Dittersdorf - Double Bass Concerto In E Major

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739 - 1799) was an Austrian composer and violinist who was an important composer in the classical era. He was a court composer, and as such was quite prolific. He wrote 120 symphonies, 18 violin concertos, as well as many other works. He was an opera composer as well, and wrote 45 of them. His most popular work in his lifetime was the opera Doktor und Apotheker (Doctor and Apothecary) that premiered in Vienna in 1786 and was a tremendous success.  He knew Haydn and Mozart, and played string quartets along with them and his student Vanhal. Dittersdorf played 1st violin, Haydn 2^nd violin, Mozart viola and Vanhal cello.

Dittersdorf held various music positions with his longest tenure being 24 years at the court of Johannesberg (which is currently in the Czech Republic.)  To entice him to stay at court, he was given a noble title. His original surname was Ditters; his noble name became Ditters von Dittersdorf.

There was a small (and brief) school of double bass virtuoso playing in Vienna in the late 18th century, with the Italian bass virtuoso Domineco Dragonetti being the most famous of them. Dittersdorf no doubt wrote his two double bass concertos with this school of playing in mind.  The double bass is not usually thought of as a solo instrument because of the problems of balancing solo double bass and orchestra.  

The double bass of von Dittersdorf's time was not the instrument known today. It had three strings and was gradually replaced by the 4-string and five-string double bass. The 3-string bass had bottom E as the lowest note, while the modern bass could reach the C below that, thus increasing the bass range in the orchestra.  But there were instances of the 3-stringed double bass persisting because some thought the tone was better.

The concerto is sometimes transposed to D major, and is scored for 2 flutes, 2 horns, strings, and double bass solo. It is in the traditional three movements:

I. Allegro moderato- The orchestra plays the first theme and plays a section that connects to the entrance of the soloist playing the theme.  A section theme not heard initially enters and is played in flageolet tones, the old term for harmonics, high in the register of the bass. Both themes are developed in a short section of development before the recapitulation begins. Both themes are repeated and lead up to a cadenza where the soloist plays double stops and shows how the double bass can be an agile and expressive instrument in its own right. The movement then comes to an end in the syncopated rhythm in the strings that was heard at the beginning.

II. Adagio - The voice of the bass can seem tubby and thick even in the hands of a good player. It is the nature of the bass’s tone, and it gives a certain kind of charm to the gentle song the bass sings in this slow movement.  The soloist plays quite high in the register without using harmonics in the movement and cadenza, and it comes to a close. 

III. Allegro - The rondo theme is first heard in the orchestra, and the soloist then plays a short bridge to the repeat of the theme. The first episode has again shows the agility of the bass as it plays rapid arpeggios.  Short parts of the theme are heard and followed by the bass playing short episodes in harmonics, arpeggios, even combining the two with arpeggios in harmonics.  The final bars quicken the tempo and a final allegro statement of the theme ends the concerto. 

Alkan - Comme Le Vent (Like The Wind)

By contemporary accounts of those that heard him play, Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813 - 1888) had a technique equal to Liszt.  In fact, Liszt himself said Alkan had the finest technique he had ever seen. Even after Alkan became a recluse in 1848, on the odd occasion when he would play in public he retained his technique and amazed those who heard him.

Just why he became a recluse in 1848 is not certain. Before then he was seen regularly in public, was friends and neighbor to Chopin, knew Liszt and Anton Rubinstein, and played in the fashionable parlors and salons of Paris. But in 1848 he began to be seen less and less, gave up his appointment as the organist at the Paris Jewish Temple and stayed in his apartment, rarely admitting visitors or going out. He was passed over as the head of the piano department at the Paris Conservatory in 1848, which disappointed him greatly.  After 1848, he continued his life-long study of the Talmud and he went on composing. Late in his life he gave a series of concerts at the Erard piano company studios where he played not only some of his own compositions, but those of his favorite composers.

