MUSIC FOR THE PIANO

SESSION FIVE: “MOST LIKE AN ORCHESTRA,” 1860-1890

The above illustration for our fifth session a photograph of a modern concert grand piano – a full nine feet in length. By 1860 the piano was a fully developed instrument capable of filling large auditoriums with a wide range of sounds from very low to very high pitches, from very thin to very thick textures, and with many different kinds of sounds – all of which could be made softer or sustained over time by the use of foot pedals.

PIANO DUET IMAGES We’re going to begin today’s session by looking at some images of piano duet playing – two people at one piano. As we have seen, this very popular genre of piano music began with Mozart and continued through the 19th century. Over time the image of two people making music at one piano became a powerful cultural image that illustrated, not only music-making, but social status, friendship and family solidarity as well. Here are some images that show various aspects of this once-popular kind of music-making.

“MOST LIKE AN ORCHESTRA” There are many reasons why the piano became, and remained, the musical instrument of choice throughout the nineteenth century. We have already discussed several reasons: its reliability; its unique versatility to function as a solo instrument, to blend with other instruments, and to hold its own when contrasted with a full symphony orchestra. Add to this the simple fact that, by 1860, there were thousands of pianos in private homes and places of entertainment, and a vast repertoire of music of many types for both amateur and professional pianists to play.

Behind these reasons there stood a more important one. By 1860 the orchestra had become the dominant instrument in every country of Europe. All the major cities, from London to St. Petersburg to Boston to Buenos Aires, had well-established, well-funded symphony orchestras and large concert halls that drew large and enthusiastic audiences. Instrumental composers were creating symphonies and concertos; opera composers were finding new and exciting ways to use the orchestra to dramatize their works.

No single instrument could match the variety of sounds and the blending of sounds produced by the orchestra. But the piano came much closer than any other, and mass production had made it affordable even for middle-class families. This unmatched popularity resulted from the fact that, of all the instruments, the piano sounded most like the orchestra. This obvious fact was well known at the time and often remarked on by composers and music lovers alike. Today we will focus on a generation of piano music that has the richness and the variety of tone we associate with the orchestra.

Here are some of the questions we will explore today:

• Why was so much music written for the piano?

• What kinds of piano music were created between 1860 and 1890?

• What does it sound like?

*PREVIEW: BRAHMS, VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF PAGANINI, 1863 In the classical era, composers such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven reinforced the contrast between different themes by changing the orchestration of each different theme. For example, the first theme of a symphony might be played by all the strings - violins, violas, cellos, and string basses, and the second theme, by woodwinds. As the 19th century progressed, composers began changing the orchestration more often, perhaps even within themes, to increase the variety of orchestral sound

The equivalent of this effect in writing music for the piano is to change the texture (the number of notes sounding at the same time) and the range (the highness or lowness of the sounds). The Paganini Variations illustrates how Brahms changes the texture and range of the music frequently, not only from one section to another but even within sections. The effect is to give the music a greater variety of sounds.

The Paganini variations are also technical studies for the piano. Brahms’ original title for the work was, “Studies for the Pianoforte: Variations on a Theme by Paganini.”

One scholar has said of them:

This is one of the subtly difficult works in the vast literature of the piano.

Because of their great difficulty Clara Schumann called them the Hexavariationen – “The Devil’s Variations.”

Another great 19th century pianist said of them:

These diabolical variations, the last word in the technical literature of the piano, are also vast spiritual problems. To play them requires fingers of steel, a heart of burning lava and the courage of a lion.

This is a performance by the young Chinese pianist, Yuja Wang.

COMPOSERS, 1860-1890 Today’s session focuses on the following composers:

• Johannes Brahms: Germany’s greatest composer of the Romantic era, now in early middle age, continues to write complex, romantic-sounding solo and chamber music for piano, in addition to two lengthy and masterful concertos.

• Gabriel Fauré, the prolific young French composer, writes a large amount of character pieces for the piano, including Barcarolles, Waltzes, Nocturnes, and Impromptus

• Camille Saint-Saens, a French composer of the middle generation, was a prolific composer and concert pianist. Aside from his Second Piano Concerto, today his piano compositions seem somewhat conventional.

• Peter Tchaikovsky is Russia’s leading composer. Like the Frenchman Cesar Franck, his piano compositions are few in number but high in quality.

SOLO PIANO MUSIC, 1860-1890

GENRES OF SOLO PIANO MUSIC • Sonatas • Variations • Character Pieces • Composite Works • Dances: Mazurkas, Waltzes, Nocturnes, etc. • Arrangements / Transcriptions

*MOUSSORGSKY, “PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION,” 1879 The piano’s ability to produce a great variety of orchestra- like sounds has never been demonstrated more dramatically than in Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” It is so orchestra-like, in fact, that most people know it through Maurice Ravel’s orchestral version rather than through the original version for solo piano. In addition, there have been 27 other arrangements for orchestra, and another 46 arrangements for various combinations of instruments, from a new solo-piano version by Vladimir Horowitz, to a jazz band arrangement by Duke Ellington, to a folk-rock arrangement by Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

The Pictures is a suite of ten movements, each of which depicts a single picture by the Russian artist and architect, Victor Hartman, a close friend of Mussorgsky. This performance is by the great Russian pianist, Mikhail Pletnev.

CHAMBER MUSIC WITH PIANO, 1860- 1890

*TCHAIKOVSKY, PIANO TRIO, 1883 One of Tchaikovsky’s most beautiful chamber works, with the sad, soaring melodies and brilliant piano writing you might expect. The pianist is Martha Argerich.

CONCERTANTE MUSIC WITH PIANO, 1860-1890

*SAINT SAENS, PIANO CONCERTO No. 2, 1868 This virtuoso concerto begins – and ends - with long, cadenza-like solos, improvisational in nature. The piano writing is “symphonic” throughout – that is, it mimics the complex changes of textures and dynamics characteristic of the symphony orchestra itself. This is wonderful performance by 13-year-old Alexander Malofeev, with the Mariinsky Orchestra of Leningrad.