Alkan - Sonate de Concert For Cello And Piano

The French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan is most often thought of as a composer for keyboard instruments, with most of his works being for piano solo, but he did compose two Concerto da Camera for piano and orchestra, and a few chamber music works. His Sonate de Concert For Cello And Piano In E Major was written about 1856.  The name itself gives some indication of what Alkan attempted to achieve with it; something larger and more substantial than music written to be played by amateurs in a 19th century drawing room.

The composers who wrote the most sucessful sonatas for cello and piano were Beethoven and Brahms. Other composers have written examples also, but for many it was a one-time endeavor.  Alkan wrote only one, as did his friend and sometime neighbor, Chopin.

As with most of Alkan's music, the technical (and musical) difficulties of the cello sonata are many for both instruments, not least of all keeping the proper balance between the two. It is in 4 movements, with each movement being in a differet key:
I. Allegro molto - This movement isi n the home key of E major and begins straight away with a theme, the first of three main themes of the exposition, although there is much of the material that connects the main themes that can be thought of as short secondary theme material. (The recording that I've linked to at the end of this article does not take the exposition repeat, which in my opinion is somewhat excusable in music that is more familiar, but in works that are heard but seldom, it would help the listener find their way a little better if the themes were placed in the ear more securely by a repitition of them.) The development section is extensive and begins with the development of the short pizacatto motive that ends the exposition along with other material. The first theme appears, plays for a few bars before going off in different keys. Other themes follow suit. The recapitulation proper begins with the first theme followed by other material from the exposition that has modulated to other keys. In a short coda that is marked brilliante, the movement ends.

II. Allegrettino - This movement is in A-flat major. In contrast to the opening movement, this has the feeling of a  gently swaying dance, but there are surprises as minor keys float into the mix giving a feeling of unrest to the middle section.

III. Adagio - This movement is in C major. Alkan was devoutly Jewish and an Old Testement scholar.  He prefaced the music with a quotation from the Old Testement book of Micah:

"As dew from the Lord how the Jewish people endure, awaiting help from God alone."

The movement begins with three-note motives on the cello followed by a harmonic as the piano lags slightly behind as it plays its own three-note motive. The music is mysterious, not least of all for the incessant pizacatto notes played in a seemingly random pattern by the cello as the piano gently plays sixteenth notes in both hands in the treble topped by a melody even higher in the right hand.  The music reaches ever higher until it comes to rest with a high C major chord in the piano while the cello plays a low C pizacatto.

IV. Finale alla Salterella - Prestissimo - A dance in the key of E minor that gets wilder and wilder as it goes. It's full of dotted rhythms and extremes in range of both instruments until a trill in both hands of the piano along with an arpeggiated chord in the cello lead to the final chord.

Hummel - Introduction, Theme And Variations For Oboe And Orchestra

When Johann Nepomuk Hummel was born in 1778 his birthplace was in the town of Pressburg in the Kingdom of Hungary which was then a part of the Austrian Empire, which currently is Bratislava in Slovakia. The change in the name of Hummel's birthplace as well as the country which it was in, is a reflection of the changes in Europe within the relatively short time span of a few centuries. Hummel himself was a product of former times. A composer and performer of renown during his lifetime, his music fell victim to changing times and rapidly faded into the background shortly before after his death in 1837.

Hummel moved to Vienna as a child and was a student of Mozart and later was a friend and fellow student of Beethoven (they were both taught by Haydn and Salieri). Hummel suceeded Haydn at the court of Prince Esterházy in Hungary until he was dismissed for inattention to duties in 1811. He went to Vienna, composed and toured Europe and Russia as a virtuoso pianist. He later held the post of Kappelmeister at other places, most notably at the court of Wiemar from 1819 to 1837. While he was at Wiemar he invited the best musicians to play there and made the city a music capital of Europe.

Besides his compositions and performing, his treatise A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction on the Art of Playing the Piano Forte in 1828 was a great influence on young pianists as it revolutionized performance practices that heralded the Romantic era of the composer/pianist. Chopin and Schumann studied Hummel's music. Hummel was also a direct influence as a teacher. Carl Czerny transferred to Hummel after his three years of study with Beethoven. Czerny went on to teach Franz Liszt. Some of Hummel's other students were Sigismond Thalberg, Adolf von Henselt and Felix Mendelssohn.

