Domenico Scarlatti was born on this day in 1685 in Italy. He was a contemporary of Bach and Handel, both of whom were born in the same year in Germany.
Scarlatti is perhaps most well known for his over 550 keyboard sonatas. They were originally written probably for harpsichord, but now tend to be played just as much on the piano. They largely follow a simple two-section pattern, each with a repeat, and tend to be short - usually 5 minutes or less. They are delightful little gems. Many are extremely beautiful and profound, and can be extremely challenging to play.
The great Vladimir Horowitz played lots of Scarlatti, especially near the end of his life. Here he is at a ripe old age of 82:
- Sonata in E Major, L. 224, showing off a brilliant light touch and lightning fast arpeggios.
- Sonata in B minor, L. 33, expressing an amazing depth of expression and interconnecting melodies and harmonies.
- Sonata in E Major, L. 23, a very common and popular Scarlatti sonata with a very sunny disposition and jaunty rhythm.
Here's an amazing performance by Martha Argerich of the Sonata in D minor, K. 141, a very fast, impressive piece with lots of repeated notes.
Here's a very old recording of the legendary Arturo Benedetti Michaelangeli playing Sonata in B minor flawlessly.
Gyorgy Cziffra was generally known for his romantic music, especially that of Liszt, but here he is playing some impressive Scarlatti, although I must say he alters the character of the pieces in a romantic tradition at times:
Sonata in D Major, K. 96, a technically difficult piece, and Sonata in A Major, K. 101, a more laid back piece, but full of fast parts, too.
Some people transcribe his works for other instruments, such as guitar:
Sonata in D minor, K. 1, a very popular sonata.
Here is the guitar legend, Andres Segovia playing the Sonata in C minor, K. 11 transcribed into D minor for guitar, one of Scarlatti's best.
I'll end with one of his sonatas played on harpsichord, probably as it was originally intended. Here is the fast and relentless Sonata in D minor, K. 517.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Ultimate Virtuoso Pianist-Composer
The great pianist-composer Franz Liszt was born in Hungary today in 1811. He is well-known for writing (and playing) some of the most technically difficult piano music in the world, music which at the time perhaps only he and a few others could play. But today the music finds its way into many concerts and competitions, and continues to amaze listeners and inspire young hopeful pianists.
Liszt's contemporaries included Chopin and Schumann (both one year older), as well as Wagner (two years younger). The latter composer eventually became his son-in-law, after Liszt's daughter Cosima (herself born illegitimately from an affair Liszt had with a married countess) left her husband, the pianist-conductor Hans von Bulow, and ran off with Wagner. When asked about what he thought of this, von Bulow supposedly said "Had it been any other man than Wagner, I would have killed him" - he idolized Wagner's music genius, and apparently didn't hold any grudges. What colorful lives!
Anyway, Liszt's music is not necessarily known for his compositional genius like Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach. Nor does he have an overwhelming amount of original memorable themes in his compositions. However, he deserves a place amongst the great composers for his forward-thinking in compositional styles, his amazing virtuosity, and his impact on composers that came after him.
Here are some interesting and important compositions:
- Grand Galop Chromatique, a wildly insanely difficult piece, played by the great Liszt interpreter, Georges Cziffra. This represents the typical "dazzling showmanship" Liszt that characterizes much of his music.
- La Campanella (from the Paganini-Liszt Etudes), a very famous and difficult transcription of a theme from one of Paganini's violin concertos. It shows off the "fast and light" virtuosity in much of Liszt's music, done masterfully here again by Cziffra.
- Liebestraum #3 ("Dream of Love"), one of Liszt's most popular and beautiful piano pieces, played here beautifully by Artur Rubinstein.
- "Annees de Pelerinage" ("Years of Pilgrimage"), three sets of pieces from when the composer was in Switzerland and Italy. These are really nice pieces, full of picturesque scenes. Au bord d'une source ("By the side of a spring") is one of my absolute favorites, both to play and listen to. Think of a mountain spring, beginning as a small trickle, getting progressively larger, finally into a noisy brook. Here is Au lac de Wallenstadt ("At the lake of Wallenstadt"), another piece from the same suite. You can hear the waves lapping calmly against the shore. The previous two are from his Switzerland year, and next one from his Italy year. "Apres une lecture du Dante - Fantasia Quasi Sonata" (After reading Dante) - one of Liszt's most original pieces of music, depicting Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Here is a performance by Alfred Brendel, parts 1 and 2, preceded by a fascinating brief introduction to the piece. Finally, in the third set of the Annees de Pelerinage, is another one of Liszt's most famous compositions, "Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este" (The Fountains of the Villa d'Este), a very forward-looking composition that had a strong influence on both Debussy and Ravel, the impressionists.
