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Romantic Classics Encore -your free digital album of music- Christmas 2020 -Produced/edited by Dr Kenneth Wong (Consultant Cardiologist & Cardiology Directorate Research Lead, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) -Music performed by Dr Wong and a team of musicians Links to videos/audio recordings – Main FREE DIGITAL VIDEO MUSIC ALBUM- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNPz-nOtdEG8fmqL_aPo2KJQfzdiq7dN0 Extra Audio tracks- Beethoven Septet (first 3 movements) Piano Duet https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/nCJW7XgbJpk5gFbB9 If clicking on the link does not work, please copy and paste to your browser. PROGRAMME NOTES Preface Thanks to the generous donations following the Blue Skies hospital charity appeal in 2018, I’m pleased to see 2 handheld echocardiogram machines have arrived at Lancashire Cardiac centre and over a short space of time, use of handheld echocardiography has helped us deliver care to patients in the right place, helping with the diagnosis of life-threatening cardiac disease. This is especially helpful during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Romantic classics album is free. It is wonderful to note listeners donating about £1000 to the Blue skies appeal. Together with the 2 charity concerts, £11000 were raised and Blue skies charity contributed a further £3000 from its general fund from other donations to secure the funding for the 2 echocardiogram machines. This is the Romantic Classics Encore album, celebrating a special year for lovers of music composed by Beethoven who was born 250 years ago [in December 1770, Germany; Died: March 1827, Vienna, Austria]. Ludwig van Beethoven was an influential composer and pianist in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in classical music. I hope you enjoy my attempt at playing his Moonlight Sonata, the first movement of which captures much needed serenity in a world plagued by COVID-19. We recorded some music before the UK lockdown. After the lockdown, I enjoyed playing the piano solo part of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s Emperor piano concerto and Chopin’s piano concerto with the help of Tomplay (a Sheet music app which allows one to practise and play with an orchestral recording). I am sorry the production date is delayed by nearly 2 weeks, but hope you still receive it in time to share with your loved ones at Christmas. I was ill with COVID in November, thankfully recovered, but was rather busy after return to work. I decided in the end to use some of my holiday for Christmas and our 20th wedding anniversary to complete the production. The final song in the video list (Mendelssohn’s Rondo 1 Capriccioso) had special meaning for us as I played it to entertain our wedding guests in 2000. Charity appeal for Tearfund- [Charity Registration No. 265464] Tearfund helps some of the world’s poorest people. The charity aims to follow Jesus where the need is greatest. You can help raise money for this great cause by donating directly to this fundraising page - http://www.justgiving.com/owner-email/pleasesponsor/Kenneth-Wong3 JustGiving sends your donation straight to Tearfund so that they can put your generosity to good use. Thank you for your support. If you are a UK tax-payer and would like to increase the value of donation via gift aid, then I would encourage you to donate directly via www.tearfund.org Programme notes- 1. Prelude in G minor , BWV 861 (Book 1) by JS Bach Ken Wong on the keyboard/ harpsichord The piano version of this romantic prelude was part of an earlier edition of Romantic Classics. Here is my attempt to play it closer to the way Bach might have intended. Is it even more romantic on the harpsichord/keyboard than the piano? 2. Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) [2nd movement] by Beethoven Ken Wong – piano solo Orchestra (recording from Tomplay) This is dedicated to Peter who works with me in the echocardiogram lab. I believe this is his favourite piano concerto as he asked me why I decided to play Rachmaninoff instead for the BlueSkies charity concert. I would also like to dedicate this work to Bev and Elved who encouraged me to play Beethoven music for this Encore edition of Romantic Classics. The second movement in B major forms a quiet nocturne for the solo piano, muted strings, and wind instruments that converse with the solo piano. The end of the second movement was written to build directly into the third. I feel the 2nd movement is amazingly beautiful. The original autograph (page 74r) has Adagio un poco moto ("Adagio with a little motion"), not mosso. Cantonese speakers might find it interesting that the main melody sounds like “O my heart turns to thee, I love thee”. The Classic FM commentator described this last piano concerto of Beethoven’s as one of the most accomplished of all piano concertos, with a striking opening movemen and a glorious rondo finale, but it is the “beauty and serenity of the hymn-like adagio which makes this Beethoven’s best”. 3. Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor (“Moonlight”) by Beethoven Ken Wong-piano I would like to dedicate this to all of you. The first movement captures the much needed serenity in a world plagued by Covid-19. The middle movement is short, brisk (allegretto) and delightfylly sweet. The final movement is technically challenging-marked “presto, agitato”. Beethoven ingeniously used the left hand to create much of the agitato (rumblings). He also gave life to the left hand which took over the lyrical melody that is amongst the most romantic writing of Beethoven. “To play a mistake is insignificant. To play without passion in inexcusable.” Ludwig Van Beethoven was thought to have remarked. The Moonlight Sonata 2 is much loved for many reasons. I like Beethoven’s characteristic use of surprises such as subito piano (suddenly dropping from loud to soft), his engineering of such passages that bring on so much emotional tension (agitato), followed by clever chord progression releasing the tension, bringing about much needed relaxation. The 3rd movement recapitulates a similar chord progression in the first slow movement, with comparable emotional effects. 4. Fantasie-Impromptu in C sharp minor, Op. 66 by Frédéric Chopin Ken Wong-piano Fantasie-Impromptu was composed by Chopin in 1834 but never published during his lifetime. Interestingly it was composed a year after his etude La Tristesse, which he felt was his most beautiful melody. I reckon Fantasie- impromptu comes a very close second! Why did Chopin not want it published? Another version of the impromptu was discovered by Arthur Barenboim-a version that Chopin had apparently updated. Perhaps he did not want to publish it because he was still working out details. Another viewpoint was that Chopin might have felt it was too similar to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. They have a lot in common tonally and harmonically (especially the 3rd movement of the sonata). They both have a middle section in Db major. They both have similar runs and a driving sense of urgency. Beethoven’s is marked “presto agitato”, and Chopin’s is marked “allegro agitato”. Ernst Oster, a musicologist, wrote, “Chopin understood Beethoven to a degree that no one who has written on the C♯ minor Sonata or the Fantaisie- Impromptu has ever understood him. … The Fantaisie-Impromptu is perhaps the only instance where one genius discloses to us—if only by means of a composition of his own—what he actually hears in the work of another genius.” It is true there is some similarity with Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata. However, of course, as you’ve heard earlier in the album, the Moonlight sonata started with the serene Fantasia like movement whilst Chopin wanted his Fantasie-impromptu to be played allegro agitato, except for the exquisitely beautiful moderato cantabile middle section. I love the coda which returned to a peaceful and positive ending in a major key. 5. Piano concerto No. 1 in E (2nd movement, Romanze – Larghetto) by Frédéric Chopin Ken Wong-piano solo; Orchestra (recording from Tomplay) Chopin wrote this piano concerto when he was only 17 years old. The piece is dedicated to Friedrich Kalkbrenner, a pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer. The Romanze, although not strictly in sonata form, has its 2nd theme of the exposition ascribed to the classical model of modulating to the dominant (I-V), and, when it returns, it modulates to the mediant (III). Chopin wrote in a letter to the Polish political activist, agriculturalist and patron of art Tytus Woyciechowski, saying, “It is not meant to create a powerful effect; it is rather a Romance, calm and melancholy, giving the impression of someone looking gently towards a spot that calls to mind a thousand happy memories. It is a 3 kind of reverie in the moonlight on a beautiful spring evening.” The second movement has been described as “unashamedly heart-on-your-sleeve stuff.” 6. Grande Valse Brillante in E flat major, Op. 18 by Frédéric Chopin Meghna Shajil-piano Composed in 1833, this is the first waltz that Chopin published for the piano. The tricky acciaccaturas played in the right hand add to the bouncy, triumphant tone of this waltz, as well as the skips in the left hand, which are also seen in similar works of Chopin’s, for example Valse Brillante in A♭ major, Op. 34, No. 1. Grande Valse Brillante consists of seven distinct dance themes, usually distinguished by the key change (or the change of tempo and articulation), adding to the lively feel of the waltz, which has the style of a Parisian ballroom dance, unlike the typical Viennese style waltzes of the Romantic period.

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