Garrick Ohlsson, Piano PROGRAM NOTES
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Eli and Edythe Broad Stage Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center Jane Deknatel, Director, Performing Arts Center Garrick Ohlsson, piano FRI / FEB 23 / 7:30 PM Garrick Ohlsson, piano PROGRAM NOTES Please reserve your applause until the end of each entire work. PROGRAM Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, “Pathétique” Grave, Allegro di molto e con brio Adagio cantabile Rondo: Allegro Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915) Selections Etude, Op. 65, No. 1 Etude in D-flat Major, Op. 8, No. 10 Prelude, Op. 59, No. 2 Poème, Op. 32, No. 1 Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 Intermission Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960 (Op. posth) Molto moderato Andante sostenuto Scherzo: Allegro vivace con delicatezza Allegro ma non troppo The following notes are copyright Susan Halpern, 2018. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Sonata in C minor, Op. 13, “Pathétique” i. Grave, Allegro di molto e con brio ii. Adagio cantabile iii. Rondo: Allegro When this sublime work of Beethoven’s was first published in 1799, it carried the unusual title Grande Sonata Pathétique, a forward-looking expressive idea of the kind that became popular in the 19th century. Unusual in having a formal descriptive title, this work is similar to, but different from, a programmatic sonata. The name Pathétique was not actually Beethoven's idea; his publisher gave it the extravagant title Grande Sonata Pathétique, and the name stuck. The title uses the word grande to indicate a work large and important enough to be published as a separate piece rather than as part of a collection; pathétique signifies that the music sought to express emotion: the French term means “moving” or “affecting.” Beethoven intended to evoke a specific mood without any narrative. The title page also made a practical 18th century point, specifying that the work could be performed on either harpsichord or piano. The Sonata Pathétique is a great expression of the Romantic sensibilities current and popular in German literature that had had little outlet in music earlier. Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870), a splendid pianist/composer, wrote of his rapture on discovering this sonata during his student days, when his teacher had forbidden him Beethoven’s “crazy” music. Early critics recognized the sonata’s great emotional power and sought non-musical explanations for it, yet Beethoven did not intend the music to have any programmatic explanations. Beethoven’s biographer, Barry Cooper, feels this sonata “surpasses any of his previous compositions in strength of character, depth of emotion, level of originality, range of sonorities and ingenuity of motivic and tonal manipulation.” i. Grave, Allegro di molto e con brio The intensity and mood of the pathos is evident from the beginning of the introduction which incorporates “sharp contrasts of dynamic and register, harsh dissonance, chromaticism and a mixture of very long notes, very short ones and dramatic rests,” all reinforcing the mood. The tragic, slow opening, Grave, is not simply a formal introduction but an organic part of the movement; its return signals some of the important points of its structure. Beethoven utilizes it again to begin the development section of the Allegro di molto e con brio; it then reappears in the recapitulation a few measures before the movement’s end, where dramatic silences are substituted for the initial chords. The intense and dramatic silences are given a meaning that is the equivalent of notes; this innovation is an indication of Beethoven’s genius. ii. Adagio cantabile The slow movement, Adagio cantabile, an exquisitely written, almost orchestral presentation of a simple three-part structure, has one of the most beautiful melodies that Beethoven ever composed. Needing to give it a programmatic spin, some critics have unnecessarily suggested a Romeo and Juliet feeling exists in it. iii. Rondo: Allegro Although the movement begins with a graceful, innocent little melody, the Rondo finale, Allegro, cannot be explained as a light-hearted closing movement that Beethoven wrote in a joyous or carefree moment. It has an extended structure, serious in tone, which mixes grace and passion and embodies dark moments when the romantic fervor of the first movement momentarily returns. After the third return of the movement’s own main theme, the dramatic tension grows. The ending explodes, bringing the work to its conclusion in the minor mode. Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915) Selections Etude, Op. 65, No. 1 Etude in D-flat Major, Op. 8, No. 10 Prelude, Op. 59, No. 2 Poème, Op. 32, No. 1 Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 Alexander Scriabin traveled back and forth between Russia and Western Europe (and, in 1906-1907, the United States), working as a pianist and composer and pursuing his attempts to expand the borders of music in several directions. He experimented with harmony and form, became involved in subjective material that affected his music (such as mystic-religious beliefs of Indian or other Asian origin) and was concerned with the direct translation of tone into color. He was seriously affected by theosophy and Asian mystic-religious beliefs, and with the direct translation of tone into color. In 1905 he first fell under the spell of the writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), who had founded her Theosophical Society in 1875, in New York. Soon Scriabin began filling notebooks with mystical verse, including a Poem of Ecstasy that became the literary basis of an orchestral work of that title, Op. 54, as well as of Piano Sonata No. 5, which he wrote at the same time. After 1907, he became more radical in his appropriation of unusual scales for his music. For a long time, many musicians dismissed Scriabin’s works as aberrations foreign to the mainstream of European music. They thought his music strange, difficult and extravagant. Serge Koussevitzky, both Scriabin’s benefactor and conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, was one of the few who often included Scriabin’s orchestral music in his programs. In the 1960's, however, the new interest in Asian mysticism began to be reflected in more frequent performances of all of Scriabin's music. The music Garrick Ohlsson has selected for this program includes that which highlights Scriabin’s early espousal of late 19th century Romanticism as well as that which displays his later passion and involvement with mysticism. Ohlsson has commented that Scriabin’s keyboard writing is among the most challenging in the repertoire: “These pieces are very difficult to play, right up there with the toughest works of Rachmaninoff or Prokofiev or Liszt.” Ohlsson further has said: “I completely understand when people don’t get Scriabin or don’t like him. He has such a strong flavor. And because his musical language evolved so much — from the hyper-romantic to the almost atonal — you never know exactly what you’re going to get when you see his name on a program. I love his sheer inspiration, and the way he has of being over the top. If he’s languorous, he’s so languorous. He never does anything by half measures.” Études The original purpose of an étude was as a study-piece to teach skills; not until Chopin’s time was it ever intended to display them. Throughout its history, however, the etude, often based on a single theme, has focused on a single technical problem of execution. In his early piano works, Scriabin emulated Chopin and Liszt as composers for the piano, combining elements of expressivity and virtuosity that he found in their music with hints of the advanced musical language that he would later develop. Like them, he wrote many études, or studies, concentrating on a technical problem of performance, but with such intrinsic musical interest that the étude became a concert piece rather than just a technically demanding practice exercise. Scriabin's Études span four creative periods; he composed 24 Études in three sets: Op. 8, published in 1894; Op. 42, in 1903, and Op. 65, in 1912. The Études, Op. 65 are intended for the performer to display a command of the intervals of perfect fifths, major sevenths, and ninths, in inverse order. Scriabin’s own piano technique was exemplary, although his hands were very small, making playing more difficult for him than for the average person. Commentators have noted that the fact that he could play these pieces with comparative ease was beyond astonishing. Scriabin used a limited palette to emphasize the interval under scrutiny, yet created substantial poetry. The earliest grouping, Op. 8, shows us the young Scriabin as he was developing, still influenced by Chopin and Liszt, but also making his own voice shine through these short works, which display his unique, individualistic style while following in a distinct line from those of his models. The very brief Étude Op. 8, No. 10 mixes staccato and legato writing in playful music. It exhibits perpetual motion and has been described as having a hesitant, rhythmic eccentricity. With some six against five figurations, it is most demanding music; the virtuosic runs ascend to the high register without sacrificing any charm, clarity and beauty. Prelude, Op. 59, No. 2 Between 1888 and 1914 Scriabin composed ninety Preludes for piano, not preludes to anything but simply short, free-form expressive mood pieces. Prelude Op. 59, No. 2 was written in 1910, five years before the composer’s death. It is notated as "Sauvage, Belliqueux" (Savage/wild, belligerent). The work bears no key signature, and its final cadence concludes with a discord. (See below: Sonata No. 5 had already ended away from the tonic.) This work has been said to preview a frightening foreshadowing of war and destruction.