the very early impressionistic pieces of music, following the French visual art form. Debussy seems to wander through modes and keys, and achieves evocative scenes through music. This arabesque is in the key of E major. Like most impressionistic pieces for the piano, the opening arpeggio can suggest water flow. It eventually leads into a larger section beginning with a left hand arpeggio in E major and a descending right hand E major pentatonic progression. After a lightening of tone, the original progression returns and varies itself, turning briefly to F-sharp major, before returning to a satisfying E major section close. The second quieter B section is in A major, which starts with a gesture (E-D-E-C#), builds with rising triplets in the right hand and octaves in the left. The section ends with a bold pronouncement of the E-D-E-C# gesture, but transposed to the key of C major, played forte. The gesture is repeated in a higher register, with slight modifications resulting in a transposition back to the E major of the A section. In the middle of the recapitulation of the A section, the music moves to a higher register and descends, followed by a large pentatonic scale ascending and descending, becoming a V7 chord (B7), and resolving back to E major, before the descending right hand E major pentatonic progression is played an octave up. Both hands rise up the keyboard and closes with gentle E major chords.

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)

• Music

  • “Arabesque (I)” by Aldo Ciccolini (Google Play • AmazonMP3 • iTunes)

 

Historic Musical Bits: Wilhelm Kempff plays Robert Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischem Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik)

Robert Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Wilhelm Kempff, piano
Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischem Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik

Movements:

Allegro affettuoso (A minor) 00:00:00
Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (F major) 00:15:43
Allegro vivace (A major) 00:21:27
*****************************************************************
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, is a Romantic concerto by Robert Schumann, completed in 1845. The work premiered in Leipzig on 1 January 1846 with Clara Schumann playing the solo part. Ferdinand Hiller, the work’s dedicatee, conducted.

History

Schumann had earlier worked on several piano concerti: he began one in E-flat major in 1828, from 1829–31 he worked on one in F major, and in 1839, he wrote one movement of a concerto in D minor. None of these works were completed.

In 1841, Schumann wrote a fantasy for piano and orchestra, his Phantasie. His pianist wife Clara urged him to expand this piece into a full piano concerto. In 1845 he added the intermezzo and finale to complete the work. It was the only piano concerto that Schumann completed.

The work may have been used as a model by Edvard Grieg in composing his own Piano Concerto, also in A minor. Grieg’s concerto, like Schumann’s, employs a single powerful orchestral chord at its introduction before the piano’s entrance with a similar descending flourish. Rachmaninov also used the work as a model for his first Piano Concerto.

After this concerto, Schumann wrote two other pieces for piano and orchestra: the Introduction and Allegro Appassionato in G major (Op. 92), and the Introduction and Allegro Concertante in D minor (Op. 134).

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings, and solo piano.

Structure

The piece, as marked in the score, is in three movements:

1. Allegro affettuoso (A minor)

2. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (F major)

3. Allegro vivace (A major)

There is no break between these last two movements (attacca subito).

Schumann preferred that the movements be listed in concert programs as only two movements:^{[citation needed]}

1. Allegro affettuoso
2. Andantino and Rondo

The three movement listing is the more common form used.

Allegro affettuoso

The piece starts with an energetic strike by strings and timpani, followed by a fierce, descending attack by the piano. The first theme is introduced by the oboe along with wind instruments. The theme is then given to the soloist. Schumann provides great variety with this theme. He first offers it in the A minor key of the piece, then we hear it again in major, and we can also hear small snatches of the tune in a very slow, A flat section. The clarinet is often used against the piano in this movement. Toward the end of the movement, the piano launches into a long cadenza before the orchestra joins in with one more melody and builds for the exciting finish.

Intermezzo

This movement is keyed in F major. The piano and strings open up the piece with a small, delicate tune, which is heard throughout the movement before the cellos and later the other strings finally take the main theme, with the piano mainly used as accompaniment. The movement closes with small glimpses of the first movement’s theme before moving straight into the third movement.

Allegro vivace

The movement opens with a huge run up the strings while the piano takes the main, A major theme. Schumann shows great color and variety in this movement. The tune is regal, and the strings are noble. Though it is in 3/4 timing, Schumann manipulates it so that the time signature is often ambiguous. The piece finishes with a restating of the previous material before finally launching into an exciting finale, and ending with a long timpani roll and a huge chord from the orchestra.

