Andreas Haefliger Piano

PERSPECTIVES 6 A N D R E A S H A E F L I G E R BEETHOVEN Piano Sonatas Nos. 10 & 30 BERIO Four Encores SCHUMANN Fantasy in C Perspectives 6 Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827 Sonata No.10 in G Op.14 No.2 1I Allegro 7’03 2 II Andante 5’02 3 III Scherzo: Allegro assai 3’38 Luciano Berio 1925–2003 4 Erdenklavier 2’49 5 Wasserklavier 2’28 Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No.30 in E Op.109 6 I Vivace, ma non troppo – Adagio espressivo 4’04 7 II Prestissimo 2’26 8 III Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung 12’26 Luciano Berio 9 Luftklavier 3’25 10 Feuerklavier 2’57 Robert Schumann 1810–1856 Fantasy in C Op. 17 11 I. Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen 13’39 12 II. Mäßig – Durchaus energisch 7’31 13 III. Langsam getragen – Durchweg leise zu halten 9’34 Andreas Haefliger piano Recorded: 14–16 October 2013, Arc en Scènes, Salle de musique, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse (Schweiz, Switzerland ) Recorded by TRITONUS Musikproduktion GmbH, Stuttgart Recording produced, engineered and edited by Markus Heiland Photography: Marco Borggreve · Design: WLP Ltd. ൿ 2014 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Andreas Haefliger Ꭿ 2014 Andreas Haefliger. www.andreashaefliger.com Marketed by Avie Records www.avie-records.com When putting together my programmes, I have always seen opportunities to illuminate the individuality of works by placing them in tonal, dramatic and historic relief. Thus, through the sequence of a recital programme, repertoire that has long been familiar to us is shown in a new light. This series of Perspectives CDs is a document of my concert activity and aims to bring the recital experience into the living room. Andreas Haefliger ‘… which opens up the listener’s heart!’ When confronted with the critical ‘why’-question – why he combines two sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven with works by Robert Schumann and Luciano Berio on Perspectives 6 – Andreas Haefliger answers with disarming honesty and on an intuitive level: ‘I noticed that these pieces work together, that they make sense together.’ In Perspectives 6, the main point is not to experience how captivatingly this pianist plays Beethoven’s Opus 109, but rather how his programme functions as a whole. Haefliger ponders how the pieces affect one another and what the listener experiences.‘Perspectives 6 gives voice to expressions of romantic love in all its nuances – a sort of love that, as an emotional state, has become difficult for us today to grasp. The four pieces by Luciano Berio frame this idea within humanity and the laws of nature. The works by Beethoven, Schumann and Berio interlace in terms of their underlying romantic idea – they speak to a deeply felt affection for other human beings, as well as for nature.’ In Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op.109, composed in 1820 and dedicated to his longstanding close friend Antonie Brentano, Haefliger detects a feeling of romantic affection that is stronger than in any of his other sonatas: ‘Beethoven never forces anything – in contrast, perhaps, to his Opus 101, where he attempted to intellectualise this affection. Though Op.109 does explode on occasion, what we have here is still an unbelievably restrained Beethoven. He is much more personal here than in other sonatas.’ Though Op.109 may look backwards, it points all the more strongly into the future. Haefliger refers here to the movement with the variations, which has a certain Baroque quality. An inner connection with Robert Schumann could also be made out if one were to pay special attention to the syncopated accents in the sonata’s development section, accents which make for a more urgent mood without increasing the tempo. The emphasis here is on ‘could’ – for it is not Haefliger’s intent to emphasise anything specific.‘I work so intensively on these pieces that the special features of any given one become my own.’ Such a statement is easily misunderstood, for despite his personal interpretation, Haefliger strives to adhere quite exactly to Beethoven’s original notation – so exactly that it would be quite unlike him to say: ‘Look how unbelievably romantic the idea behind this sonata is!’ – and then to play a sforzando in such a way that it sounds ‘romantic.’ Instead, he prefers to restrain himself, at pains to avoid any falsification. If someone were to view him as being in the tradition of Edwin Fischer or Wilhelm Kempff, he would be quite pleased. Haefliger struggled with this approach for years. But today, it is with quite some serenity that he can state: ‘This is how I am, so this is how I play. I’m fortunate.’ In place of intellectuality, he seeks to take a human approach to his interpretations. And over time, this has become the foundation of his music-making.