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JOHANNES CARLO GRANTE, PIANO

BRAHMSThe Complete Sonatas and Variations for Solo Piano JOHANNES BRAHMSTHE COMPLETE SONATAS AND VARIATIONS FOR SOLO PIANO CARLO GRANTE, PIANO Part 1 (Disc 1) Part 3 (Disc 3) 1. Variations on a Theme by Händel, Op. 24 27:32 Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 2 2. Theme and Variations in D Minor, Op. 18b 10:49 1. I. Allegro non troppo, ma energico 6:11 3. Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 21 No.1 16:46 2. II. Andante con espressione 6:09 4. Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op. 21 No. 2 7:09 3. III. Scherzo: Allegro — Poco più moderato 3:45 Total Time: 62:17 4. IV. Finale: Sostenuto — Allegro non troppo e rubato — Molto sostenuto 12:44 Part 2 (Disc 2) Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5 5. I. Allegro maestoso 9:43 1. Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 Book 1 13:36 6. II. Andante espressive – Andante molto 11:18 2. Variations on a Theme by Paganini, 7. III. Allegro energico avec trio 5:09 Op. 35 Book 2 11:11 8. IV. Intermezzo (Rückblick/ 3. Variations on a Theme of Schumann, Op. 9 18:25 Regard en arrière) Andante molto 3:29 Sonata No. 1 in C Major, Op. 1 9. V. Finale. Allegro moderato ma rubato 7:39 4. I. Allegro 12:11 Total Time: 66:10 5. II. Andante (nach einem altdeutschen Minneliede) 5:32 6. III. Allegro molto e con fuoco — Più mosso 6:02 7. IV. Allegro con fuoco — Presto non troppo ed agitato 7:27 Total Time: 74:27

2 kinds of “Tonic Transformation” (removed, contracted, extended, JOHANNES BRAHMS: and inverted) and six kinds of “Rhythmic Transformation” (enlarged, diminished, curtailed, lengthened by repetition or “ ” interpolation, and transformed by internal variation). A composer A VIENNESE GERMAN MASTER can vary a theme in 85 ways if only four modes are combined and added together! Imagine if he used five modes! In theory — Hans von Bülow was only partly joking when he said, “my musical and creativity cannot thrive on theory alone — a composition credo is to be found in the key of E-flat major; it is the 3 Bs: Bach, may easily be built on and around a single theme, in a sort of Beethoven and Brahms!” (The joke works because in German the tautological musical logic of self-borrowing. Thematic variation note B-flat is called “B” — English B is known as “H.”) was a quintessential feature of German music. If we wished to invent a musical equivalent to Harold Bloom’s Brahms, continuing on the pathway of Bach and Beethoven, was idea of a “western canon” in literature, Bach would be the obvi- an undisputed master of this typically German compositional ous candidate for the musical Shakespeare, as his corpus of work practice, evidenced by the publication of three large-scale piano lies at the core of all of western music’s compositional languages. sonatas: Op. 1, Op. 2, and Op. 5. These were his only solo piano Following on the pathways of this musical patriarch, Beethoven sonatas and were written within his first three important years as is the most important link to the third B, Brahms. In the latter, a composer (1851-54). German music found a wonderful balance between the unfolding Brahms composed his Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor, Op. 2 in of invention and the epic and narrative, as well as a telling repre- Hamburg, completing it in 1852. It was published in 1853 by sentative of German Idealism. Brahms’ works are highly complex Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig and dedicated to Clara Schumann. and self-coherent in the way in which they develop themes and Although it was the first piano sonata Brahms completed, it motives. They are also wise in their choice of forms, depicting to likely did not receive its public premiere until Hans von Bülow’s th the utmost the deep, thoughtful inner world of the 19 -century performance in Vienna on February 2nd, 1882. This piece was Romantics. Brahms came late in the High Romantic period, as among those Brahms played for during their he was born a generation after Schumann, Chopin and Liszt; his first meeting on October st1 , 1853. This historic encounter led great late works were written in the 1890s. Schumann to publish the historic article “Neue Bahnen” (New What were the distinctive features of the “German manner” of Paths) in his journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, in which he these “B” composers? The most important compositional feature sang Brahms’ praises and called him “one of the elects,” as well is the so-called Thematische Arbeit, the continuous treatment of as declaring the composer’s works, “sonatas, or rather veiled elements deriving from a theme, which may appear in different symphonies (‘Sonaten, mehr verschleierte Symphonien’).” It was guises. In 1844, the German theorist Lobe said that the theme is thanks to Schumann’s benevolent pressure and influence that “the nucleus around which is woven the whole technical work of Brahms’ music got published, although the two composers did not tonic, harmonic, rhythmic, metrical, and thematic construction.” always agree on the order in which to submit the works for print. Lobe identifies two modes of “Thematic Transformation,” four Was it better to submit the weaker or the stronger works first? 