CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS PROGRAM

Sunday, March 11, 2012, 3pm (1797–1828) Piano Sonata in A major, Op. 120, D. 664 (1819) Zellerbach Hall Allegro moderato Andante Allegro Murray Perahia, piano Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polonaise in C-sharp minor, Op. 26, No. 1 (1834–1835) PROGRAM Chopin Prelude in F-sharp minor, Op. 28, No. 8 (1836–1838) Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816 Chopin in C-sharp minor, Op. 30, No. 4 (1836–1837) Allemande Courante Chopin No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 (1839) Sarabande Gavotte Bourrée Loure Gigue

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 (1814) Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Klavierstücke, Op. 119 (1892–1893) No. 1: Intermezzo in B minor No. 2: Intermezzo in E minor No. 3: Intermezzo in C major No. 4: Rhapsody in E-flat major

INTERMISSION

Funded by the Koret Foundation, this performance is part of Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 Koret Recital Series, which brings world-class artists to our community.

Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) that for the English Suites, and neither one men- by rustic instruments. (“Loure” is an obsolete 1810 “a disastrous year.” A pledge made during French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816 tioned “French” or “English” in its title. The French name for the bagpipe.) The lively Gigue the previous year by the Princes Lobkowitz and composer’s first biographer, Johann Nicolaus arose from an English folk dance, and became Kinsky and the Archduke Rudolph to provide From 1717 to 1723, Bach was director of Forkel, suggested that the works were “written popular as the model for instrumental composi- him with a guaranteed annual wage had been at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen, north of Leipzig. in the French taste,” but the 19th-century Bach tions by French, German and Italian musicians diluted by the inflation caused by the French He liked his job. His employer, Prince Leopold, scholar Philipp Spitta countered that “there is no when it migrated to the Continent. invasion and the inability of Kinsky to uphold was a well-educated man, 24 years old at the idea of imitating or carrying out any specially his part of the bargain. Money from the English time he engaged Bach. (Bach was 32.) Leopold French characteristics.” What is certain about publisher Clementi was long delayed because was fond of travel and books and paintings, but the title of the French Suites is that it was not (1770–1827) of Napoleon’s restrictions on international his real passion was music. (Reports had it that authentic with Bach and that it provides a con- Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 exchange. Beethoven’s deafness was nearly com- Leopold spent a whopping 20 percent of the venient means of identifying the pieces. plete, his health was increasingly troublesome, court’s annual budget on his musical establish- The French Suites follow the standard suc- Composed in 1814. his family seemed to bring him only grief. In a ment.) The Prince was an accomplished musi- cession of stylized dances that comprise the letter of April 1814 written during a fit of de- cian who not only played violin, viola da gamba Baroque form, established in German prac- Though 1814 was one of the most successful spondency to his old friend Dr. Franz Wegeler, and harpsichord well enough to join with the tice with the works of Johann Jakob Froberger years of Beethoven’s life as a public figure—the he confessed, “If I had not read somewhere that professionals in his household , but he around 1650: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, revival of Fidelio was a resounding success, the no one should quit life voluntarily while he also had an exceptional bass voice. He started Gigue. In the French Suites, two to four addi- Seventh was premiered to general ac- could still do something worthwhile, I would the court musical establishment in 1707 with tional dances of differing character Bourrée( , claim, his occasional pieces for concerts given have been dead long ago and certainly by my three players (his puritanical father had no use Gavotte, Menuet, Air, Loure, Polonaise, Anglaise) in association with the Congress of Vienna that own hand. Oh, life is so beautiful, but for me it for music), and by the time of Bach’s appoint- are inserted before the Gigue. The Fifth Suite year were applauded by some of Europe’s noblest is poisoned forever.” Looking for domestic com- ment, the ensemble had grown to nearly twenty includes a Gavotte, Bourrée and Loure. The mod- personages, his arrangements of Welsh and Irish fort, he thought seriously