Alkan - Impromptu For Pedal Piano

Was Charles Alkan really a mystery as the pianist Ronald Smith (a champion of Alkan's works) called him in the title to his biography of the composer  Alkan the Enigma?  There is an essay by Stephanie McCallum, herself a pianist and champion of Alkan's works in her own right, that discusses the possibility that Alkan suffered from a form of autism or a mental illness. The fact that Alkan went into seclusion about 1848 after a brilliant start to his career as a composer and performer does beg the question.  There are words by Alkan himself in a letter:

“I’m becoming daily more and more misanthropic and misogynous…nothing worthwhile, good or useful to do… no one to devote myself to. My situation makes me horridly sad and wretched. Even musical production has lost its attraction for me for I can’t see the point or goal”.

Those are words of a man who is cognizant enough to recognize what is happening to him, while at the same time not knowing why. Depression, Asperger's Syndrome, Schizophrenia,  are all possibilities but it will most likely remain speculation. Alkan did begin giving a few recitals later in life, but essentially remained a recluse.

There is no doubting the genius of Alkan as a performer. There is ample evidence through witnesses that heard him play. Liszt himself said that Alkan had the finest technique he had ever seen. And we have the proof of his genius as a composer with the music he wrote, which is much more available in print and recordings than ever before.  And no matter what the reason for his turning away from society, there is also no doubt that he was original to the point of being eccentric in some of his compositions. The Impromptu for pedal piano is a case in point.

If a music lover knows anything about Alkan or his music, it usually is that he was a pianist and wrote piano music. But he also could play the violin and was a virtuoso of the pedal piano. The pedal piano resembles a regular piano but with the addition of an entire piano played by the means of foot pedals, like the pedals of an organ.  Alkan wrote a substantial amount of music for this instrument. The pedal piano was in vogue for a short time in the 19th century. Robert Schumann also wrote music for it.   The pedal piano is now a rare instrument and much of Alkan's music written for it has been transcribed for the organ.

The Impromptu is based on Martin Luther's hymn 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God',  a somewhat odd choice for a Jewish musician to make.  It was written in the late 1860's and is possibly the last piece he wrote for the pedal piano. Ronald Smith has written that the piece, while written in one continuous movement is actually in four distinct sections. The work begins as a passacaglia, with the hymn tune serving as the continual bass melody, the second section is a scherzo, the third a siciliano and the fourth a fugue.  So it is far from being what an impromptu implies. It is a highly structured set of variations, imaginative in form and sound. Like the man himself,  the impromptu is a complicated mixture of genius, eccentricity, power and mystery.

Paderewski - Piano Concerto in A Minor

Paderewski wanted to be known as a composer as much as a piano virtuoso, perhaps even more so.  He had scant little time to compose after his premieres in Vienna and Paris as his popularity skyrocketed.

Paderewski's career began in fits and starts with studying composition off and on in Warsaw and Germany. He was accepted as a pupil of the greatest piano pedagogue of the era, Theodore Leschetizky when Paderewski was 24 years old. Leschetizky lamented that Paderewski had begun serious study far too late to develop a concert technique, but Paderweski practiced non-stop to try and make up for lost time. He practiced so much that Leschetizky worried about him ruining his health with so much practice.  But Paderewski persevered, and became a piano virtuoso known around the world.

Paderweski was the most popular and most well-known of any pianist of his time. The adulation audiences gave him bordered on hysteria and he loved to play for them, sometimes giving so many encores that the encores took as long as the recital.

He traveled extensively and became a very rich man, so rich that many times he would refuse payment for a concert. He was also the second Prime Minister of Poland after World War One. He was not only a fine pianist but an excellent public speaker.

Paderweski finished composing and orchestrating the piano concerto in 1889 and it was premiered in 1890 in Vienna. Paderewski wanted to play the premiere himself, but he acquiesced to a request from Anna Essipoff (a brilliant pianist, student and wife of Leschetisky) to play the premiere.  Essipoff had played other pieces of Paderewski in her recitals and wanted to premiere this work also. The orchestra was conducted by Hans Richter, one of the great conductors of the era. The concerto is in three movements:

I. Allegro - The work opens with a loud statement by the orchestra by way of introduction. The first theme is played quickly after with woodwinds and strings. The piano enters and takes up the theme. After the theme is expanded, a second theme is played solo by the piano. After the expansion of the second theme the development section begins with the first theme. After a solo for timpani the soloist plays a short cadenza and the development section continues. Paderewski follows traditional sonata form as he brings back both themes in the recapitulation with the customary key changes in the secondary material. A cadenza follows the recapitulation, after which a short coda brings the movement to a virtuosic close.