3 Brahms sought advice from his friend Joseph Joachim. In a letter octave writing and virtuoso display, exhilarating for the to the famous violinist he wrote, “Dr Schumann is promoting my but not especially rewarding to listen to...” interests at Breitkopf & Härtel with such seriousness and urgency that I’m beginning to feel dizzy.” His eventual decision on the But parallels commonly drawn between the generous use of order of publication is made evident in his reply to Louise Japha, octaves in this sonata and those typical of Liszt’s keyboard writing who had asked him the reason behind the opus number (4) of his break down when one listens to Liszt’s remarkably faithful piano earlier scherzo. “When one first shows one’s self,” said Brahms, “it transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. Beethoven’s is to the head and not the heels that one wishes to draw attention.” thematic cogency can be directly traced through these pianistic The idea that the C Major Sonata should be published before the devices, putting Liszt’s use of octaves in a different light. F-sharp Minor appears to have found favour with both Schumann In line with the typical Viennese sonata tradition, thematic and Brahms, though perhaps for different reasons. Interestingly, relationships in Brahms’ second piano sonata unite the movements F-sharp minor is also the key Schumann chose for his great into a coherent whole. D’Indy identified a tendency towards a Sonata Op. 11. This was itself inspired by another tumultuous concept of cyclic form, though due in part to Brahms’ formalist work in F-sharp minor, Hummel’s Sonata Op. 81. The structure aesthetics, the result is a far cry from the ground-breaking cyclic of the beginning of the first movement of this work is emotionally thematic approach of Liszt’s B minor Sonata (composed in the mirrored even more clearly by Brahms’ Op. 2 Sonata than it is by same period). Schumann’s Op. 11. Following the publication of Brahms’ sonata in 1855, Schumann wrote to the composer, “Your second sonata, The thematic development of the main theme of the first my dear, has brought me much nearer to you. It was quite new movement of Brahms’ sonata (a compositional technique to me. I live in your music, so that I can half play it at sight, one described by Walter Frisch in his seminal book Brahms and the movement after the other. I am thankful for this. The beginning, Principle of Developing Variation) occurs as early as the transition the pp, the whole movement — there has never been one like it. section that joins the principal and subordinate thematic groups. Andante and the variations and the scherzo following them, quite This is a clear indicator of the thematische Arbeit practice, which different from those in the others; and the finale, the sostenuto, favours motivic continuity to allow a sense of Fortspinnung the music at the beginning of the second part, the animato and the (spinning forth) to permeate the movement. Siegfried Kross close — in short, a laurel-wreath for the from-elsewhere-coming explains how themes in Brahms’ music draw from the idea of Johannes.” fortspinnung, in spite of the term’s more common associations with Baroque music. As with Frisch’s concept of “developing variation,” Brahms’ F-sharp Minor Sonata is often called “Lisztian” due to the concept of Fortspinnung is borrowed from an earlier theorist, the thematic opening in octaves and its apparent flair for displays Wilhelm Fischer, who formulated the term in 1915 to “stand for of virtuosity. Malcolm MacDonald’s words are tinged somewhat by the process of continuation or development of musical material, what he feels to be overly virtuosic displays in the sonata’s outer usually with reference to its melodic line, by which a short idea movements. He writes, “less satisfactory, because less personal. or motif is “spun out” into an entire phrase or period by such Both are burdened with a great deal of hammered, teeth-gritting techniques as sequential treatment, intervallic transformation

4 and even mere repetition.” Both concepts help to clarify Brahms’ to the base of the theme as their real subject. Beethoven varies the thematic work: Fortspinnung highlights the interconnectedness melody, harmony and rhythms so beautifully. But it seems to me of motives within individual themes, and “developing variation” that a great many moderns...cling nervously to the melody,…we refers to the relationships between motives in different themes in don’t really make anything new out of it, we merely overload it.” both individual movements of a work, and the work as a whole. It is thanks to these compositional features that Arnold Schönberg, Brahms seems to look back at Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 22, in himself a pupil of Brahms’ pupil Zemlinsky, dubbed him “Brahms which thematic fragmentation marks the composer’s last links to the progressive” in his famous article of 1933. The composers of the German Baroque tradition by which he was greatly affected. the Second Viennese School by no means abandoned structural Elements in Brahms’ music can often be found to be examples solidity or inner coherence; their works were also conceived as of either “developing variation” or “thematic transformation.” organisms built on