Although Hummel is most often associated with music for the piano, he composed in all the musical forms of his time except he wrote no symphonies. He wrote eight piano concertos and many others for various solo instruments. His Introduction, Theme And Variations For Oboe is a concerto in all but name, and was written in 1824 during his time in Wiemar. It consisits of two sections:
I. Introduction - The introduction is in F minor as the orchestra sets the stage for the soloist. The music is solemn and reflective. It leads directly to the next section.
II. Theme And Variations - The theme is in contrast to the previous introduction as it is in F major and of a more cheerful disposition.
a) Variation 1 - The first variation sees the theme stated in mostly eighth notes. Each variation is in two sections that are repeated. A short ending of the first variation is played by the orchestra without the soloist.
b) Variation 2 - The theme is transformed into eighth-note triplets. This is also ended by the orchestra.
c) Variation 3 - The next variation slows the theme and is labeled cantabile ed un poco sostenuto (in a singing style, slightly sustained). The orchestra plays a con fuoco (with fire) ending to this variation.
d) Variation 4 - The theme is played in running sixteenth notes as the string s play pizacatto.
e) Interlude - Hummel deviates from the usuual set of variations and writes an extended interlude that includes fragments of the theme, but is not an actual variation on it.
f) Theme - As if to assure the listener that he hasn't forgotten about the theme, Hummel repeats it with a few changes. A fermata at the close of the theme gives the soloist opportunity for a cadenza.
g) Variation 5 - The variations begin in earnest once again as the theme is transformed into a waltz.
h) Variation 6 - The theme takes on a pattern of eighth rest-three eighth notes-quarter note per bar.
i) Variation 7 - Hummel transforms the theme to rapid eighth-note triplets with repeated notes. This variation leads to a short coda that ends the music with a high note from the soloist.

Although Hummel wrote some music that looked ahead to the Romantic era just over the horizon, he was essentially a classically trained musician whose music was rapidly looked on as being old -fashioned in the Europe of the 1830's.  Unlike Beethoven, a composer that was the model for conservative and radical composers alike, Hummel's art was of a less staggering kind but by no means trivial.  With recordings, Hummel's music is once again being heard, and perhaps will be heard more in the concert hall as well. A piece such as the Variations For Oboe, a lesser piece in that it isn't heaven-storming,  shows that he was a wonderful craftsman, could be inspired on ocassion, and a great musician.

Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 5 ' Turkish' , K. 219

Most often it is the keyboard that is closely identified with Mozart as a performer, the harpsichord early in his career and the piano later.  But in his travels around Europe as a child prodigy he not only played keyboard instruments but the violin as well. His father Leopold was a renown performer and teacher of the violin and Wolfgang no doubt was taught and encouraged by Leopold on the violin. Leopold was employed as court musician at the court at Salzburg, eventually reaching the position of deputy concertmaster.

Wolfgang was also a court musician at Salzburg in different capacities, including that of concertmaster, the first desk violinist and the leader of the string section of the orchestra. For Mozart to have garnered this position he had to have been more than an average violinist. It was while he was a court musician at Salzburg that he composed his five violin concertos, the only concertos for violin he wrote. Four of the concertos were written in 1775 with one other written a few years earlier. Musical historians are divided in regards to whom the concertos were written, but perhaps Mozart played them himself in an effort to impress  the new Prince of the Salzburg Court, Count Hieronymus von Colloredo.  If this was the case, it was in vain as Mozart and the new Prince eventually came to loggerheads a few years later, and when Mozart tried to resign his position the prince refused at first, but a few months later the Prince relented and sent word to Mozart by way of a lackey who at the Prince's orders, dismissed Mozart with a literal kick in the ass!

The 5th Violin Concerto in A major has 3 movements:

Leopold Mozart

I. Allegro Aperto -  Mozart begins the concerto with the themes first played by the orchestra, as was the practice in concertos of his time. The themes are deceptively simple in their first hearing. The soloist, instead of entering in the same mood and tempo as the orchestra has set plays a short section, adagio in tempo and sweeter in mood. This adagio section leads directly to the violin taking up the mood and tempo of the beginning, and the violin fills out the first theme as the initial hearing by the orchestra was but a glimpse of what was to come. The second theme with its naive-sounding repeated notes is also expanded upon by the violin. The rather short development section is followed by the recapitulation. The violin plays a cadenza before the orchestra ends the movement.