Further reading

• Donald Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis: Concertos (London, 1936)
• Alfred Nieman, “The Concertos,” in Robert Schumann: The Man and his Music, edited by Alan Walker (London, 1972)
• Michael Steinberg, “The Concerto: A Listener’s Guide”, (Oxford, 1998)

 

today’s birthday: Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655)

Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655)

Scholars believe that though Cristofori was employed as the custodian of musical instruments at the court of Prince Ferdinand de’ Medici, he was hired for the position largely because of his other talent—inventing instruments. His most successful creation was the pianoforte, which, unlike the harpsichord, varies the volume of its sound depending on the force with which its keys are struck. He is thus generally regarded as the inventor of the piano. What other instruments did Cristofori invent? More… Discuss

Best Classical Music, Kempff plays Schubert Piano Sonata in B Major D575, great compositions/performances

 

Kempff plays Schubert Piano Sonata in B Major D575

EvaYoungPianist

Published on Jul 4, 2012

Franz Schubert:
Piano Sonata in B Major D575:
Mvt.I: Allegro ma non troppo 00:00
Mvt.II: Andante 08:04
Mvt.III: Scherzo. Allegretto 13:49
Mvt.IV: Allegro giusto 19:25

Wilhelm Kempff: piano

• Music

  • “III. Scherzo: Allegretto” by Endres, Michael, Michael Endres (Google Play • AmazonMP3 • eMusic • iTunes)

 

best classical music, ENRIQUE GRANADOS.- Danzas Españolas ENRIQUE , Piano: Alicia de Larrocha, gregaat compositions/performances

ENRIQUE GRANADOS.- Danzas Españolas,  Piano: Alicia de Larrocha

Carlos Garcia

Published on Oct 15, 2013

ENRIQUE GRANADOS.-

Danzas Españolas

Nº 1 Minueto
Nº 2 Oriental
Nº 3 Zarabanda
Nº 4 Villanesca
Nº 5 Andaluza
Nº 6 Rondalla aragonesa
Nº 7 Valenciana
Nº 8 Asturiana
Nº 9 Mazurca
Nº 10 Danza triste
Nº 11 Zambra
Nº 12 Arabesca

Piano: Alicia de Larrocha

Las Doce danzas españolas para piano son una serie de doce piezas pianísticas compuestas por el compositor Enrique Granados. Se desconocen las fechas exactas de composición de cada una de ellas, si bien se ha dicho que fueron escritas entre 1892 y 1900, si bien el propio compositor declaró que la mayoría son de 1883 (cuando contaba 16 años). Cabe la posibilidad de que, por otro lado, escritas en fechas tempranas, fuesen perfeccionadas más tarde por Granados, lo cual haría incompatible dos de sus cualidades: por una parte, su sencillez de escritura, generalmente tripartita A-B-A, alejada de las complejidades de su obra insigne Goyescas, y ello llevaría a pensar que son obras de juventud; por otra parte, la maestría, la elegancia y el dominio rítmico indicarían que estamos ante un compositor maduro. Sea como fuere, estas partituras constituyen una de las máximas aportaciones al piano español del siglo XIX.