definite and recurring “cells,” musical units “Developing variation” is closely related to the German tradition (pitch series, motives, rhythms, etc.) used throughout. In this of thematische Arbeit. Brahms repeatedly modifies small units respect, Mozart’s example was a difficult model to emulate, as he of musical material, such as intervals and rhythms, through this had achieved a balance between structural precision and linear, process of “developing variation.” “Thematic transformation,” melodic inventiveness. He continually varied melodic elements, however, is akin to Liszt’s near-improvisatory reuse of themes allowing his music to articulate itself freely but coherently, with in new contexts (piano writing, tempo, mode). This term is the utmost logic, in a way that perhaps only Chopin was able to commonly used to describe Liszt’s way of retaining the melodic do with his personal, Romantic compositional language. shape of a phrase whilst changing its context, for example its mode, tempo, or texture. A melody that has undergone thematic Almost 140 years before Schönberg penned his article, Beethoven transformation may sound at once different and identical to its wrote his Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 3. In this sonata, the beginnings original occurrence in a piece of music. Though the compositional of the main themes of each movement follow similar melodic techniques with which they are each associated are rather shapes to each other, aptly demonstrating a similar manner of different, both Brahms and Liszt demonstrate methods of musical inner coherence to the future Viennese composers. This convention composition and aesthetics that would go on to influence future also influenced when he lived in Vienna. In this way Brahms can be seen to provide a bridge between the First and composers. Brahms’ influence reached as far as the 20th century, Second Viennese Schools, shedding light back and forward. however, when Arnold Schönberg demonstrated the “invisible” (though not necessarily the even more modernist “unconscious”) The first three movements of Brahms’ second piano sonata threads that unite thematic fragments. Moreover, this thematic do sound as if they were inspired by the same thematic idea, development seems to imbue a sonata movement in which it however as Schönberg says (in “Brahms the Progressive”) about is used with a sense of variation writing, as if a small set of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 95, “It would be presumptuous to variations could easily be devised from the generous offerings of say that it is ‘the’ basic feature of the structure, or that it had a musical material suggested by any given theme. Brahms wrote, “I great influence on the organization...; perhaps its function is only sometimes ponder on variation form, and it seems to me it ought that of a ‘connective.’” (Schönberg, Style and idea) to be more restrained, purer. Composers … used to keep strictly 5 Brahms had a tendency to compose the slow movements of his “Waldstein” Sonata Op. 53, due to the rapid shift from C major sonatas first. The Andante of Op. 2 in B minor is in fact a small to B-flat major in the first two motivic units. According to set of three variations on the German Minnesang, “Mir ist leide,” Schönberg’s use of the terms in his theory of form, these motivic and is one of Brahms’ earliest and most overt forays into writing units sound like a successfully executed juxtaposition of sentence variations. The theme can be easily seen to be derivative of and period. Brahms was familiar with each of these sonatas by the principal theme of the first movement, and there is a clear Beethoven, and actually performed the “Waldstein” when he was imitative approach in the way the short initial motive in the left fifteen. hand is answered by the right hand (a partial inversion of the initial motive). The variations in this movement seem to come to The second movement of Brahms’ Op. 1 sonata in C minor is a sudden stop, followed by what could be a fourth variation, but another of his early experiments with theme and variation form (a is instead the Scherzo. The Scherzo is only recognized as such by form that would later become one of his trademarks). The third the trio section, which is thematically and tonally distinct from the movement is an E minor scherzo and trio, which exhibits metric rest of the movement. dissonances demonstrating Brahms’ interest in Schumann’s music long before the two composers had met. Parallels can also be As we have already seen in Beethoven, Brahms creates a theme drawn between the melodic contour of the movement’s opening derived from the first part of the Scherzo for the second part. The and that of the Scherzo of Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Op. 44. contrasting moods are underlined by changes of key (B minor – Brahms did in fact make his own four-hand arrangement of D major) and differing meters. The slow introduction to the last Schumann’s movement, though this remains lost and unpublished, movement, functioning as a dream-like preview of the movement’s and there is also a (published) two-hand arrangement of the same principal theme, puts one in mind of Beethoven’s similar practices piece by Clara Schumann. The respective use of E minor