of marriage for the performers equipped with a fine set of instru- erately paced Allemande, if its French name is melodies appeared in Edinburgh, the clangor- first time in 15 years, but his proposal to Therese ments. It was for these musicians that Bach to be trusted, originated in Germany in the ous Wellington’s Victory became an overnight Malfatti, then not even half of his 40 years, was wrote many of his outstanding instrumental 16th century. French composers found it use- hit—he produced little in the way of important rejected. works, including the Brandenburg Concertos, ful for displaying their most elaborate keyboard new compositions during that time: the can- A period of what critic and music scholar Orchestral Suites, Violin Concertos and much ornamentations, and passed it back to German tata Der Glorreiche Augenblick (“The Glorious Michael Steinberg called “postscripts to the of his chamber and keyboard music. Leopold musicians in that highly decorated form. The Moment”), the Elegiac Song for Four Voices and heroic decade, postscripts of enormous po- appreciated Bach’s genius, and Bach returned Courante was an old court dance accompa- Strings, the Polonaise for Piano and the E minor tency” occurred between 1810 and 1812— the compliment when he said of his Prince, “He nied by jumping motions that was frequently Piano Sonata were the only pieces from 1814 he Egmont, the Seventh and Eighth , loved music, he was well acquainted with it, he paired with the smoothly flowingAllemande . deemed worthy of opus numbers. After experi- the “Archduke” Trio, the Op. 95 Quartet, the understood it.” When the Sarabande emigrated to Spain from encing a miraculous burst of creativity during song cycle An die Ferne Geliebte, the final vio- The first four of the so-called “French” its birthplace in Mexico in the 16th century, the first decade of the century—the first six lin sonata—followed by an almost complete Suites must have been composed at Cöthen, it was so wild in its motions and so lascivious symphonies, last three piano concertos, Violin creative silence in 1813. Like silence in a piece since they appear in a manuscript collection of in its implications that Cervantes ridiculed it Concerto, Fidelio, Triple Concerto, ten string of music, however, this was a moment of great six such works dating from 1723, the year Bach and Philip II suppressed it. The dance became quartets, nine sonatas for violin and seventeen significance in Beethoven’s artistic evolution, a left Cöthen for Leipzig. The last two suites in considerably more tame when it was taken over for solo piano, a ballet, an oratorio, a Mass and juncture that would later be seen as the turning the 1723 set—now known independently as into French and English music during the fol- an additional wealth of songs, piano pieces and point in his compositional career that led to the BWV 818 and 819—had been replaced with lowing century, and it had achieved the digni- chamber scores—the flood of masterpieces had incomparable series of towering masterworks he the French Suites Nos. 5 and 6 by 1725, when fied manner in which it was known to Bach by begun to abate by 1809. French troops invaded created during his last decade. The Piano Sonata the collection, much revised, reached its defini- 1700. The Gavotte is a dance of moderate liveli- Vienna in May (the rigors of their occupation fi- in E minor, Op. 90, his first work in the genre tive state. The six French Suites (BWV 812–17) ness whose ancestry traces back to French peas- nally broke the fragile health of the aged Joseph since his Op. 81a (“Les Adieux”) of 1809, is one form a pendant to the earlier English Suites, ant music. TheBourrée was a French folk dance Haydn, who died on May 31st), and Beethoven of the earliest evidences that this transformation though they are smaller in scale (they eschew which was adopted by the court as early as the frequently complained that the resultant social, was nearing completion. the elaborate opening Preludes of the English 16th century. It is joyful and diverting in char- political and economic turmoil disturbed his The E minor Sonata was composed in Suites), more melodic in character, and lighter acter, and, when danced, was begun with a brisk concentration—and then went ahead and wrote the late summer of 1814, between the revival in texture. The source of the term “French” in leap, which is mirrored in Bach’s quick upbeat his “Emperor” Concerto. His life, though, re- of Fidelio in May and the convening of the the title is unknown. The heading of the 1725 pattern. TheLoure was derived from a 17th- mained difficult, so much so that his American Congress of Vienna in September. The work manuscript was written in French, but so was century country dance originally accompanied biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer called was dedicated to Count Moritz Lichnowsky,