II. Adagio -  Slow and graceful music that is like a faint reminiscence to the adagio section of the first movement that sounds like an opera aria for violin and orchestra. The violin sings throughout in long melodies that slowly unwind with sighs and slight pauses that contribute to the gentleness of the music.

III - Rondo - Tempo di Minuetto - The rondo theme is stated by the violin and returns between sections in different keys:

Roughly halfway through the movement the music changes time signature from 3/4 to 2/4, increases the tempo to Allegro, and changes the key to A minor:

 The new section is an example of the 'Turkish' music that was the rage of the times. It has nothing to do with authentic Turkish music, but more like a European composer's translation of it. It was usually in the form of a march and made use of percussion instruments not found in orchestras then. As Mozart wrote this for a small court orchestra that perhaps had no access to the cymbals, rattles and drums that other composers used, the cellos and double basses are instructed in the score to strike the strings with the wood of the bow to give a percussive effect.  The music swirls and turns becoming wild and rough. This section is the source of the nickname for the concerto. After a short cadenza for the soloist the music returns to the minuet.. After hearing the previous section the return of the minuet is as startling as the transition to the Turkish music. After the restatement of the theme and some other material, the slightly altered theme returns and the concerto comes to a close with an A major arpeggio from the soloist.

When Mozart was summarily booted in the ass from Salzburg he became a freelance composer in Vienna. To earn a living he turned to writing concertos for piano and appearing as soloist in them. No one knows why he composed only five violin concertos. Some musicologists have put forth that it was part of  his breaking away from his father, among other suppositions. Whatever the reason, there are the five violin concertos written in Salzburg, with the 5th being the most popular. 

Mozart

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 17 In D Minor 'Tempest'

“I am not very well satisfied with the work I have thus far done. From this day on I shall take a new way", Beethoven said to one of his friends shortly after his opus 28 piano sonatas were written. An example of what his new way would be can be found in Beethoven's opus 31, No. 2 piano sonata, one of a set of three that he wrote in 1801 -1802. The story told by Anton Schindler, acquaintance and self-styled Beethoven authority,  that the first movement source of inspiration was Shakespeare's play of the same name is highly suspect along with many other stories from Schindler. But the nickname has stuck, for the first movement is a tempest of passion and drama.

The sonata is the first major work he wrote in the key of D minor, and it would be the only piano sonata out of 32 that would be written in that key.  It remains one of the most powerful pieces ever written for piano more than 200 years after it was written.

The sonata is in 3 movements:
I. Largo -Allegro - Beethoven begins with a slowly arpeggiated, pianissimo A major chord, which is followed by an increase in tempo and 3 bars of eighth note slurs of 2 notes, that rise in volume until the tempo changes to adagio and comes to rest on another A major chord. The first five bars of this sonata form the basis for the entire exposition. What makes this so unique is that this first theme of the sonata contains incredible contrast, something that is usually accomplished in two different themes.  Tempo and dynamics change again as another chord is arpeggiated, after which the eighth note slurs reappear, but this time they continue and lead to a  theme in the bass that changes to high in the treble as a triplet figure plays in the middle register.

This continues until the two-note slurs of the opening reappear with a different accompaniment. Other related material leads to the first ending before the repeat. After the section is repeated (and in my opinion this sonata needs the exposition repeat) the second ending comes to rest on three G notes. The development begins with arpeggiated chords, this time with more notes. This happens three times, then the music takes off in a double forte repeat of the triplet figure-theme-in bass-and-high-treble material, but in different keys. This continues with heightened  drama until a climax is reached when a section of eighth note thirds are played on the first and second beat with a sforzando on the second beat. Then whole note chords and a transition section lead to the recapitulation with arpeggiated chords and two-note slur material, but this time there is a short, unaccompanied recitative inserted between them:

After the A-flat fermata, there is an increase in tension as chords are played pianissimo with rapid arpeggios. This happens three times with an increase in volume until the fourth time the two-note slurs reappear in a different key and accompaniment. More material is brought forth and it leads to a pianissimo ending in D minor.