and C in his Op. 13 and Op. 37 sonatas. major for the refrain and the Trio also demonstrate similarity with the tonal plan of the middle movement of Beethoven’s Sonata Schumann chose to publish the C major sonata first because he Op.14. The last movement of Brahms’ Op. 1 sonata begins as if it felt that Brahms had “written something worth offering to the were a variation on the first movement’s principal theme. world as his Op. 1.” The work pleased the Schumanns and offered a glimpse of Brahms’ early, “symphonic style” with a “lyrical Brahms’ Sonata Op. 5 was the last work he submitted to quality that often brings the sonata close to the realm of the Schumann for comments. Eduard Hanslick believed he could German Lied.” identify the influence of Brahms’ “mentor” in this sonata; he writes, “The whole of Brahms is here, though still under the spell Walter Frisch, speaking again of Brahms’ “developing variation” of Schumann.” From the very beginning of his sonata, Brahms compositional technique, shows us how the first theme of the seems to continue the inceptive motive of Schumann’s F minor Op. 1 Sonata contains motives that diffuse throughout the entire Sonata Op. 14 (which Brahms would have premiered) as if movement. The first movement of this sonata is in sonata form both composers were penning the music together. The sudden with a coda, and thanks to the opening chords, is frequently shift to C minor, after the dominant arrival in C major, offers a compared to Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata Op. 106. This poignant example of the superimposition of several compositional movement also draws frequent comparison with Beethoven’s 6 techniques that so influenced the composer; we can trace the manages to perfect the German Romantic sonata ideal. Whereas origin of this shift all the way back to the typical Scarlattian his late violin and clarinet sonatas may appear to have a more rhetoric of changing mode (the mutatio toni), the right-hand fluid narrative structure, his Opp.1, 2, and 5 sonatas are some motive sprouting from previously heard material (revealing of the most structurally compact and exact works in his whole Brahms’ penchant for Knüpftechnik, or motivic linkage), and the output, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact he was Beethovenian “fate” rhythm in the left hand. only 20 when he wrote them. Claudio Arrau described the second movement, Andante, as “the “Brahms’ Variations are better than mine, but mine were written most beautiful love music after Tristan.” The movement, which before his.” contains a beautifully rendered “love duet” between the right and — left hands, is headed by a verse from a Sternau poem: The Variations on a Theme of Schumann Op. 9 were written The evening dims in 1854, following Brahms’ first meeting with the Schumanns The moonlight shines in the autumn of 1853. Here Brahms pays homage both to There are two hearts Robert, using as a theme his Bunte Blatter Op. 99 No. 4 (also That join in love Schumann’s code for the Clara’s name, C-B-A-G -A), and to And embrace in rapture Clara, who would become a much beloved friend and artist for Brahms. Clara had written a set of variations on the same theme, The Scherzo is a dark and dramatic waltz after which the grandly so Brahms’ Schumann Variations contain cross-references to solemn, chordal Trio provides welcome relief. The unexpectedly Clara’s work. The Schumann Variations are a favorite of scholars inserted fourth movement is an intermezzo entitled “Rückblick” both for their hidden musical messages (Jan Swafford even or “Backward Glance.” It transforms the romantic theme of the found cabalistic musical codes in them) and for the aesthetic second movement into a funeral march, complete with drum devotion to Robert Schumann, as they depict different facets roll effects provided by the Beethovenian “fate” rhythm. The of his personality in the changes of mood and character. In the Finale’s many motives may lead to several understandings of autograph, Brahms adds the symbols of B. (Brahms) to Variations their thematic origins and development. One thing is certain, 4, 7-8, 10-11, 14-16, and Kr. (Kreisler) to Variations 5-6, 9, the subordinate theme is an inversion of the subordinate theme 12-13, to signify his contrasting emotional personalities, just of Brahms’ Piano Concerto Op. 15 (or indeed, the subordinate as Schumann did in his Davidsbündlertänze with the symbols theme of the concerto is an inversion of the subordinate theme of E. (Eusebius) and F. (Florestan). The references to Schumann’s the sonata) which reappears in the coda in a Chopinian two-part works are sometimes direct, sometimes even obvious, for example heterophonic style. Is this a coincidence? in Variations 8 (Davidsbündlertanze, Op. 9), 12 (Fantasiestücke Brahms’ approach to sonata writing is twofold — he absorbs – Fabel), 13 (Toccata Op. 7), 14 (Carnaval – “Chopin”), 15 German thematic treatment and looks directly to Bach to do (Davidsbündlertanze Op. 6). Variation 9 is an actual quotation of so, but at the same time the musical discourse of his sonata Schumann’s Albumblatt Op. 99 No. 2 (from the same set of short form unfolds like Schumann’s “narrative sonata” style. Brahms pieces that the theme of Brahms’ Variations is taken from).