II. Romanza: Andante -  Paderewski finished the orchestration of the concerto while he was in Paris, and in a move that he later admitted was presumptuous, he took the completed score to the apartment of Camille Saint-Saëns for his opinion. The two composers had previously met when Paderewski played Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 4 In C Minor.  After initially grumbling about being disturbed, Saint-Saëns read through the score while Paderewski played it on the piano. The entire concerto pleased Saint-Saëns, but it was the second movement that he asked to be repeated. Saint-Saëns advised Paderweski to not change a thing in the work, that it would be a crowd pleaser. It was in this second movement, in what can arguably called the heart of the concerto, where Paderewski comes closest to the passion and beauty of his country man's music, Chopin. The theme is first played gently by the woodwinds, and when the piano enters it plays its own rendition of it. After sections that are as light as tender chamber music, the theme grows in passion and depth until it gradually fades away at the end.

III. Allegro molto vivace - The final movement begins with  a stomping Polish dance that has plenty of opportunity for the soloist to show their stuff. It is followed by a more reverent theme in the orchestra that is ornamented by the piano in its own version. These two themes comprise most of the movement as they are altered and elaborated on each time they are played. A grand coda whips up the virtuosity as the music races to the finish.

Ippolitov-Ivanov - Caucasian Sketches Suite No. 2 'Iveria'

Ippolitov-Ivanov is not too well-known to most music lovers. His Caucasian Sketches Suite No. 1 is probably his best known work, at least the piece 'Procession Of  The Sardar' from the suite.  He composed a second suite of Caucasian Sketches that are just as tuneful and interesting as the first, but it is not heard on recordings or in the concert hall.

Ippolitov-Ivanov spent eleven years in the Caucasus region of Georgia and developed an interest in the folk music and culture of the area. He received a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory in 1894, and after he moved to Moscow he wrote the first Caucasian Sketches suite and also wrote a book about Georgian Folk Songs.

The 2nd suite has four movements:
I. Introduction : Lamentation Of Princess Ketevana - Princess Ketevana was a daughter of a ruling prince, a member of the Georgian nobility in the early 17th century.  She was wed to a ruler called David that died 6 months later. As queen she did many things for the people of Georgia.  She was threatened by many usurpers to the throne and when she refused to convert to Islam under threat of torture and death, she was in fact tortured and died a horrible death. Her story became part of Georgian folk lore.

II. Berceuse - A lullaby with an oriental sound to it.

III. Lesghinka - A folk dance that gets more frantic as it goes.

IV. Georgian March - A rousing march, perhaps for the military.

Ippolitov-Ivanov's music is rich in the culture and sound of the Georgia he came to know during his time there. A culture markedly different from his own Russian background,  it inspired him to write some very good music. Perhaps not the 'deepest' music ever written, but it is highly listenable and very well orchestrated. It wouldn't hurt for both of the Caucasian Sketches suites to be heard in their entirety more often.

Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 'Romantic'

Of all Bruckner's symphonies (9 official, 11 if you include numbers 0 and 00) the 4th is the only one that Bruckner himself gave a subtitle to, 'Romantic'.  Bruckner did have a 'program' for this symphony, dealing with medieval German life and hunters with their horns and such. Whether that is actually what he meant with the subtitle is anybody's guess, for it isn't known for sure if Bruckner had all of this in mind before he composed it, while he composed it or after he composed it.  Personally, I don't see Bruckner as a writer of program music like Liszt, where a subject outside of music is the inspiration for a composition. I think it is another of Bruckner's attempts to try and appeal to an audience and increase the chance to get his music heard.