24 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 25 PROGRAM NOTES PROGRAM NOTES younger brother of Prince Karl Lichnowsky, rondo structured around what British composer Brahms toured and concertized extensively intimate that one feels that Brahms was expos- Beethoven’s first Viennese patron, and seems to and musicologist Sir Hubert Parry described as as a pianist in northern Europe for the next de- ing his very self. They are the mirror of his soul.” have been occasioned by the Count’s engage- “the frequent and desirable returns of a melody cade. He made his recital debut in Vienna in ment to one Fräulein Stummer, a singer at the of great beauty.” 1862, and returned there regularly until settling Court Theater. (The noble Lichnowsky family permanently in that city in 1869. By then, his Franz Schubert (1797–1828) disapproved of this match with a mere thespian, reputation as a composer was well established, Sonata in A major, Op. 120 (D. 664) however, and it took Moritz two more years to (1833–1897) and he was devoting more time to creative work bring about the marriage.) Beethoven cast the Klavierstücke, Op. 119 than to practicing piano. He continued to , Composed in 1819. Sonata in two contrasting, and fully satisfying, however, performing his own chamber music movements, which, he wrote to the Count, de- Composed in 1892–1893. and solo pieces both in public and in private, Early in July 1819, Franz Schubert left the heat pict “a struggle between head and heart” and and even serving as soloist in the premiere of and dust of Vienna for a walking tour of Upper “a conversation with the beloved.” Perhaps so. It was Brahms’s ability as a pianist that brought his daunting Second Concerto on November 9, Austria with his friend, the baritone Johann But, more significantly, the unconventional him his earliest fame. His father, Jakob, a dou- 1881, in Budapest. His last public appearance as Michael Vogl. The goal of the journey was Steyr, two-movement form, juxtaposition of grandeur ble bass player of meager success in Hamburg, a pianist was in Vienna on January 11, 1895, just a small town in the foothills of the Austrian and intimacy, harmonic originality, fluency and early recognized the boy’s musical talents, and two years before he died, in a performance of his Alps south of Linz and some 80 miles west of cogency of thematic development, terseness of started him with piano lessons when he was sev- Clarinet Sonatas with Richard Mühlfeld. Vienna in which Vogl was born and to which expression, lack of overt virtuosity, poignant en. Just three years later, Johannes was playing Brahms’s compositions for solo piano are he returned every summer. Schubert enjoyed lyricism, seamless absorption of contrapuntal well enough to be offered a tour of America as a marked by the same introspection, seriousness the venture greatly, writing home to his brother, textures and German-language performance child prodigy, but he was instead accepted for of purpose and deep musicality that character- Ferdinand, that the countryside was “inconceiv- rubrics mark this Sonata as an entry point into further training (at no cost) by Eduard Marxsen, ized his playing. His keyboard output, though ably beautiful.” In Steyr, Vogl introduced the the remarkable period of creative renewal and a musician whose excellent taste and thorough considerable, falls into three distinct periods: composer to the village’s chief patron of the arts, discovery that Beethoven enjoyed during his discipline helped form his student’s elevated an early burst of large-scale works mostly in Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy amateur cel- last decade. view of the art. Marxsen guided Brahms’s earli- Classical forms (1851–1853: three Sonatas, Opp. list and an ardent admirer of Schubert’s music. The main theme group of the Sonata’s open- est attempts at composition, and prepared him 1, 2 and 5; the Scherzo in E-flat minor, Op. 4; Paumgartner’s home was the site of frequent ing movement (Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus for his first public recital, given in Hamburg in and the Four Ballades, Op. 10); a flurry of im- local musical events—private musical parties mit Empfindung und Ausdruck—“With liveliness September 1848, when he was 15. Significantly, posing compositions in variations form from were held in the first floor music room and a and with feeling and expression throughout”) the program included a fugue by Bach. A year 1854 to 1863 on themes by Schumann, Haydn, large salon upstairs, decorated with musical comprises several