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, possibly the most famous piece Liszt ever wrote, thanks to Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, and many other usages of this piece in films, etc. It's one of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt, and is very free-form, with immediate-appeal themes and lots of dazzling virtuosity that is very fun to listen to. Here is the piece, played by Cziffra.
- Piano Concerto #1 in Eb Major, a delightfully free-spirited work, combining impressive difficult bravura passages, tender themes (in the 2nd movement especially), and light, shimmering sound effects (helped by extensive use of the triangle, pizzicato strings, high woodwinds, and upper register of the piano). It also shows Liszt's considerable skill in orchestration, something that his colleague, Chopin, lacked. Here is the piece played by Martha Argerich, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movements.
I could really go on a lot longer than this, as there are quite a few more amazing and interesting pieces. I'll end with one of his "Transcendental Etudes", specifically, No. 8, "Wild Jagd" (Wild Hunt). This piece is near and dear to my heart, as I learned it and played it for about 2 years, in several competitions when I was in high school. Looking back, I don't think I really ever played it that well (it's tough!), but it sure was fun. I think it strongly contributed to my repetitive-stress injury when I was 17 and had to quit piano concerts for a year and re-train with the Dorothy Taubman Approach under the direction of my then new teacher, Robert Ward. Here then is the Wild Hunt, played terrifically by Claudio Arrau.
Liszt's contemporaries included Chopin and Schumann (both one year older), as well as Wagner (two years younger). The latter composer eventually became his son-in-law, after Liszt's daughter Cosima (herself born illegitimately from an affair Liszt had with a married countess) left her husband, the pianist-conductor Hans von Bulow, and ran off with Wagner. When asked about what he thought of this, von Bulow supposedly said "Had it been any other man than Wagner, I would have killed him" - he idolized Wagner's music genius, and apparently didn't hold any grudges. What colorful lives!
Anyway, Liszt's music is not necessarily known for his compositional genius like Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach. Nor does he have an overwhelming amount of original memorable themes in his compositions. However, he deserves a place amongst the great composers for his forward-thinking in compositional styles, his amazing virtuosity, and his impact on composers that came after him.
Here are some interesting and important compositions:
- Grand Galop Chromatique, a wildly insanely difficult piece, played by the great Liszt interpreter, Georges Cziffra. This represents the typical "dazzling showmanship" Liszt that characterizes much of his music.
- La Campanella (from the Paganini-Liszt Etudes), a very famous and difficult transcription of a theme from one of Paganini's violin concertos. It shows off the "fast and light" virtuosity in much of Liszt's music, done masterfully here again by Cziffra.
- Liebestraum #3 ("Dream of Love"), one of Liszt's most popular and beautiful piano pieces, played here beautifully by Artur Rubinstein.
- "Annees de Pelerinage" ("Years of Pilgrimage"), three sets of pieces from when the composer was in Switzerland and Italy. These are really nice pieces, full of picturesque scenes. Au bord d'une source ("By the side of a spring") is one of my absolute favorites, both to play and listen to. Think of a mountain spring, beginning as a small trickle, getting progressively larger, finally into a noisy brook. Here is Au lac de Wallenstadt ("At the lake of Wallenstadt"), another piece from the same suite. You can hear the waves lapping calmly against the shore. The previous two are from his Switzerland year, and next one from his Italy year. "Apres une lecture du Dante - Fantasia Quasi Sonata" (After reading Dante) - one of Liszt's most original pieces of music, depicting Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Here is a performance by Alfred Brendel, parts 1 and 2, preceded by a fascinating brief introduction to the piece. Finally, in the third set of the Annees de Pelerinage, is another one of Liszt's most famous compositions, "Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este" (The Fountains of the Villa d'Este), a very forward-looking composition that had a strong influence on both Debussy and Ravel, the impressionists.