Most of Alkan's compositional output was for the piano. He did write some chamber music, two very short pieces for piano and orchestra, and an orchestral symphony that is lost. Like Chopin, he wrote etudes in all the major and minor keys for piano.  His Opus 35 consisted of 12 major key etudes, and Opus 39 were the minor key etudes.  Comme Le Vent ( Like The Wind) is the first etude in the book of minor key etudes. It's 20 pages long, and like the title implies, should be played like the wind. The metronome marking is eighth note = 160, the piece is in the rare time signature of 2/16, and most of the piece consists of triplet 32nd notes in the right hand. The piece is a virtual perpetuum mobile as the pace doesn't slacken for the 4 and a half minutes it takes to play it:

It is a real test of a pianist's endurance and control. It is a fitting beginning to a set of pieces that Ronald Smith, a pianist that had a great deal to do with the revival of Alkan's music, called 'Alkan's Frankenstein's monster'.  The twelve etudes that comprise the volume include a Concerto for solo piano in 3 movements, a symphony for solo piano in 4 movements, an overture, set of variations, and the rest of the pieces of the set.

Buxtehude - Prelude, Fugue and Chaconne For Organ BuxWV 137

Dieterich Buxtehude (1637? - 1707) was born in a part of Germany that was under Dutch rule, or perhaps he was born in Denmark that is now under Swedish rule. No one is sure, nor is the exact date of his birth known.  Although he considered himself a Dutch composer, he spent much of his career in Germany and did eventually Germanize his name in adulthood.

After studying music with his father (an organist himself) and serving as organist in several churches, Buxtehude moved to Lübeck in 1668 and became the organist for the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) there until his death. As Lübeck was a free imperial city, Buxtehude had a great deal of freedom in his career. He became well-known in Germany for his organ playing and compositions and he had many composers visit to hear him, among them George Handel and J.S. Bach. Bach got a leave of absence from his post in Arnstadt and traveled two hundred miles by foot to Lübeck. Bach extended his leave of absence and stayed in Lübeck for several months in 1705 -1706 and got into trouble with his employers in Arnstadt for it. He heard, met and studied with Buxtehude during that time, and like Handel, could have had the organist job as Buxtehude wished to retire, but it required marrying Buxtehude's daughter.  The word has not come down through history as to the reasons why, but Handel and Bach both refused.

Buxtehude wrote vocal music, sacred and secular, as well as organ and other keyboard music. He is considered one of the founders of the northern German organ playing tradition.  The Prelude,  Fugue and Chaconne in C major for organ begins with the prelude opening for pedals alone:

and is expanded upon with the manuals in a free fashion until a fugal section begins.  The fugue proper begins directly after the prelude. There is a freely written section after the fugue with a few runs and flourishes then the chaconne begins:

Buxtehude wrote much of his music in tablature, a type of music notation that doesn't use staves and notes. It was used by northern German organists especially, including J.S. Bach. There are many types of tablature for different instruments and different areas of Europe. A sample of Buxtehude's tablature:

This type of music notation can be slightly ambiguous as to what exact note is to be played, which evidently didn't bother many musicians then, for it is all part of the improvisatory nature of organ playing in the era.  Many composers of the time wrote music that left much to the discretion of the performer.  

Liszt - Héroïde funèbre

Europe at the time of Franz Liszt's early adulthood was a Europe of revolution. In July, 1830 the Paris Revolution, also known as The Three Glorious Days caused the abdication of French King Charles X and brought about the ascent of Louis-Philippe from the House Of Orleans as the new constitutional monarch.

Liszt was not yet 20 years old at the time, but the event inspired him to sketch out a Revolution Symphony in five movements. It wasn't until 20 years later when Liszt took the first movement sketch of the symphony and reworked it into a symphonic poem.  Revolution spread across most countries in Europe in 1848, including Paris and Liszt's native Hungary.