II. Adagio - This movement also begins with an arpeggiated chord, but the mood is calmer, more reflective. This movement is in sonata form, but without any development section.

III. Allegretto -  The music of this movement is constantly moving and full of tension that does not ease up throughout. The quiet ending of the movement gives the impression that the music really doesn't end, but fades into the distance.

Beethoven's compositional style was constantly evolving throughout his career. This brought about experimentation that can be subtle, or as in the case with this sonata, glaringly obvious. His physical malady of hearing loss, which he lamented was getting worse in the letter to his brothers that is called the Heiligenstadt Testament, was written about the same time as this piano sonata.  What affect his hearing loss had on his art can only be imagined, as well as what his music would have been if he had not suffered from deafness. Beethoven was one of the greatest musical minds that ever existed, but he was also one of the most human of human beings. It is that quality that makes his music still so moving and influential almost 200 years after his death.

Milhaud - La Création du Monde

The Frenchman Darius Milhaud was born in 1892 and studied violin before switching to composition at the Paris Conservatory. After his studies he spent two years in Brazil as the secretary to the French ambassador. Upon his return to France he composed music that was inspired by what he heard while in Brazil, such as Le bœuf sur le toit (The Ox On The Roof) which contained references to many Brazilian chôros he heard there.

American jazz was very popular in the Paris of the 1920's and it was there that Milhaud first heard it. He was so intrigued by it he went to New York City in 1922 where he visited Harlem, heard authentic American jazz and talked to jazz musicians. Milhaud was not only influenced by  jazz music but by black culture and folklore. He  wrote La Création du Monde (The Creation Of The World) for a ballet troupe performing in Paris, and the ballet was based on African creation folktales. At its premiere, the ballet was more of a scandal than a success. The ballet itself is revived rarely, more of a curiosity than anything else, but Milhaud's music is still played and the piece is one of the most successful uses of the jazz idiom by a classically trained composer.

La Création du Monde is scored for a chamber orchestra that consists of 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets, 1 bassoon, 1 alto saxophone, 1 horn, two trumpets, 1 trombone, 2 violins, 1 cello, 1 double bass, piano, and an assortment of percussion instruments. The work consists of an overture and five sections played without a break:
Overture - The work begins with a solo for the saxophone played over a steady pulse. Other instruments are added to reach a climax, and the saxophone resumes. The trumpets come to the fore, the flutes comment on the saxophone tune. There is a general rumbling in the background while the saxophone and bassoon play together until the saxophone plays the end of the tune.

1. Chaos Before Creation - The piano and percussion thump out a rhythm and the double bass begins the subject of a jazz fugue. In turn, the trombone, saxophone and trumpet contribute to the fugal texture. Other instruments enter playing the subject as the music gets more and more complex. The fugue ends and slow, somewhat ominous music leads to the next section.

2. Creation Of The Animals, Insects, And Trees - The saxophone tune from the overture is played while the cello plays the fugue subject from the first section. This leads to a new bluesy tune played by the oboe.

3. Creation Of Man And Woman - The two violins play a syncopated duet while other instruments comment. The theme is passed to other instruments, fragments of previous tunes are heard. The violins resume their duet, a masterful segue by Milhaud leads to the next section.

4. Desire - The clarinet is in the spotlight accompanied by the piano, strings and percussion.  The music modulates to a higher key, then goes back to the original key. The oboe enters and leads the music back to the theme of the overture. The accompaniment to the clarinet solo enters, but the overture theme overrides it. This struggle for supremacy is finally won by the clarinet theme and accompaniment dominating. It modulates once again, only to fall back to the original key as the intensity grows until the music grows mellow with the blues of the oboe tune from the second section.

5. The Kiss - Themes from section 2, the overture return, with a memorable playing of the fugal subject by the flutes using flutter tonguing.  The saxophone and strings gently end the work.

Milhaud was not only a prolific composer but a teacher as well. He moved to the United States during World War II (he was Jewish) and taught jazz musician Dave Brubeck and song writer Burt Bacharach. Jazz and other kinds of music continued to influence Milhaud until his death in Geneva, Switzerland in 1974 at the age of 81.