germ cells: a broken-off, two- later, Brahms presented a second concert which Handel and Paganini; and a late blossoming of emblems and portraits of composers and hous- measure fragment that hints of a dance; a quietly featured another selection by Bach as well as thirty succinct Capriccios, Intermezzos, Ballades ing his considerable collection of instruments flowing phrase; a bold unison motive in rising Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata. and Rhapsodies from 1878–1879 and 1892–1893 and scores, was used for concerts. It was for open intervals; and a downward sweeping scale. In 1850, Brahms met Eduard Reményi, a vio- issued as Opp. 76, 79, 116, 117, 118 and 119. Paumgartner that Schubert composed his ever- The second subject (in the darkly expressive key linist who had been driven to Hamburg by the To these must be added the dance-inspired com- green “Trout” Quintet. of B minor), more agitated because of its broken- civil uprisings in Hungary two years before. In positions of the late 1860s: the Waltzes (Op. 39) While in Steyr, Schubert, then 22, met chord accompaniment, shadows the open-inter- 1853, the duo undertook a concert tour through and the Hungarian Dances. Brahms’s late works, Josephine von Koller, 18, the daughter of one val motive of the main theme, but in inversion. Germany, a venture that not only allowed Brahms most notably those from 1892 and 1893, share of the town’s music lovers introduced to him The development section superimposes variants to extricate himself from the waterfront taverns, the autumnal quality that marks much of the by Paumgartner. On July 19th Schubert excit- of the first two motives of the main theme upon but also to meet , who, at 22, music of his ripest maturity. “It is wonderful edly reported to Ferdinand, “She is very pretty, the broken-chord accompaniment of the second only two years his senior, was already regarded how he combines passion and tenderness in the plays the piano well, and is going to sing some before a full recapitulation of the exposition’s as one of the best violinists in Europe. Joachim smallest of spaces,” said of of my songs.” It was for Josephine that he wrote materials brings formal balance and expressive introduced him to Robert and Clara Schumann, this music. To which William Murdoch added, one of his most endearing piano works, the closure to the movement. The second movement who were overwhelmed by Brahms’s talent when “Brahms had begun his life as a pianist, and his Sonata in A major (D. 664). Schubert returned is headed “Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar he played them some of his own compositions, first writing was only for the pianoforte. It was to Vienna the following month, and Miss von vorgetragen” (“To be performed not too quick- including his first published works—the C major natural that at the end of his life he should return Koller slipped from the pages of his biography. ly and very songfully”), and Hans von Bülow, (Op. 1) and F-sharp minor (Op. 2) piano sonatas. to playing this friend of his youth and writing The music, however, remains a lovely testimony the eminent 19th-century pianist, conductor It was because of the Schumanns’s encourage- for it. This picture should be kept in mind when to a halcyon summer junket and a pretty young and editor of Beethoven’s sonatas, thought that ment that he began his First Piano Concerto in thinking of these last sets. They contain some girl who once graced Schubert’s life. this poetic music perfectly balanced the “prose” 1854; Brahms was soloist in the work’s premiere of the loveliest music ever written for the piano- The brilliance and lyricism of the A ma- of the opening movement. The movement is a on January 22, 1859 in Hanover. forte. They are so personal, so introspective, so jor Sonata (published by Czerny in 1829 as

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Op. 120) speak well of Josephine’s technical skill It was the most brilliant time of his life, when he of expressive shadings by turning it this way and and hate, tenderness and defiance, coquetry and and musicianship. Though the first movement had his choice of pupils from the best families, that, as a jeweler would hold a precious stone to passion.” The expressive range of the follows Classical sonata structure, Schubert es- regularly graced the city’s most fashionable sa- the light to see its many sparkling facets. The is wider than that of any other group of his com- chewed the dramatic possibilities of that form, lons, and befriended such musical luminaries as string upon which these tiny, radiant musical positions; it is said that he never played any of which Beethoven exploited so mightily, in favor Berlioz, Bellini, Clara