March 15, 1848 was the day that a group of Hungarians rioted in Pest-Buda demanding political autonomy for Hungary from Austria.  Emperor Ferdinand promised Hungary a constitution, an elected parliament, and the end of censorship. The new government, led by ministers Szechenyi and Kossuth, imposed the Magyar language on all the other nationalities in Hungary. This angered many people, and uprisings followed. Austria took back Hungary after one and a half years of fighting when Russian Tsar Nicholas I marched into Hungary with over 300,000 troops.

Hungary was placed under brutal martial law, with the Austrian government restored to its original position.  Liszt's final inspiration to complete the work was to commemorate the execution in 1849 of thirteen Hungarian generals who had led the revolution, but he still left a very short musical quotation from the French national anthem La Marseillaise from the original work in it, perhaps as a tribute to France, his adopted country early in his adulthood.

Liszt wrote a long preface to the work when it was published that dealt with the price paid when violence is part of revolution and the consequences the use of  violence has on human progress.  It is as if  Héroïde funèbre is a funeral oration for the victims of revolutionary violence, no matter what flag they were carrying.  Some of Liszt's preface:

De Maistre remarks that over thousands of years it is hard to find any during which, by rare exception, peace reigned on earth - which otherwise resembles an arena where people fight each other as did the gladiators in former times, and where the most valiant salute Destiny as the master and Providence as their judge, before entering the lists. In these wars and carnages that succeed one another like sinister games, whatever the colors of the flags which rise courageous and proud against each other, over both camps they flutter soaked in heroic blood and inexhaustible tears. 

Liszt also had this to say about dying for one's country:

I would be the first to answer the call to arms, to give my blood and not tremble before the guillotine, if it were the guillotine that could give the world peace and mankind happiness. But who believes that? We are concerned with bringing peace to the world in which the individual is justly treated by society.

The first version of this piece was published in 1850, with the music written by Liszt but orchestrated by his protege Joachim Raff (as were other of the symphonic poems), as Liszt was still learning the craft of orchestration. But the piece was thoroughly revised and re-orchestrated by Liszt himself in 1854 and 1857.

This was not the only funeral music Liszt wrote. In his set of piano pieces called Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses the seventh piece named Funérailles is dedicated to those who fell in the Hungarian uprising, perhaps the same thirteen generals who led it.  And the Hungarian Rhapsody #5 in E minor is subtitled Héroïde élégiaque.   The creative artist in Liszt tried to deal with the death and destruction brought on by people rising up against oppression in the best ways he knew how - he performed many concerts and gave all the proceeds to charities that helped the victims of aggression, and he gave honor and tribute to the fallen through his music.

Arthur Rubinstein - Chopin Piano Sonata No. 2

Arthur Rubinstein (1887 - 1982) was a Polish pianist and one of the great virtuosos of the 20th century. He was declared a child prodigy at the age of four and had perfect pitch. By the age of thirteen he had already made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic.

He toured all over the world during his long life. There may have been other pianists that could play a certain piece or composer with more insight, but everything Rubinstein played was rock-solid in interpretation and technique. His tone was golden, he was incapable of producing a harsh tone from the piano. His repertoire was huge. For example, he could perform in short notice 27 different piano concertos.  He was also an excellent chamber music musician.

He made recordings from 1928 to about 1976, with most of his recordings being done for RCA. all of his RCA recordings have been issued on music CD, the entire set contains 94 CD's and runs to 106 hours. He concertized until his eyesight failed him and he retired in 1976 at age eighty-nine. His last concert was in Wigmore Hall in London where he had first played nearly seventy years previously.

Rubinstein is most well known for his Chopin performances. Rubinstein was one of the first pianists early in the 20th century to play Chopin as the music was written. That's not to say he played it coldly and analytically, but Rubinstein purposefully rid himself of the excesses in performance and interpretation that had become somewhat of a tradition in Chopin's music.  There is no better player of Chopin's 2nd sonata than Rubinstein. He plays with expression and passion that totally serves the music.

