MUSIC FOR THE PIANO

SESSION THREE: THE PIANO’S GOLDEN AGE, 1830-1860

The above illustration for our third session is of Chopin’s beloved little Pleyel piano, which he used during his stay in Majorca in 1838-1839. It is typical of the small “pianini” instruments developed by Pleyel, which were extremely popular, selling more than 1,000 instruments per year throughout the 1830s and 1840s. In the last year of his life Chopin replaced his pianini with a larger grand piano, also made by Pleyel, on which his last great pieces were written.

CONCERT VENUES As we mentioned in the last session, by 1830 subscription concerts, available to the general public through the purchase of tickets, were becoming more common in the larger cities of Europe and America. For better or worse, they had a democratizing influence on musical taste, because the general public replaced nobility and other wealthy individuals as patrons of. Soon we will see what effects this market-driven change had on the kind of piano music being written.

Some of the venues for public concerts were existing buildings remodeled for concert use, and others were new buildings designed and built for the specific purpose of holding public concerts.

THE PIANO’S GOLDEN AGE, 1830-1860 By the year 1830 the piano reigned supreme as the most popular instrument. It was the most versatile as well, being equally effective as a solo instrument, in small chamber groups and in concertos with the full symphony orchestra. Having gained greater volume, greater contrast between loud and soft, and the ability play very fast music, it was the instrument most able to express the complex musical style of leading composers of the day. Further refinements in the piano action made it more robust in sound and thus more suitable to the larger venues built for public concerts.

In addition, the nature of piano music itself became more complex between 1830 and 1860. To accommodate this variety, we will devote two class sessions to this period, this one and the next.

This greater variety of types of piano music resulted from a serious conflict in the world of musical composition. Composers of this period were self-consciously trying to decide what should be the future direction of music after Beethoven. Some, including Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, and Frederic Chopin, believed that future composers should model their compositions on those of Beethoven, but with changes that would make it more up to date, that is, more romantic.

Other composers, including Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, and Richard Wagner, considered Beethoven’s style too old- fashioned, and believed that music needed to take a whole new direction, away from sonatas, symphonies, and other classical forms, if it were to remain a vital medium.

*PREVIEW: CHOPIN: SCHERZO IN B-FLAT MINOR, 1837 This great piece has many of the hallmarks of Beethoven’s piano music: short motives, wonderful melodies, extreme contrasts of dynamics, texture, and range (lots of notes at the very top and bottom of the keyboard.) At the same time it was less wedded to the classical sonata form, and seemed less driven, more introspective, and more improvisatory in nature. It is thus a clear example of the pro-Beethoven school of composition. Robert Schumann said of this piece that it was “overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt” – a strange mix of contrasting emotions.

This performance is by the wonderful Brazilian pianist, Nelson Friere.

COMPOSERS 1830-1860 Today’s session focuses on piano music written between 1830 and 1860. The leading composers of this period included:

• Robert Schumann, the brilliant German musician and writer, who spent the entire decade of the 1830s creating a series of original, imaginative works for piano solo before turning his attention to writing songs and chamber works with wonderful piano parts.

• Clara (Wieck) Schumann, child prodigy pianist, wife of Robert, seen today as a major composer in her own right. After her husband’s hospitalization and early death, she toured Europe constantly as a concert pianist to support their six children.

• Felix Mendelssohn, another child prodigy composer, born in the same year as Robert Schumann, who further developed both the piano’s virtuosic qualities in his exciting concertos and its introspective qualities in a series of short compositions that he called “Songs Without Words”

• Frederic Chopin, “the poet of the piano,” a young Polish refugee now living in Paris, who wrote both introspective and heroic piano works, almost all with at least a tinge of melancholy.

• And last, but far from least, the Hungarian wizard Franz Liszt, the first great celebrity-musician, the most famous pianist of the age as well as an important composer, about whom we will hear much more next week.

By the end of this period, in 1860, the piano had become the one indispensable instrument in the musical life throughout the musical world, attracting the finest emerging young composers, including the conservative north German Johannes Brahms, the patriotic Russian, Mikhail Glinka, and the Jewish-American Creole virtuoso, Henry Moreau Gottschalk.

TYPES OF FORTEPIANO MUSIC As noted last session, the versatility of the fortepiano made it useful as a solo instrument, as a chamber music instrument in combination with other instruments, and as a featured instrument in concerted music (concertos), in addition to its widespread use as an accompaniment for singers and other instrumentalists.

SOLO PIANO MUSIC, 1830-1860

GENRES OF SOLO FORTEPIANO MUSIC • Sonatas • Variations • Dances: Mazurkas, Waltzes, • Character Pieces: Marches, Nocturnes, etc. • Program Works – series of short character pieces

*SCHUMANN: DAVIDSBŰNDLER DANCES, 1837 This suite of dances is widely regarded as one of the greatest piano works of the Romantic era. Like many of Chopin’s works, it is improvisatory in nature. It’s eighteen short sections that alternate between two contrasting moods that express contrasting aspects of Schumann’s troubled personality, the introverted, reflective part and the energetic, impetuous part

Schumann tells us that these dances were inspired by his wife Clara, and that they express his passionate love, anxieties, longings, visions, dreams, and fantasies.

MENDELSSOHN, SONGS WITHOUT WORDS Mendelssohn carried on the tradition of writing short “character” pieces begun by Beethoven and Schubert. He called his “Songs without Words,” to indicate that each was like a song – a beautiful melody, usually played by the right hand, and an interesting, often complex accompaniment played by the left. Mendelssohn published eight volumes of Songs without Words throughout his lifetime, a total of 48 pieces.

CHAMBER MUSIC WITH PIANO, 1830-1860

*MENDELSSOHN: PIANO TRIO No. 1, 1839 This is one of Mendelssohn’s most popular and best-loved pieces of chamber music, for piano, violin, and cello. In the tradition of Beethoven, it has four contrasting movements are filled with soaring, romantic melodies and great virtuoso writing for all three instruments. (Editor’s note: here it is in a Julliard Master Class performance.)

CONCERTED MUSIC WITH PIANO, 1830-1860

*CLARA SCHUMANN, PIANO CONCERTO, 1836 This youthful work shows a remarkable maturity and a great skill in writing brilliant piano music. Like Robert Schumann’s piano concerto, it is in the standard three movements, with an orchestral introduction.

ROBERT SCHUMANN: PIANO CONCERTO IN A MINOR, 1845 Schumann’s bold and romantic piano concerto is a perennial favorite of conductors, pianists, and audiences alike. It is in the standard, three movement form. On the Links page, I’ve given you two performances. The first features Andreas Staier playing a Streicher grand piano built in the 1840s – the same brand and model used personally by both Clara and Robert Schumann. The second performance uses a modern concert grand piano played by Marta Argerich.