J.C.F. Bach - Symphony In C Major W. 1/6

The family name of Bach was synonymous with music for over two hundred years in Thuringia in Central Germany, with many notable composers in the family. Johann Sebastian Bach had four sons that lived to adulthood that added to the musical reputation of the family; Wilhelm Friedrich, Carl Philip Emmanuel, Johann Cristoph Friedrich and Johann Christian. Johann Christoph Friedrich was born in 1732 and like the other brothers was taught by his father.

In 1750 he was appointed as harpsichordist to the court at Bückeburg (perhaps due to the influence of his older half-brother C.P.E. Bach) and was later appointed Kappelmeister. He stayed at this court until his death in 1795 and for this reason he has been referred to as the  Bückeburg Bach.  Of the very few trips he made away from Bückeburg, one was made in 1778 to London where he visited his younger brother J.C. Bach and absorbed some of the newest trends in music. Although the court at Bückeburg was small, Bach kept performance standards high and made the music of Haydn and Mozart known there.

C.P.E.Bach

C.P.E. Bach called him  the best keyboard player of the four brothers. He composed in most of the forms of his time except opera. He composed 20 symphonies of which seven have survived, and his works were cataloged by Hannsdieter Wohlfarth (hence the W. abbreviation and number of Bach's works) in the 1970's.  J.C.F. Bach was by all accounts a very prolific composer but many of his works were lost during the World War II bombing of Berlin where many of his manuscripts were kept since 1917.  He is considered a transitional composer, with some of his compositions in the High Baroque style, some on the Gallant Style and later works in the Classical style of Mozart and Haydn.

Bach's Symphony In C Major W. 1/6 was written in 1770. It is in three movements, somewhat in the style of C.P.E. Bach's symphonies. The three movement symphony of the Bach brothers was a natural development from the three-part Italian opera overture where the first movement is the longest and most involved while the other two movements are shorter and of slighter character. In this symphony J.C.F. Bach equals out the import of the three movements as they are roughly the same length and import. The symphony is for strings, continuo, pairs of flutes and horns.
I. Allegro di molto - The symphony begins with great energy. The first theme grouping continues energetically until a short secondary theme is stated in a more subdued (but still spirited) atmosphere by the strings with comments by the horns and flutes. The development section begins straight away with no repeat (a common practice in the early form of symphony). The recapitulation begins, moves towards the repeat of the second theme that has modulated to a different key when it is cut short by a brief transitional section that leads to the second movement beginning with no pause.

II. Andante - A walking theme (indicated by the tempo) begins in the strings and is commented on by the flutes. It is repeated and then expanded upon. The theme appears throughout the movement, with changes in key or details.

III. Allegro assai -  In triple time, the music has a dance-like rhythm to it and is a minuet in all but name.  The first section has two parts that are repeated, along with a short interlude that sounds like not very talented amateurs have taken over for the playing is rather crude and out of tune. I do not know whether this is actually a direction to the players that the composer wrote in the score or an interpretation by the conductor on the accompanying recording. I've heard this symphony in two other recordings, one that plays this section completely 'straight', and another that plays this section in a semi-rough manner. As the score isn't readily available, I'll have to leave the matter at that. The music then shifts to a trio section played in a minor key. The minuet is then repeated, including the crude section.

Because this Bach chose to remain in a somewhat backwater court position all of his adult life, he didn't have the influence on other composers that C.P.E. and J.C. Bach had.  He may not have had the inspiration or drive to succeed like his other two brothers, but he certainly was more than a competent composer worth an occasional listen-to.

Scarlatti - Five Keyboard Sonatas

The Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti has been a favorite of listeners, performers and composers since a collection of thirty of his keyboard sonatas were published in 1738 under the title Essercizi per Gravicembalo. Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich and other composers studied, played and sometimes made transcriptions of Scarlatti's music. Although Scarlatti is categorized in music history as a Baroque composer, his keyboard sonatas were forerunners of what was to become the sonata form as used by Haydn, Mozart, and almost all composers since.