Chopin's 2nd sonata confused music lovers when it was first published in 1837.  Schumann said it lacked cohesion and Chopin "simply bound together four of his most unruly children."   The sonata is in 4 movements and follows the layout of Beethoven's  Piano Sonata #12, which was one of Chopin's favorite Beethoven sonatas. The sonata opens with what some have called a tribute to Beethoven, as it is very similar to Beethoven's opening of his final piano sonata, Opus 111 in C minor, another favorite of Chopin.  The second movement is a scherzo, the third movement is the famous Funeral March. The enigmatic final Presto movement has been subject to many interpretations. In the preface to the American edition of the sonatas James Huneker  quotes from Karol Mikuli,  the editor of the sonatas and one of Chopin's pupils, that Chopin said of this movement, "The left hand and right hand are gossiping after the March". Arthur Rubinstein himself said of the movement that, "One  hears the winds of night sweeping over churchyard graves, the dust blowing and the dust that remains."

Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio 'In Memory Of A Great Artist'

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 -1893)  refused to write a piano trio for his benefactor Nadezhda von Meck, saying in a letter to her in 1880,  "You ask why I have never written a trio. Forgive me, dear friend; I would do anything to give you pleasure, but this is beyond me ... I simply cannot endure the combination of piano with violin or cello. To my mind the timbre of these instruments will not blend..."

But upon the death of close friend and mentor Nicolai Rubinstein who had died in March of 1881, Tchaikovsky seems to have had a change of heart. He ended up writing a piano trio and subtitling it 'In Memory Of A Great Artist' in tribute to his friend.  It was the only piano trio he ever wrote.

The work went through several versions with the final version being completed in February 1882.  A private performance was held at the Moscow Conservatory on March 23, 1882, the one year anniversary of Nicolai Rubinstein's death, but Tchaikovsky was in Italy.  he heard the trio in another private performance in April, after which he made some revisions to the work.

The trio is in two proper movements, although the 2nd movement contains two distinct sections. For a chamber work it is rather long and takes about three quarters of an hour to perform. The piano part is some of the most difficult music Tchaikovsky wrote for the piano, including the piano concertos.

The first movement is full of dark, funereal music. The second movement is a set of variations that segues into a Finale that is some of the most tragic, emotional music ever written by Tchaikovsky, and for a composer known for his emotionally-charged music, that is saying quite a lot.

Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A Minor ' In Memory Of A Great Artist ' :

Parry - Piano Concerto in F-sharp Major

Hubert Parry (1848 -1918) was an English composer, teacher and music historian.  He came from an upper middle class family and as such went to school at Eton.  Although he excelled in music while at Eton (as well as sports) his father demanded that he study for a different career, so when he went to Oxford he didn't study music but law and history.

He worked as an insurance underwriter at Lloyd's of London from 1870 to 1877, all the while continuing his studies in music. He tried to obtain lessons from Brahms, but he was not available. Parry ended up taking lessons from Edward Dannreuther , a pianist and writer. Parry's compositions began to be known by the public and he was also hired on as a music scholar in 1875 by George Grove as an assistant editor for the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians to which he contributed 123 articles.   He was appointed professor of composition and musical history at  the Royal College of Music in 1883. He became director of the  College in 1900 and worked in that capacity until his death.

The Piano Concerto in F-sharp Major was one of Parry's first major works. He began the work in 1878 and completed it in 1879.  It was premiered in 1880 with his own teacher Dannreuther as soloist.  It got rave reviews but some considered it avante garde.  Parry went on to write much vocal music, five symphonies and other pieces, plus books on music and music history.

Parry thought that German music and traditions to be the standard, so with the oncoming World War he felt confident that the English and Germans would not fight each other. Of course he was sadly wrong, and had to watch his musical world become yet another victim of the war. Parry had suffered from heart disease for many years and when he contracted the Spanish flu during the 1918 pandemic, it took his life.

Parry wrote only one piano concerto. It is an interesting piece, not least of all to think that it was at one time considered avante garde.  It is very well written, with a piano part that calls for the skill of a virtuoso.  It is one of the many neglected pieces in the repertoire that could use an occasional hearing.