and , diadems is threaded is woven from the essence the Mazurkas the same way twice. They contain of tunefulness and tender sentiments. Only in a Mendelssohn and Liszt. The Op. 26 Polonaises of the tonal system itself: in Bach, by alternating Chopin’s most intimate thoughts, and are mov- passage of rising scales in the brief development were dedicated to another musical friend, the major and minor pieces arranged by ascending ing reminders that this famous Polish émigré section does he touch on any darker emotions, Czech composer Josef Dessauer, upon their half-steps (C major, C minor; C-sharp major; lived virtually his whole adult life away from his and these are soon assuaged by the lyricism of publication in July 1836. The Polonaise No. 1 C-sharp minor; etc.); in Chopin, by alternating native soil. the recapitulation. The Andante, with its simple, (C-sharp minor) opens with a fiery proclama- major and minor movements around the “Circle The four Mazurkas of Op. 30 were composed three-part construction (A–B–A) and its flow- tion immediately balanced by a heroic rising of Fifths” (C major, A minor; G major, E mi- in 1836–1837 and dedicated upon their publica- ing melody, is, quite simply, a song without phrase. Contrasted with this music is a lyrical nor [one sharp]; D major, B minor [two sharps]; tion by Schlesinger in in December 1837 words. The finale, another of Schubert’s incom- inspiration that is “tender enough to woo a prin- etc.). The wonder of Bach, of Chopin, indeed, of to the Princess of Würtemberg, née Marcelline parably lyrical sonata forms, is buoyed by its rip- cess,” according to James Huneker. all good music, is the way in which the crafts- Czartoryska, one of Chopin’s pupils and lead- pling grace and dancing vivacity. manlike calculation that is mandatory for the ing patrons. The Mazurka in C-sharp minor, creation of a work of art (98% perspiration) be- Op. 30, No. 4, is harmonically daring enough Chopin comes the invisible bearer of the expressive mes- that it seems to look forward a half-century to Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Prelude in F-sharp minor, Op. 28, No. 8 sage (2% inspiration). The American philosopher the pastel Impressionism of Claude Debussy. Polonaise in C-sharp minor, Op. 26, No. 1 Susanne Langer posited the concept that the art- Composed in 1836–1838. ist’s principal job is “the search for significant The polonaise, the Polish national dance, seems form” in which to express emotion. There is no Chopin to have originated at the end of the 16th century The very quintessence of the musical art—the better example in all of music of the truth of Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 as a grand measured processional for aristocratic ineffable balance of head and heart, of intel- Langer’s maxim than Chopin’s Preludes—tiny, ceremonies. In both danced and sung forms, its lect and emotion—is embodied in Chopin’s perfect sketches of the heart’s infinite moods Composed in 1839. popularity spread throughout Poland, finding Preludes. admired greatly their ap- realized through Olympian purity of thought. use both at court and among the peasantry. By parently unfettered Romantic spontaneity, say- By the summer of 1838, Chopin’s health was the 18th century, when Bach included examples ing that these pieces “cradle the soul in golden showing disturbing signs of decline, and George of the genre in his Second Orchestral Suite and dreams, and elevate it to the regions of the Chopin Sand told him that they needed to leave Paris French Suite No. 6, it had acquired the char- ideal.... Everything seems fresh, elastic, created Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 30, No. 4 before damp winter set in. They settled on the acteristics of its classic form: moderate, stately at the impulse of the moment, abounding with distant Mediterranean island of Majorca, off triple meter; phrases begun without upbeat, that freedom of expression which is characteris- The mazurka originated in Chopin’s home dis- the eastern coast of Spain, which friends (who and ended with a feminine cadence (i.e., on a tic of works of genius.” Robert Schumann (who trict of Mazovia sometime during the 17th cen- had not been there) assured them was blessed nonstressed beat); a frequently used rhythmic had hailed Chopin in his review of the 1827 tury. Rather a family of related musical forms with abundant sunshine and fresh air. Chopin pattern of eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth, eighth- Variations on Mozart’s Là ci darem la mano with than a single set type, the mazurka could be sold the rights to his Preludes to the publisher eighth, eighth-eighth; and a form comprising the encomium “Hats off, gentleman! A