7 Brahms’ Theme and Variations in D Minor, Op.18b (1860), The Variations on a Hungarian Song, Op. 21 No. 2 (from the was based on the second movement of his String Sextet No. 1 in earliest surviving set of variations by Brahms, though not his B-flat Major. Brahms wrote the Variations for Clara Schumann’s first) were composed in the spring of 1853 but were not published birthday, after she had heard the sextet movement and begged until 1861 (hence their higher opus number cf. the Variations on Brahms for a transcription. The theme, and the ensuing six a Theme of Schumann). The first work reflects Brahms’ interest variations, stick rigidly to the structure of the theme as heard in in Hungarian folklore and shows some unique features of the the sextet (right down to the repeats), and it has been suggested composer’s variation style, notably the constant reiteration or that this shows an indebtedness to Bach. Despite Brahms’ fondness manipulation of recognizable thematic elements and a tendency for the work, it remained unpublished until after his death. to make “variations of variations,” linking one variation to the It would be impossible to talk about these Variations without next as if one were the theme and the next a variation of it. The making reference to his other piano transcription of a chamber influence of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations can be heard in the work, his two-piano arrangement of the Piano Quintet in F Minor. Op. 21 No. 2 Variations, in which the bass is the actual theme Unlike the Op.18b Variations, however, the quintet is not a true (disguised as a “ground bass”): the first Variation after the transcription as Brahms fluctuated between composing the work Hungarian theme (with its metric structure of 3+4 beats) has the for quintet and for two pianos, first finishing the quintet and later Hungarian theme in the bass, heavy, in octaves, with the right the two-piano version. hand “improvising” a Hungarian melody. Brahms saw an integral element of variation-form in the bass line (a device used notably Brahms’ Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 21 No. 1, the so- in the Passacaglia finale of his Fourth Symphony). As he himself called “Philosophical Variations” (1857), consists of a theme, 11 stated, “In a theme for a [set of] variations, it is almost only the variations, and a coda. This work, whilst pensive and personal, bass that has any meaning for me. But this is sacred to me, it is sees Brahms exploring new aspects of variation technique. The the firm foundation on which I then build my stories. What I do theme consists of two nine-bar phrases, and this irregularity with a melody is only playing around ... If I vary only the melody, remains consistent throughout the Variations. It is richly then I cannot easily be more than clever or graceful, or, indeed, contrapuntal, but Brahms chooses to base his variations on the [if] full of feeling, deepen a pretty thought. [But] on a given bass, theme’s harmonic structure. The first seven Variations remain in I invent something actually new, I discover new melodies in it, I D major and feature compositional devices considered archaic in create.” The descending melody of the first Variation is used again Brahms’ day. An example of this is the canon found in Variation in the third Variation, while the varied theme (in double notes) 5 and its even stricter return in Variation 7. Variations 8-10 of the second Variation is varied again in the fifth Variation. This are in D minor and mark a shift to a more agitated mood. The fifth Variation exhibits a typical Hungarian rubato and is followed dynamic climax of the piece, Variation 9, uses the pedal bass that by its own “variation’s variation,” where the material previously underpinned the theme for dramatic effect, providing a strong heard in the left-hand is now developed in the right-hand triplets. foundation for the chordal writing above. Variation 11 subsides Even in just these first six Variations (the fourth is a restatement again to the major, though the melody is still underpinned by low of the majestic character of the theme) one can see that the trills in the bass. 20-year-old Brahms is already a master of thematic and structural