The 4th is one of Bruckner's most popular works since its premiere in 1881 conducted by Hans Richter. This performance is of the 1880 version, the third of seven versions of this symphony. Bruckner rewrote movements, substituted new movements for old, made cuts and additions to this symphony from the original edition in 1874 to the final revision in 1888. If all that isn't confusing enough, Gustav Mahler made his own edition of the symphony in the late 19th century which was heavily cut and re-orchestrated.  The edition used in the following recording is the Nowak edition based on the 1886 edition.

The symphony begins with a single horn playing over tremolo strings. This is the main theme of the movement and is heard throughout. The brass section especially the horns are prominent in this movement. The second movement is song-like and different than a typical Brucknerian slow movement. The third movement is ushered in like the beginning of the first with tremolo strings but this time with horns and the other brass. In Bruckner's program, this movement represents hunters , the hunt and in the trio a peaceful song while the hunters eat after the hunt. The fourth movement begins yet again with string tremolos, but with a plodding accompaniment in the bass strings and a distant melody heard in the horns.

A few words about the conductor of the following recording of the 4th, George Solti.  Solti was born in Hungary and was a fine pianist in his youth. He heard a performance of Beethoven's 5th symphony and decided hne wanted to be a conductor when he was 14 years old. He studied at the Franz Liszt Academy under Bela Bartok and others.  He came up the ranks in the opera house until he conducted his first opera in 1938 at the Budapest Opera house. When Hitler annexed Austria that same year,  the Hungarian government became very pro-Hitler and anti-semitism ran rampant. Solti being Jewish fled the country and moved to Switzerland where he earned a living as a pianist.  He won the Geneva International Piano Competition but had to wait until the end of the war to get back to conducting.

He held numerous positions with many different orchestras through the years but is best known for his tenure with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1991. He was the first conductor to record Wagner's The Ring Of The Niebelungen in its entirety in a studio. He was a much-recorded conductor and still holds the record for the number of Grammy Awards won by a conductor with 31. Solti died in 1997.

Vivaldi - Concerto For Sopranino Recorder

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) was an Italian violinist, priest and composer.  He was born in Venice and was afflicted with what is thought to have been asthma his whole life.  Because of this, he did not learn to play any wind instruments but he did become a virtuoso violinist.

His works were very well known in the Baroque era. Bach knew of him and his works and transcribed some of the violin concertos for keyboard.  His reputation and fame stems from his time working at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy), one of four homes for abandoned and orphaned children in Venice.  He was responsible for teaching the orphaned girls the basics of music and an instrument. The orphaned boys were trained in a craft and had to leave when they were fifteen, but the girls who became proficient on an instrument or their voice could stay and become part of the orchestra.

Shortly after Vivaldi began his work there, the all-girl orchestra became renown in Europe for their excellence of performance. The majority of Vivaldi's 500 concertos were written for this orchestra and players. Naturally enough for a virtuoso violinist composer, over 200 of the concertos are for solo violin and strings. But there are also concertos for bassoon, cello, oboe,  mandolin, lute, flute, recorder, and other instruments plus concertos written for two or more instruments.  These concertos attest to  the variety of the orchestra present and the quality of musicians Vivaldi produced.  Besides the concertos, Vivaldi also composed over 40 operas, almost a hundred sonatas and various religious choral works.

The recorder is a fipple flute. It is a different instrument altogether from the transverse flute, although sometimes in Baroque music the two can be interchanged. A fipple flute has a whistle mouthpiece attached to a straight body with finger holes. The tone of the recorder is softer, and thus is not a good instrument to use in a full orchestra as it would be drowned out. But for the Baroque ensemble which more often than not was what we would recognize as a chamber ensemble, it works very well. There are many sizes of recorder, from the Contra Bass that is over six feet long to the tiny Garklein only 6 inches long. The sopranino recorder is between a soprano and garklein in size at about 9 inches.  Its tone can be somewhat shrill due to the high pitch, but as the following recording attests, in the hands of a master player can run with the best of them.

Vivaldi's concertos are show pieces for his soloist. Many of the accompaniments are basic, although he does manage to keep a lot of interest between soloist and the other strings. The sopranino concerto is in the typical three movements of the time, with the opening movement being a rather fast Allegro. The second movement is a gently rocking Adagio that shows Vivaldi was quite capable of writing a beautiful tune. The last movement is an Allegro molto that has the recorder and strings playing to a rousing close.