genius!”) sung or danced, performed fast or languidly Camille Pleyel to help finance the trip, and short, repeated sections. Around 1800, such wrote that they were “ruins, eagle wings, a wild and, when danced, given many variations on he, George and her son and daughter left Paris Polish composers as Kozlowski and Oginski cre- motley of pieces…[with] a note of the morbid, the few basic steps of the pattern. By the 18th in October. Sand recorded that Chopin was ated popular, stylized versions of the polonaise, the febrile, the repellent.” Yet undergirding— and 19th centuries, when its popularity spread “fresh as a rose and rosy as a turnip” when and it was from their works that Chopin learned indeed, making possible—the undeniably im- throughout Europe, the mazurka was character- they embarked from Barcelona for Majorca on the dance. Chopin’s first published composition, petuous passion of the Preludes is a precise, rig- ized by its triple meter, frequent use of unusual November 7, and that he had stocked up on written when he was seven, was a little Polonaise orous, almost coldly intellectual organization of scales (often giving the music a slightly Oriental manuscript paper in anticipation of a fruitful in G minor. His 15 additional works in the form, both atomistic detail and overall architecture in- quality), variety of moods and occasional rhyth- retreat away from Paris. Their high spirits were written in Warsaw and later in Paris, raised the spired by the 24 preludes and fugues comprising mic syncopations. Of Chopin’s 56 Mazurkas, little dampened when they had trouble finding old dance to the status of a heroic symbol of his The Well-Tempered Clavier of Johann Sebastian 41 of which were published during his lifetime, a place to stay in Palma—they had to settle for native Poland. Bach, whom Chopin revered. As in The Well- G. C. Ashton Jonson wrote, “In his hands, the noisy rooms above a cooper’s shop—and Chopin Chopin created the two Polonaises of Op. 26 Tempered Clavier, each of Chopin’s movements mazurka ceased to be an actual dance tune, and reported to his university friend Julius Fontana, in 1834–1835, soon after he had established him- concerns itself with just a single musical idea, became a tone poem, a mirror of moods, an epit- “I am at Palma, among palms, cedars, cactuses, self in Paris as one of the city’s leading musicians. presenting it, varying it, seeking its multiplicity ome of human emotions, joy and sadness, love olive trees, oranges, figs, pomegranates, etc. The

28 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 29 PROGRAM NOTES ABOUT THE ARTIST sky is turquoise, the sea like emeralds, the air as been “a complete disaster.” When they sailed for where he worked closely with Benjamin Britten in heaven. A superb life! I am close to what is Barcelona on February 15, Chopin’s health was and Peter Pears, accompanying the latter in many most beautiful. I feel better.” much worse that when they had arrived three lieder recitals. Mr. Perahia was co-artistic director The company moved to a sparsely furnished months before. Their crossing, in a cargo boat of the Festival from 1981 to 1989. house at the edge of Palma a few days later, where laden with live pigs, was rough, and Chopin de- Highlights of Mr. Perahia’s engagements the bad luck that was to mark the Majorca stay veloped a serious hemorrhage of the lungs, from this season include a European tour with the continued. While they were out for a long walk which he lost much blood. A French doctor in Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and a recital across rugged country, a violent storm blew up, Barcelona stabilized him well enough so that he tour of Asia, including appearances in Taiwan, and Chopin contracted a severe case of bronchi- could be taken to Marseille, and the company Hong Kong, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo tis. The rains returned, the house became mis- stayed there until leaving for Sand’s country vil- and Nagoya. Mr. Perahia will also be artist-in- erably dank, and Chopin got worse. The physi- la at Nohant in May. Chopin’s strength revived residence at the Berlin Philharmonic, performing cian that Sand summoned diagnosed Chopin’s with the coming of spring, and he completed the there several times throughout the season. malady as consumption, the highly contagious C-sharp minor Scherzo at Nohant during the Mr. Perahia has a wide and varied discogra- scourge of the 19th century, and their landlord summer of 1839. Chopin, George Sand and the phy. His most recent release, Brahms’s Handel demanded that they leave his property before it children, a year older, finally returned home to Variations, has been called “one of the most re- became