8 coherence. The variations that follow exhibit an even tighter contrary-motion chromatic lines in the left hand; Variation 4 thematic coherence: the eighth Variation varies the right-hand is linked to the next with the ending falling third, which is the motive of the seventh Variation by putting it in the left-hand, and same interval (albeit in the minor) that begins Variation 5. Both the ninth Variation varies, in the right hand, the Hungarian theme Variations use a syncopated accent on the subdominant, albeit that had appeared in a syncopated chord (in a very soft dynamic in entirely different emotional contexts and with a soft dynamic setting) in the eighth Variation, also in the right hand. Variations “temperature.” Variation 6 is a pianissimo canon (at times 10-13 offer an interesting example of metric acceleration, with parallel, at times inverted). This is followed by a pair of variations subdivisions of eighth-note triplets, sixteenth notes, sixteenth- in which Variation 8 is in fact a “variation’s variation” of Variation note triplets, and thirty-second notes. This builds to a Variation 7. Brahms’ aim at unity and self-coherence in the variations can in czardas style that becomes, surprisingly, a sort of refrain that be seen in the natural tendency of some variations to be easily reappears until the end of the piece. grouped together by either melodic links or strong resemblance. Variations 11 and 12 are both calm and delicate, and use flowing, Whereas Brahms subjects the theme of the Schumann Variations legato sixteenth notes both as melodic and accompanimental to real compositional virtuosity, he takes a quite different figures. Variation 13 uses triplets, which are replaced in Variation approach to the Variations on a Theme of Handel and those on a 14 with runs of sixteenth notes; Variations 15 and 16 both Theme of Paganini. These larger works are not only Brahms’ most contain a pattern of two high eighth notes followed by a run of revered works in variation form but are also among the greatest lower sixteenth notes. Variation 18 develops, in sixteenth notes, of all piano literature. They represent two opposing compositional the descending eighth-note cascade found in variation 17. These approaches; on the one hand a strict fidelity to the theme, and are clear and successful examples of the Brahmsian practice of on the other, the treatment of it as a mere background image. “varying the variation’s variations.” This technique was used The theme in the Handel Variations (1861) is omnipresent — at extensively in the Variations on a Hungarian Song, and twice in times more explicitly, at times less — due to the influence of the the Paganini Variations. Variation 21 is the only variation in the melodic contour of its very beginning, the first three degrees of relative minor key (G minor) and again, as in Variation 2, it uses the B-flat key. This three-note melodic segment, 1-2-3, assumes the typically Brahmsian triple-against-duple time, with the theme the status of an all-important statement; it is, curiously enough, disguised in the grace notes of the right hand. the retrograde of Schenker’s Urlinie (fundamental line), 3-2- 1, upon which Schenker believed all tonal music to be based. Variation 19 is a pastorale in siciliana rhythm. It bears a striking Each variation’s initial bar is therefore a restatement of this resemblance to the siciliana section of Scarlatti’s Sonata K. 235, three-note fragment, aptly manipulated in one of the many the 20th item in the fifth Parma book. Both the metre and the ways permitted by the Thematische Arbeit. Variation 1 uses a four-part setting indicate a close relationship between the two technique of internal variation, adding lower neighbor notes works (in the Brahms variation the theme is disguised in the bass and a syncopated chord to each note of the “melodic motto”; part). Brahms owned a manuscript copy of the Santini collection Variation 2 adds an appoggiatura within an imitative framework of Scarlatti’s sonatas, which is an important editorial source for to each note; Variation 3 produces chromatic triplets in the right 308 of Scarlatti’s sonatas. This collection was used by Czerny for hand (again by measure of internal variation) accompanied by his own edition of the Scarlatti sonatas, which Brahms also owned 9 a copy of and to which he made many handwritten editorial Chopin, Brahms wanted to challenge the pianist technically by changes, giving us a useful insight into Brahms’ compositional creating virtuosity in polyphony (an aim furthered by Leopold mentality. Brahms was indeed an important advocate, promoter Godowsky) and by creating new pianistic devices that avoided and performer of Scarlatti’s sonatas. The influence of Scarlatti’s repetitive patterns and, within the limits of human possibility, keyboard writing on Brahms is most evident in the Handel went beyond any predictable and “comfortable” klaviermmässig Variations. Variation 19 is obviously borrowed from Scarlatti’s writing that fit the hand. These