His father Alessandro Scarlatti was an influential Italian composer of operas and other vocal music. Domenico was born in 1685, the same year as J.S. Bach and Handel. He wastaught by his father and for the first half of his life composed operas and vocal music in imitation of his father. He was a skilled harpsichordist, and there is a story (likely apocryphal) of Scarlatti and Handel competing on the organ and harpsichord, where Scarlatti was deemed the better player of the harpsichord and Handel the better player on the organ.

Alessandro Scarlatti

Scarlatti went to Lisbon, Portugal in 1719 as teacher to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. When she married into the Spanish royal family Scarlatti followed her to Madrid, Spain as music master to the court. He remained in Spain for the rest of his life and died there in 1757.

Many of the 555 keyboard sonatas he composed were composed for use by the Princess as she was a skilled keyboardist. After he became her teacher, he virtually gave up composing vocal music and concentrated on sonatas for keyboard. With so many sonatas, identification by key is not possible. For example, there are 61 sonatas alone in the key of C. There have been different musicologists that have given numbers to the sonatas, with the first being Alessandro Longo who published all of the sonatas known with corresponding numbers. These numbers are abbreviated with an 'L' before the number. In 1953 the American Ralph Kirkpatrick published his biography of Scarlatti along with his renumbering of the sonatas in chronological order. These numbers have somewhat replaced the Longo numbers, but many times both numbers are given for a sonata.

The basic pattern is the same for nearly all of the sonatas.  An example, the Sonata In C Major (K.133 L.282) begins with a theme in the home key of C major. After this theme there is other material that leads to a section in a minor key (C minor, parallel minor of C major) which leads directly to a section in G major, the dominant of the home key of C major. This constitutes the first part of the binary form and is repeated. The second part begins with the opening theme transposed to the key of E-flat major, the relative major of C minor. The second theme is referred to briefly, new material is presented, previous material is repeated in different keys, the 2nd part ends in the home key of C major and is repeated:



All of the sonatas are written in binary form, in two related sections that are both usually repeated. There are two or three main themes in each part with other material that binds the themes together. Key relationships are straightforward, with tonic-dominant-dominant-tonic being primary. Scarlatti varies his form (key relationship-wise) enough to maintain interest. His themes can be quirky, consists of huge jumps, hand crossings, all manner of techniques that make many of the sonatas unique to performance on a keyboard. There are some that have been transposed for guitar, but most don't transcribe very well.

The influence of Spanish music on the Italian Scarlatti has been the subject of much debate by musicians. The best evidence of the influence is most likely to be heard in the sonatas themselves. The repeated notes in Sonata In F Minor (K.239, L.281) as well as the bass line suggests the guitar. As the home key is F minor, major keys play the role of contrast in this sonata:



Another example of the influence of the Spanish guitar is the Sonata in D Major (K.119, L.415) not only in the repeated notes but by the thick texture of some of the chords that suggest the earthiness of Spanish gypsies and early flamenco. Hand crossings in the second part for each hand test the accuracy of the player:



Not all of Scarlatti's sonatas are fast. He wrote many sonatas that are slower, although some players still take them at a brisk pace. The Sonata In C Major (K.132, L.457) has a tempo indication of 'Cantabile', song-like.  Musicologists think there is a good case to be made for performing the sonatas in groupings of two or three sonatas. A good example could be to play the following sonata and then the C Major sonata K.133 above. They are both in the key of C, one is slow, one is fast :



And then there are the sonatas like Sonata In A Major (K.209, L.428) with the designation Allegro, which can mean many different things. It can be a clue as to the tempo meaning bright, lively, or it can also give a clue as to the mood of the piece; happy. This sonata's mood seems to me to be a happy one:



There remains the problem of what keyboard instrument is appropriate for Scarlatti's sonatas. Purists argue for the harpsichord and clavichord, possibly the organ for some of them. Others say that as long as they are played with 'taste', the sonatas can be played on the modern piano. To me, it is a question of preference. I have heard performances on different kinds of keyboard instruments, and even on guitar, that are very good. There are some that sound better on the harpsichord, especially the ones that imitate the guitar. The harshness of thick chords with closely placed notes seems more appropriate to the spirit of the music than the same chords on a modern piano.  But that's just me. Whatever the instrument, if they are played by a good musician that understands something of the time and the style they were written in, the performance will be musical.