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, possibly the most famous piece Liszt ever wrote, thanks to Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, and many other usages of this piece in films, etc. It's one of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt, and is very free-form, with immediate-appeal themes and lots of dazzling virtuosity that is very fun to listen to. Here is the piece, played by Cziffra.
- Piano Concerto #1 in Eb Major, a delightfully free-spirited work, combining impressive difficult bravura passages, tender themes (in the 2nd movement especially), and light, shimmering sound effects (helped by extensive use of the triangle, pizzicato strings, high woodwinds, and upper register of the piano). It also shows Liszt's considerable skill in orchestration, something that his colleague, Chopin, lacked. Here is the piece played by Martha Argerich, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th movements.
I could really go on a lot longer than this, as there are quite a few more amazing and interesting pieces. I'll end with one of his "Transcendental Etudes", specifically, No. 8, "Wild Jagd" (Wild Hunt). This piece is near and dear to my heart, as I learned it and played it for about 2 years, in several competitions when I was in high school. Looking back, I don't think I really ever played it that well (it's tough!), but it sure was fun. I think it strongly contributed to my repetitive-stress injury when I was 17 and had to quit piano concerts for a year and re-train with the Dorothy Taubman Approach under the direction of my then new teacher, Robert Ward. Here then is the Wild Hunt, played terrifically by Claudio Arrau.
Monday, October 13, 2008
English Impressionism
Ralph Vaughn-Williams was born yesterday in 1872 in England. His music is impressionistic, although very different from the "Father" of impressionism, Debussy. I think that in all of his music there is a deep nostalgic twinge - a longing for beauty and for things to be at peace. He knew what England was like before World War I and how it was changed after, and I'm sure this had an influence on his works.
There are two works I'd like to highlight in particular. The first is Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis - this piece for strings is featured in the 2003 film, Master and Commander (one of my favorite movies). It brings me to tears when I hear it, especially thinking about where it is used in the movie. As someone has commented on the youtube posting - "This music is in sync with the action on the screen...of a sailor overboard who must be cut loose...and abandoned in the middle of the Pacific to save the 'Surprise' from sinking...as the spar to which he clings becomes a sea anchor. Both the horror and the beauty and the immensity of the act of cutting him lose into oblivion is brilliantly expressed in this music..."
Perhaps is his most famous (and for good reason) is The Lark Ascending, a piece for violin and orchestra. This piece makes me cry... hard... every time I hear it. I don't know if there exists another piece of music more clean, pure, beautiful, nostalgic, soothing, uplifting (OK, so I probably have said this about 20 other pieces this past year... but c'mon - listen to it and you'll understand!). Here is the last 7 minutes of the piece, set to scenery of rural England. The wikipedia article says - "The composition is intended to convey the lyrical and almost eternally English beauty of the scene in which a skylark rises into the heavens above some sunny down and attains such height that it becomes barely visible to those on the ground below."
There are two works I'd like to highlight in particular. The first is Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis - this piece for strings is featured in the 2003 film, Master and Commander (one of my favorite movies). It brings me to tears when I hear it, especially thinking about where it is used in the movie. As someone has commented on the youtube posting - "This music is in sync with the action on the screen...of a sailor overboard who must be cut loose...and abandoned in the middle of the Pacific to save the 'Surprise' from sinking...as the spar to which he clings becomes a sea anchor. Both the horror and the beauty and the immensity of the act of cutting him lose into oblivion is brilliantly expressed in this music..."
Perhaps is his most famous (and for good reason) is The Lark Ascending, a piece for violin and orchestra. This piece makes me cry... hard... every time I hear it. I don't know if there exists another piece of music more clean, pure, beautiful, nostalgic, soothing, uplifting (OK, so I probably have said this about 20 other pieces this past year... but c'mon - listen to it and you'll understand!). Here is the last 7 minutes of the piece, set to scenery of rural England. The wikipedia article says - "The composition is intended to convey the lyrical and almost eternally English beauty of the scene in which a skylark rises into the heavens above some sunny down and attains such height that it becomes barely visible to those on the ground below."
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Australian music of the present
Carl Vine was born on this day in Australia in 1954. I have only really heard two pieces by this composer.