Variations were based on the Sonata K. 235. Variations 5, 7, 8, 10, 17 and 18 all use typical theme from Paganini’s Capriccio No. 24, which is, alongside Scarlattian devices: cross-hand passages, trumpet-like pedal- the Dies Irae chant, one of the most used themes in the history notes, and passages in double-stops. The “Scarlattian” Variation of music. The paradoxical aesthetic of this monumental work is 21 is followed by the idiomatically completely different Variation wittily described by James Huneker: “Brahms and Paganini! Was 22. This Variation is highly chromatic and Romantic, with many ever so strange a couple in harness? Caliban and Ariel, Jove and harmonic changes, but remains linked to the preceding Variation Puck. The stolid German, the vibratile Italian! Yet fantasy wins, by the A-B semitone which introduces the first note of the theme, even if brewed in a homely Teutonic kettle ... These diabolical closes Variation 21 and opens Variation 22. Just like in Variations variations, the last word in the technical literature of the piano, 4 and 5, a hidden melodic reference unites two seemingly different are also vast spiritual problems. To play them requires fingers variations. This is Brahms the “progressive,” a composer exhibiting of steel, a heart of burning lava and the courage of a lion.” Like advanced features of compositional structuralism that none of his Chopin with his Études, Brahms here offers his own “protocols” contemporaries used, and which make him a “modern” composer for his style of piano writing, a style that is as idiomatic as it is avant la lettre. The majestic fugue, with its subject built from the nearly unsurpassable in terms of tasteful and intelligent virtuosity. first notes of the Handel theme, pays homage to both Bach (with If, in the Handel Variations, Brahms achieved a sense of unity its long pedal points, which are clearly borrowed from Bach’s D through subtle use of the same motivic cell, in the Paganini minor Toccata and Fugue), and to Scarlatti (with its similar use Variations we find the opposite. Here Brahms seeks to depart from of thirds and sixths, and “vamp” sections, where the music’s flow the theme, to even make it unrecognizable, in order to experiment seems to come to a point of stasis). with the most extreme aspects of pianism. The theme has simple In the Paganini Variations (1863), a work originally titled Studies harmonic structure (Tonic-Dominant-Tonic-Dominant in the first for Pianoforte: Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Brahms part followed by a sequence with a Neapolitan closing cadence once again pays homage to Schumann’s vision for the piano in the second part) and follows an asymmetric 24 bar structure, (Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes in variation form). Brahms, which echoes the “Clara theme” used by Schumann in the however, sought to create something of unsurpassed technical Andantino of his Sonata Op. 14. This is no more than a harmonic difficulty that would contribute to the development of piano background, as if it were whispered throughout, and never, save technique. He very nearly surpassed Chopin and his Études, as for Variation 11 and the Finale of the second book, even uttered, both composers experimented with compositional innovation let alone quoted or developed. Brahms’ Thematische Arbeit is here through a new kind of instrumental writing, as if the instrument replaced by an expert use of instrumental writing, and coherence itself were giving advice to the composer. Even more so than is kept within each individual variation, rather than between 10 the variations to encompass the work as a whole. This enables a performer to even attempt to change the order of the variations, as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli did in his legendary performances of the work. Brahms wrote two sets of 14 Paganini Variations, grouped in Books I and II. Here they are presented with the theme reiterated at the beginning of Book II. In a recording program featuring Brahms’ six sets of Variations, variations mostly based on the themes of other composers, one is put in mind of 2 well-known bons mots about change: Karr’s “the more things change, the more they remain the same” (“plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”), and Tomasi di Lampedusa’s “things must change in order that they might remain the same.” Brahms embodied a fusion of the two “B”s who went before him: he combined, in a High-Romantic framework, Bach’s organic, almost tautological compositional solidity with Beethoven’s uniquely thoughtful musical expression and struggling between