‘I play this music just as I experience it. The fact that E major is a soft key is something I hear immediately, though without proceeding to make the common association between Op.109 and Leonore in Fidelio. But in this sonata, one actually does find figures that are akin to caresses.’ 4 Unlike in Op.109, Haeflinger hears nothing soft – but much tenderness, all the same – in the G major Sonata Op.14 No.2, composed in 1798–9, which is also dedicated to a woman. He casually asks whether this tenderness is supposed to be a feminine characteristic, and smiles – but hastens to add that a strong man can likewise be tender.‘Beethoven dares to show another side of himself, and he develops his style here beyond that heard in his first sonatas, which were oriented towards Haydn. He wants to improve upon his Opus 2, composed two years before, and he wants to put both his virtuosity and his defiant personality on display. But even so, he permits himself to create an affectionate mood. And in this, Beethoven managed to reveal his heart’s urgent desire – which opens up the listener’s heart!’ Op.14 No.2 is a dazzling puzzle piece in the overall idea behind Perspectives, a virtual key to its mysteries.‘If I play this piece on its own, it’s a nice little sonatina; if I play it alongside the ‘Appassionata’, it stays that way. But if I play it alongside Op.109, it becomes a sonata in its own right. If I view a sketch by Paul Klee alongside a masterpiece by Van Gogh, the purism of the one affects me just as strongly as does the extremism of the other.’ In Haefliger’s recitals, it is perhaps the pieces by Luciano Berio that assume the role of the Klee sketches – but depending on one’s perspective, the seldom-heard ‘encores’ of 1965, 1969, 1985 and 1989 (Wasserklavier [Water Piano], Erdenklavier [Earth Piano], Luftklavier [Air Piano] and Feuerklavier [Fire Piano]) could also take on that of the Van Gogh. In the context of this programme, in any case, they have an obvious, strong effect. Thanks to Berio, the listener more or less emerges from the ‘Water’ to arrive directly at Beethoven’s Sonata Op.109, and Berio’s ‘Fire’ leads to Schumann’s Fantasy. In this combination, these pieces by Berio are powerful, thought-provoking works. And in this way, the meaning of Perspectives explains itself as he plays. Luftklavier and Feuerklavier are lyrical and, Haefliger feels, even impressionistic.‘A composer takes an element and describes it. But Berio goes further: he manages to describe the element’s psychology, and he shows us what it awakens in our own selves. This is a sense of the elements that goes far beyond the physically explainable. But while Berio did write something new, here, he didn’t shy away from attractiveness; he didn’t want to create anything ugly. And I admire him for that.’ Everything that the listener experiences culminates in the masterpiece that concludes this programme: the Fantasie Op.17 by Robert Schumann, published in 1839: tenderness, softness, impetuosity and passion. Beethoven dedicated his sonatas explicitly to beautiful women, while Schumann, on the other hand, may have hidden a declaration of love to his wife Clara in this Fantasy.‘Did he intentionally write the second movement in such a way that nobody else could play it? Or was he simply unable to write it differently?’ This is something that Haefliger frequently wonders. In any case, Schumann successfully accomplished the feat of composing a piece with a wholly unique character.‘He was uncertain of himself, surrounded by titans, by Beethoven and Liszt, but he wanted to show that he could hold his own anyway – that he, too, could write works of an expansive and towering stature. He didn’t succeed very often – but in the Fantasy, he certainly did. It was the existence of other music that nearly crushed him that made Schumann able to compose this piece.’ Here, as before in Beethoven, Haefliger refrains from forcing his interpretation on the music, preferring to allow the piece itself to suggest its interpretation to him. In the Fantasy, he thus recognises clear gestures where playing ‘just’ what is written in the music is unavoidable.‘There is only one single way. In the Fantasy, I think neither of Liszt nor of Beethoven, and not even of Schumann himself – so I’m not putting on my Schumann-hat and saying ‘these notes are by Schumann, so I’ll play them like Schumann’. 5 Schumann prefaced his Fantasy with words by Friedrich Schlegel.‘Resounding through all the notes/In the earth’s colourful dream/There sounds a faint long-drawn note/For the one who listens in secret.’ Haefliger prefers not to read too much into these verses, even if they do shed some light on the uncannily meditative slow movement.

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