Las Doce danzas españolas

Danza española
nº1. Denominada Minueto, es una especie de bolero en sol mayor que Granados dedicó a Amparo Gal, su futura esposa. Se inicia con una sección allegro, que modula a modo menor en una sección central más reposada, poco andante y regresa a la parte inicial.
Danza española
nº2. Denominada Oriental, es una bella danza escrita en do menor. La primera sección es un andante en el que la mano izquierda dibuja un sentido acompañamiento, mientras que la derecha entona la melancólica melodía principal. La sección central, lento assai, emana un lirimo sentimental.
Danza española
nº3. Esta danza recibe dos denominaciones, Fandango o Danza gallega. La partitura señala enérgico, y está en la tonalidad de re mayor. Es interesante por su garbo, su sentido rítmico y algún asomo de lirismo que sirve de contraste.
Danza española
nº4. Denominada Villanesca, está inspirada por Torquato Tasso. Es de carácter cortesano y, al mismo tiempo, popular. Señalada allegro alla pastorale, su aire pastoril, suave y melodioso es su mayor encanto. La canción y el estribillo de la sección central derivan del tema principal.
Danza española
nº5. Denominada Andaluza o Playera, es un andantino, quasi allegretto. Es la más conocida de todas estas danzas. Tiene cierto clima flamenco, por ello recibe la primera apelación. La mano izquierda hace una especie de punteado que recuerda el rasgueo de la guitarra.
Danza española
nº6. Se la denomina Rondalla aragonesa, siendo pues, una verdadera jota. Alegretto, poco a poco scherzando es su Tempo, con una primera sección brillante y de difícil plasmación para el pianista. La parte central es a modo de copla y posteriormente vuelve a aparecer la primera sección. Es una de las más brillantes.
Danza española
nº7. Se la conoce con el nombre de Valenciana o Calesera. Es un allegro arioso en sol mayor. Se trata de una jota valenciana con curiosos acordes sincopados y ritmo sostenido, evocación estilizada del baile popular. Granados la dedicó al compositor César Cui.
Danza española
nº8. Es una sardana, que utilizada su autor en homenaje a su tierra. Esta sardana aparece a través de su peculiar ritmo, con una dotación melódica variada y original. Está en do menor y es un assai moderato.
Danza española
nº9. Se denomina comúnmente Mazurca o Romántica. Es un molto allegro brillante en si bemol menor. Algunos estudiosos han visto en ella un zortzico vasco, pero el ritmo es distinto. Otros han hallado una proximidad al chotis. Como otros también la han considerado una página simplemente romántica.
Danza española
nº10. Denominada Danza triste o Melancólica, es un allegretto en sol mayor. Es una de las más difundidas de la serie. Desde el punto de vista formal es un tanto deslavazada, pero ahí reside su encanto.
Danza española
nº11. Denominada Zambra, es una hermosa e inspirada página que muestra reminiscencias de la música de raíces moriscas junto al virtuosismo y el rigor habituales en Granados.
Danza española
nº12. Está denominada Arabesca. Es de inspiración morisca, como la anterior danza. Se trata también de la última danza de la colección. Pieza de gran delicadeza, la melodía de la sección central tiene una gracia muy especial

 

Translation by Google Translate:

 

 Published on October 15, 2013

ENRIQUE GRANADOS.-

Spanish Dances

 No.1 Minuet

No. 2 Oriental
No. 3 Zarabanda
No. 4 Villanesca
No.5 Andaluza
No. 6 Aragonese Rondalla
No. 7 Valencia
No. 8 Asturiana
Mazurka No. 9
No. 10 Danza triste
No. 11 Zambra
No. 12 Arabesca

Piano: Alicia de Larrocha

Twelve Spanish dances for piano are a series of twelve piano pieces composed by composer Enrique Granados. The exact dates of composition of each is unknown, although it is said that they were written between 1892 and 1900, although the composer himself stated that most are 1883 (when he was 16 years). It is possible, on the other hand, written in early dates, they were perfected later by Granados, which would be incompatible two qualities: first, its ease of writing, usually tripartite ABA, away from the complexities of their Goyescas famous work, and this would suggest that youth are works; Moreover, mastery, elegance and rhythmic domain indicate that this is a mature composer. Anyway, these scores are one of the greatest contributions to Spanish piano nineteenth century.