formalism and fantasy, tradition and innovation. Curiously, when Bülow identified Brahms as the third German “B,” he was deliberately misquoting Peter Cornelius’ 1854 expression, in which the third “B” was…Berlioz! Of all composers, Berlioz was the one who joined in Liszt’s new compositional trend, a trend to which Brahms opposed. Wagner had a hand in further misquoting that pun, identifying Bruckner, not Brahms, as the third “B” (though he admired Brahms just as much). Speaking of the Handel Variations, he said, “One sees what still may be done in the old forms when someone comes along who knows how to use them.” Carlo Grante © 2021 Carlo Grante is one of Italy’s foremost concert . He has performed in such major venues as the Vienna Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie’s Chamber Music Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall, Rome’s Santa Cecilia Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Dresden Semperoper, the Stuttgart Opera, Prague’s Rudolfinum, as well as at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center in the US. He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the Dresden Staatskapelle, London’s Royal Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, Orchestra of St. Cecilia, MDR Leipzig, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Concertino Wien. Grante gave the first live performance of all 53 of Godowsky’s Studies on the Études of Chopin at the Newport Festival. In 2014-15 his series “Masters of High Romanticism”, featuring three recital programmes each devoted to Chopin, Schumann and Brahms, was taken to major halls in New York, Vienna and Berlin. Though best known perhaps for his Carlo Grante at a Bösendorfer 280 Vienna Concert piano. Courtesy of Yamaha-Bösendorfer, Italy Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Busoni, Debussy and Godowsky, Grante has had many contemporary works dedicated to him, including Adolphe’s Chopin Dreams. He has brought out over 60 CDs; his most recent discs have been devoted to the works of Scarlatti, Busoni, Schubert, Brahms, Godowsky and Adolphe. He gave the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe’s piano concerto in Zurich in July 2016. The New York Met’s Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi wrote of him in 2015 that “Carlo Grante is one of the most astonishing artists I have ever known and worked with.” The principal critic of Vienna’s Die Presse dubbed him “a knight of the piano, without blemish and without fear.”

12 CREDITS: Carlo Grante on Music and Arts CD-1220 ROBERT SCHUMANN: THREE PIANO SONATAS. Carlo Grante, Recorded at Bösendorfer’s Selection Center, Wienerneustadt piano. Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 11; Sonata in F minor, Op. 14; Sonata in G minor, Op. 22. Recorded at Sala Santa Cecilia of Parco della Musica, Rome. Opp. 24, 35: 27–28 March 2015; Opp. 9, 18b, 21: 30–31 January Total time: 79:16. UPC: 017685122026 2016; Opp. 1, 2, 5: 12–13 February 2019 CD-1285 LISZT, ART AND LITERATURE. Carlo Grante, piano. 1. Après une Recording engineers: Albert Frantz (Opp. 24, 35), Lukas lecture de Dante—Fantasia quasi Sonata; 2. Petrarch’s Sonnet 47 • Sonetto 47 Weidman (Opp. 9, 18b, 21), Gerhard Kanzian, (Opp. 1, 2, 5) del Petrarca; 3. Petrarch’s Sonnet 104 • Sonetto 104 del Petrarca; 4. Petrarch’s Sonnet 123 • Sonetto 123 del Petrarca; 5. Mephisto Waltz (transcribed by Post-production: Gerhard Kanzian Busoni after Liszt’s orchestral version); 6. Totentanz (solo version). Total Time: Recorded on a Bösendorfer 280 VC piano. 66:45. UPC: 017685128523.

Special thanks to Bösendorfer, Vienna, for making this recording CD-1289 RAVEL: Miroirs (Mirrors). Pavane pour une infante défunte possible. (Pavane for a Dead Princess). Gaspard de la nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d’après Aloysius Bertrand. CARLO GRANTE, piano. Total time: 58:05. UPC: Graphic design: Allison Rolls 017685128929.

CD-1292 CARLO GRANTE PLAYS SCHUBERT. Hungarian Melody, D 817; Moments Musicaux, Op. 94, D 780; Allegretto in C minor, D 915; 3 Klavierstücke, D 946; March in E major, D 606. Total time: 71:53. UPC: 017685129223.

CD-1299 (7 CDs) : COMPLETE SONATAS FOR KEYBOARD, VOL. VI. Carlo Grante, piano. Parma, Book 15 (1756-57); Venice (1742 and 1749) and other sources. Special: 7 CDs for the price of 5! UPC: 017685129926.

CD-1300 : ELEGIES & AN DIE JUGEND. Carlo Grante, piano. Total time: 65:30. UPC: 017685130021.

MA-1303 C & P 2021 Music & Arts Programs of America, Inc. 2465 4th Street, Berkeley, CA 94710-2403 USA Phone: 510-525-4583, Fax: 510-524-2111, Email: [email protected] Website: www.musicandarts.com