Piano Sonata No. 1 (written 1990) - this was my introduction to Carl Vine. I first heard Michael Kieran Harvey (the Australian pianist to whom the work was dedicated) play it at the one and only Ivo Pogorelich International Piano Competition more than a decade ago (in Pasadena, California) and win the grand prize. It is a work that has immediate appeal for its astounding complex rhythms, ethereal sections, shimmering pianism, and fierce, raw, intense emotion. It is also extremely difficult to play - I've been working on it on and off for a couple years now, and it is probably out of my league. The 1st movement starts out slow and dark, with lots of jazz-like tone clusters. It becomes quicker-paced, moving into spell-binding rhythms and interesting tonal harmonies. Then it becomes somewhat atonal and builds into a grand, wild, tonal theme (at 3:17) and finally crashes down, but then builds a second time into the same theme (at 4:17). Again it crashes, meanders, then finds itself in a thoughtful, ethereal theme shimmering to the end.
The 2nd movement is the heart of the piece. It starts off very soft, shimmering at a lightening-quick pace, wild, chaotic, yet ordered (if that makes any sense). The perpetual motion continues, building into a loud rushing-water-like theme that climbs up and then loses steam, plunging down into a deep pool of water........ then tone clusters on the low and high ends of the piano are played slowly while a pensive theme plays in the middle register. This continues for awhile until things become more atonal and restless, furiously building back into the original theme, this time faster and louder. Then finally everything erupts, as if a volcano was bubbling and just waiting to spew (4:36). The rest of the piece is full of angry passion, relentless in its drive and pursuit. Just when you thought it couldn't get any more wild, the tempo DOUBLES (5:25) and the REALLY wild chase ensues, then lets up a little bit with low rumblings (6:32), then with a final burst of violence (7:10), the piece's energy just falls out the bottom, the original theme from the 1st movement returns, and everything fades into nothingness. What a wild piece!
Since then, I've become acquainted with one other piece by Vine, his Celebrare Celeberrime - a celebration for orchestra (written 1993). Thanks to my wife, who heard it on the radio and thought I'd like it - she was right. It sounds like there is a didgeridoo in the orchestration - how cool is that?
Piano Sonata No. 1 (written 1990) - this was my introduction to Carl Vine. I first heard Michael Kieran Harvey (the Australian pianist to whom the work was dedicated) play it at the one and only Ivo Pogorelich International Piano Competition more than a decade ago (in Pasadena, California) and win the grand prize. It is a work that has immediate appeal for its astounding complex rhythms, ethereal sections, shimmering pianism, and fierce, raw, intense emotion. It is also extremely difficult to play - I've been working on it on and off for a couple years now, and it is probably out of my league. The 1st movement starts out slow and dark, with lots of jazz-like tone clusters. It becomes quicker-paced, moving into spell-binding rhythms and interesting tonal harmonies. Then it becomes somewhat atonal and builds into a grand, wild, tonal theme (at 3:17) and finally crashes down, but then builds a second time into the same theme (at 4:17). Again it crashes, meanders, then finds itself in a thoughtful, ethereal theme shimmering to the end.
The 2nd movement is the heart of the piece. It starts off very soft, shimmering at a lightening-quick pace, wild, chaotic, yet ordered (if that makes any sense). The perpetual motion continues, building into a loud rushing-water-like theme that climbs up and then loses steam, plunging down into a deep pool of water........ then tone clusters on the low and high ends of the piano are played slowly while a pensive theme plays in the middle register. This continues for awhile until things become more atonal and restless, furiously building back into the original theme, this time faster and louder. Then finally everything erupts, as if a volcano was bubbling and just waiting to spew (4:36). The rest of the piece is full of angry passion, relentless in its drive and pursuit. Just when you thought it couldn't get any more wild, the tempo DOUBLES (5:25) and the REALLY wild chase ensues, then lets up a little bit with low rumblings (6:32), then with a final burst of violence (7:10), the piece's energy just falls out the bottom, the original theme from the 1st movement returns, and everything fades into nothingness. What a wild piece!
Since then, I've become acquainted with one other piece by Vine, his Celebrare Celeberrime - a celebration for orchestra (written 1993). Thanks to my wife, who heard it on the radio and thought I'd like it - she was right. It sounds like there is a didgeridoo in the orchestration - how cool is that?
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