Twelve Spanish dances

Spanish Dance
# 1. He called Minuet is a kind of bolero in G major Granados dedicated to Amparo Gal, his future wife. It begins with an allegro section, which modulates a minor mode in a more relaxed, little walking and returns to the initial part center section.
Spanish Dance
No.2. Called Oriental, is a beautiful written in C minor dance. The first section is a walking where the left hand draws a sense accompaniment, while the right tone the melancholy main melody. The central section, slow assai, exudes a sentimental lirimo.
Spanish Dance
# 3. This dance takes two denominations, Fandango or Galician Dance. The score points energetic, and is in the key of D major. It is interesting for its grace, its rhythmic sense and any trace of lyricism that serves as a contrast.
Spanish Dance
No.4. Villanesca called, is inspired by Torquato Tasso. It is courtly and at the same time, popular. Marked allegro alla pastorale, its pastoral, soft and melodious air is its greatest charm. The song and the chorus of the central section derived from the main theme.
Spanish Dance
nº5. Called Andaluza or T, is a andantino, quasi allegretto. It is the best known of all these dances. It has some Flemish climate, therefore receives first appeal. The left hand makes a kind of dotted reminiscent strumming the guitar.
Spanish Dance
nº6. Aragon is called Rondalla, being thus a true jack. Alegretto gradually scherzando is your Tempo, with a brilliant first section plasmación difficult for the pianist. The central part is like a song and then reappears the first section. It is one of the brightest.
Spanish Dance
nº7. It is known by the name of Valencia or Calesera. It is an arioso allegro in G major. This is a Valencian jack with curious syncopated chords and steady pace, stylized evocation of folk dancing. Granados was dedicated to the composer César Cui.
Spanish Dance
nº8. It is a Sardana, which used its author in homage to his land. This Sardana appears through its peculiar rhythm, with a varied and original melodic envelope. It is minor and is a moderato assai.
Spanish Dance
nº9. Is commonly referred Mazurca or Romantic. It’s a brilliant allegro molto in B flat minor. Some scholars have seen in it a Basque zortzico, but the pace is different. Others have found a proximity to chotis. As others have also considered a purely romantic page.
Spanish Dance
nº10. Called Danza triste or Melancholic, is an allegretto in G major. It is one of the most widespread of the series. From the formal point of view is somewhat disjointed, but therein lies its charm.
Spanish Dance
nº11. Called Zambra, is a beautiful and inspirational page that displays reminiscent of Moorish roots music with virtuosity and customary rigor in Granados.
Spanish Dance
nº12. It is called Arabesca. It is Moorish-inspired, like the previous dance. It is also the last dance of the collection. Piece of great delicacy, the melody of the central section has a very special grace.

Music
“Granados: Spanish Dance, Op.37, No.3” Sarabande “” by Alicia de Larrocha (Google Play • AmazonMP3 • iTunes)

 

 

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best classical music, Hamelin plays Gershwin – Concerto in F , great compositions/performanes

Hamelin plays Gershwin – Concerto in F

madlovba3

I’ve just realized that the previously uploaded video of this stellar performance was pretty sloppy, out of sync and full of distortion, so I decided to post it in rather decent quality.

George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F major. The soloist is Marc-André Hamelin, the conductor is Leonard Slatkin.

1st mvt: 1:04
2nd mvt: 14:37
3rd mvt: 27:39

Antonín Dvořák – Legends, Op. 59, Ingryd Thorson & Julian Thurber, piano

Antonín Dvořák – Legends, Op. 59

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Published on Sep 22, 2012

Ingryd Thorson & Julian Thurber, piano

Antonín Dvořák – Legends, Op. 59
1. Allegretto non troppo, quasi andantino [D minor] 3’03
2. Molto moderato [G major] 4’08
3. Allegro giusto [G minor] 4’11
4. Molto maestoso [C major] 5’30
5. Allegro giusto [A flat major] 4’16
6. Allegro con moto [C sharp minor] 4’21
7. Allegretto grazioso [A major] 2’14
8. Un poco allegretto e grazioso, quasi andantino [F major] 3’16
9. Andante con moto [D major] 2’27
10. Andante [B flat minor] 3’14

LISZT: Concerto no. 2 – Riccardo Muti, conductor / Paolo Restani, piano

Cesare Flaiano

Published on May 22, 2012

Franz Liszt: Concerto no. 2 for piano and orchestra R. 456
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Paolo Restani, piano
Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala
June 27, 2004
******************************************************
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz Liszt wrote drafts for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, S.125, during his virtuoso period, in 1839 to 1840. He then put away the manuscript for a decade. When he returned to the concerto, he revised and scrutinized it repeatedly. The fourth and final period of revision ended in 1861. Liszt dedicated the work to his student Hans von Bronsart, who gave the first performance, with Liszt conducting, in Weimar on January 7, 1857.

A typical performance of this concerto lasts about 20 minutes.

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for solo piano, three flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets in A, two bassoons, two horns in E, two trumpets in E, three trombones (two tenor, bass), tuba, timpani in D and A, cymbals and strings.

Form

This concerto is one single, long movement, divided into six sections that are connected by transformations of several themes:

• Adagio sostenuto assai

  The key musical idea of this concerto comes at the beginning. Quietly yet confidently, half a dozen woodwinds, no more than five at a time, play a sequence of two chords