Respighi - Pines Of Rome

Ottorino Respighi  (1879 - 1936) was born in Italy and was a composer, musicologist and conductor. He learned piano and violin from his father and went on to study violin, viola and composition at the school in Bologna, Italy.  After his schooling he accepted an offer to be principle violist at St. Petersburg in the Russian Imperial Theater's Italian Opera season. While there he studied orchestration with Rimsky-Korsakov.  He also spent time in Germany before accepting a position as teacher of composition in Rome where he spent the rest of his life.

Pines of Rome is one part of Respighi's Roman trilogy, the other tone poems being Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals. Pines of Rome is a symphonic poem in four sections that represent different places in Rome:

The Pines of the Villa Borghese - The tone poem opens with a flurry of activity in the orchestra as Respighi paints a tonal picture of children raucously playing (and getting into the inevitable squabble) among the pine groves of the Borghese gardens in Rome.
Pines near a catacomb - The orchestras low pitched instruments give the impression of the deep catacombs, complete with the chanting of priests.
The Pines of the Janiculum -  On the second highest hill of Rome, the legendary home of the two-faced god Janus, a nightingale is heard singing.  This is the first composition known that asks for a real recording of a bird call.  It is to be played at the indicated place in the score, and a specific recording is mentioned in the score.

The Pines of the Appian Way -  The Appian Way is a road that was begun in 3112 B.C.E. and still exists. Respighi paints a tonal picture of the road at sun rise in the fog, and slowly in the distance can be heard the marching of a Roman Legion making its way up the road.  As it gets nearer, the music gets louder and more forceful. The composer asks for the ancient buccina in the score, a trumpet used in Roman times. The music continues growing and finally with trumpets blaring and an all around splendid racket, the tone poem comes to a close.

Paganini - Violin Concerto No. 4

The modern day equivalent of the mania that Paganini (and Liszt) experienced would be the attention rock stars receive. Paganini was a brilliant violinist that almost single-handedly  transformed violin technique, but he was also a great showman.  The clothes he wore on stage, the 'tricks' he did with the violin such as imitating barn yard animals, and the mystique brought about by the legend that he gained his playing skills by trading his soul to the devil, all added to the general clamor and hysteria of audiences that heard him.

But there was more to the man than a brilliant violinist and charismatic stage presence. He was a very good composer with a gift for melody. Both Berlioz and Rossini admired his compositions. But Paganini's attitude toward his music did not do much for its popularity. Paganini didn't publish any of his violin concertos in his lifetime. He guarded his compositions closely, only letting the orchestra see the music the day of the concert at rehearsal and the performance, then he would at the end of the concert gather up all the parts and take them with him. He basically wrote the concertos for his use and his use only.

In an age that saw music as a very current event, Paganini constantly needed something different for his concerts. Paganini's orchestra can sometimes seem like nothing more than an accompaniment, but after all, they were written to showcase his violin playing.  Also, Paganini was not a piano player as so many other composers were. He could play the violin, viola and the guitar. Berlioz also played the guitar, and this no doubt influenced Paganini as it did Berlioz. Composer/pianists tend to favor harmonies as laid out on the keyboard while composer/guitar players would favor harmonies spread further apart because of the nature of the instrument. The guitar is also capable of a great deal of tone color depending on which string is used to play a given note.

The 4th Violin concerto begins with the usual orchestral exposition of the main themes of the movement. The opening theme is dramatic and grabs our attention. The second theme is more lyrical and light, and Italian in mood. The violin enters, and the fireworks begin and go throughout the movement. The second movement is a quasi-opera in its drama. The third movement has the violin utter the first theme to the accompaniment of a triangle. The orchestra dances, the violin joins in the dance and takes a few steps of its own before the concerto's brilliant ending.

To anyone familiar with Paganini's First and Second Violin Concertos,  some similarities are obvious.  But the reason audiences came to his concerts was to hear the greatest violinist of the age. Paganini knew what the crowd wanted, and he gave it to them. If it was in a form already familiar to them, all the better to be able to concentrate on his playing.