infected. The party transferred to the Paris in October. warding Brahms recitals currently available.” Last French embassy for a few days and then moved Though Beethoven perfected the scherzo year, Sony Classical released a five-CD boxed set to converted cells in a deserted monastery at as a constituent element of his multimovement of his Chopin recordings, including both con- Valldemosa, situated in a wild and romantic instrumental compositions, it was Chopin who certi, the Études, Opp. 12 and 25, the Ballades, spot six miles from town. “He is recovering, and elevated the form to an independent concert Broede Felix the Préludes, Op. 28, and various shorter works. I hope he will soon be better than before,” wrote genre. The Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, the Some of his previous solo recordings feature Sand on December 14, just before they installed most dramatic of Chopin’s four specimens of the n the more than thirty-five years he Bach’s Partitas Nos. 1, 5 and 6 and Beethoven’s themselves at Valldemosa. “His goodness and form, is built from the alternation of two sharply Ihas been performing on the concert stage, Piano Sonatas, Opp. 14, 26 and 28. He is the patience are angelic.” contrasting musical elements. The first, passion- American pianist Murray Perahia has become one recipient of two Grammy Awards, for his record- Chopin was well enough by the end of ate and stormy, is marked by strong accents and of the most sought-after and cherished pianists ings of Chopin’s complete Études and Bach’s December to write down two more of the thundering scales in stark, open octaves. The of our time, performing in all of the major in- English Suites Nos. 1, 3 and 6, as well as numer- Preludes that he had promised to Pleyel, as well other is graceful and luminous, combining a ternational music centers and with every leading ous Grammy nominations. Mr. Perahia has also as the E minor Mazurka, Op. 41, No. 2, and richly harmonized chorale phrase with an in- orchestra. He is the Principal Guest Conductor won several Gramophone Awards. the final revision of the F major Ballade, Op. 38, candescent ripple of falling notes. of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with Recently, Mr. Perahia embarked on an ambi- though his work was considerably hampered by a whom he has toured as conductor and pianist tious project to edit the complete Beethoven so- dilapidated old piano, the only one he could find throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and natas for the Henle Urtext Edition. He also pro- for himself on the island. The storms continued, © 2012 Dr. Richard E. Rodda Southeast Asia. duced and edited numerous hours of recordings and his health varied from day to day, but he Born in New York, Mr. Perahia started play- of recently discovered master classes by legend- still found some joy in the time on Majorca— ing piano at the age of four, and later attended ary pianist Alfred Cortot, which resulted in the “everything here breathes poetry and the scen- Mannes College, where he majored in conduct- highly acclaimed Sony CD release, Alfred Cortot: ery is wonderfully colored,” he wrote to a friend. ing and composition. His summers were spent at The Master Classes. A good piano, sent from Paris two months be- the Marlboro Festival, where he collaborated with Mr. Perahia is an honorary fellow of the fore by Pleyel, finally arrived in mid-January, such musicians as Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy and it inspired him to undertake the Polonaise and the members of the Budapest . of Music, and he holds honorary doctorates from in C minor, Op. 40, No. 2, and the Scherzo He also studied at the time with Mieczysław Leeds University and Duke University. In 2004, No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39, but by then, Horszowski. In subsequent years, he developed a he was awarded an honorary KBE by Her Majesty the Spartan accommodations, the shabby treat- close friendship with Vladimir Horowitz, whose the Queen, in recognition of his outstanding ser- ment by the locals (whose antagonism had been perspective and personality were an abiding in- vice to music. aroused by the visitors’ unmarried state), the spiration. In 1972 Mr. Perahia won the Leeds Murray Perahia appears by arrangement with rambunctious children, the poor weather and International Piano Competition, and in 1973 he IMG Artists, Carnegie Hall Tower, 152 West 57th the continuing fragility of Chopin’s health had gave his first concert at the Aldeburgh Festival, Street, 5th Floor, New York, New York 10019. brought them to a state of loathing the island. Sand concluded that the Majorca venture had

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