Streaming Premiere – Thursday, May 13, 2021, 7pm Beatrice Rana, piano Filmed exclusively for Cal Performances at Oratorio del Gonfalone, Rome, on April 6–7, 2021. PROGRAM Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) French Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813 Allemande Courante Saranbande Air Minuet Minuet – Trio Gigue Claude Debussy (1862–1918) Étude 1 – pour les cinq doigts d'après Monsieur Czerny Étude 2 – pour les tierces Étude 5 – pour les octaves Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20 Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat minor, Op. 31 Scherzo No. 3 in C Sharp minor, Op. 39 Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 Beatrice Rana appears courtesy of Warner Classics. For more information on Beatrice Rana, visit beatriceranapiano.com. Management for Beatrice Rana: Primo Artists, New York, NY (www.primoartists.com). The Cal Performances at Home Spring 2021 season is dedicated to Gail and Dan Rubinfeld, leading supporters of Cal Performances and the well-being of our artists for almost 30 years. Note: following its premiere, the video recording of this concert will be available on demand through June 12, 2021. 1 PROGRAM NOTES Johann Sebastian Bach his suites, along with forms, styles, and idioms French Suite No. 2 in C minor, drawn from the broad span of European music. BWV 813 (ca. 1722) Despite its “stern” minor mode, French Suite Keyboard players the world over have cause to No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 813 partakes notice- be grateful that Bach was a prodigious teacher ably of the decorative galant manner that was who liked to write custom-tailored material for to become just the thing throughout Europe as his students. Thanks to those hundreds of little Baroque gave way to the early Classical. It offers fingers learning to play, posterity has been an allemande with intricate and complex blessed with a legacy of matchless music that rhythms, followed by a second-place courante serves not only to train the muscles but also to that reflects Bach’s agnosticism concerning enchant the senses, delight the mind, and move dance titles: this is indubitably an Italianate cor- the heart. (And intimidate the lazy.) Amon those rente, its smooth flow quite different from the pedagogical staples we find two collections of rhythmically intricate French version. The sara- suites, or collections of “stylized” dances—i.e., bande is likewise Italianate, its vinelike melody meant for listening rather than dancing. One set, never coming to rest save at cadences. Two dubbed the “little” suites by the Bach family, galanterien follow: an air that can’t help but contains suites that skip the traditional con- conjure up thoughts of Bach’s two-part certo-like opening movement. What it was Inventions—its rhythms don’t suggest any of about the “little” suites that led to their eventual the era’s dances—and an utterly charming little rechristening as the French suites has been lost menuet, a late-addition afterthought that can to history, but the label appears to have been in be negotiated by even the youngest of clavier general circulation as early as 1762. students. The finale is a gigue in the manner of Bach produced the French Suites during his the antique French canarie, its short phrases years in the tiny principality of Anhalt-Cöthen, bouncy and almost breathless. where he had found a welcome sanctuary be- ginning in 1717 after nearly a decade immersed Claude Debussy in the toxic politics of the duchy of Weimar. His Études, Book 1 (selections) (1915) young Prince Leopold was an ardent music As the malignant miasma of World War I lover whose Calvinist court precluded the writ- spread throughout Europe, Claude Debussy ing of concerted sacred music, thus Bach con- was neither a well nor a happy man. He knew centrated his energies on those instrumental he didn’t have much time left. Diagnosed with works that have since become bedrock reper- colorectal cancer in 1909, he underwent a gru- tory. The precise dating of the French Suites is, as eling operation in 1915 that left him severely so often with Bach, difficult to pin down reliably, weakened and barely able to compose. “For the but at the very least we can assign 1722 as a plau- last three months I’ve been able to work again,” sible, if approximate, completion date thanks to he wrote in October 1915. “I spent nearly a year an autograph score of the first five suites. unable to write music… after that I’ve almost Bach organized his suites around four had to re-learn it.” dances—allemande, courante, sarabande, and Nevertheless, in his last few remaining years gigue—with optional galanterien such as Debussy produced a series of dazzling creations gavottes, bourrées, minuets, polonaises, and airs that encapsulate the concentrated essence of his inserted between sarabande and gigue. Since mature style. Emotionally volatile and tonally suites were popular in both France and Italy, a opulent, his distinctly feline musical tempera- fair number of dances had acquired distinct ment begins to hint at an underlying reptilian national accents, such as the complex French menace, suppressed perhaps but palpable courante versus the rambunctious Italian cor- nonetheless. That vaguely disassociated persona rente. Bach’s all-embracing musical culture en- likely accounts for the late works’ relative unfa- sured that he would mix both dialects freely in miliarity—the three chamber sonatas, En blanc Opposite: Beatrice Rana. Photo by Marie Staggat. 3 PROGRAM NOTES et noir for two pianos, and the 12 piano Études diamond necklace, Debussy fashions a string of remain on the outskirts of the repertory, cher- exquisite black pearls. Finally, Pour les octaves ished by those willing to make the journey but (“For octaves”) transforms those athletic main- terra incognita to many listeners. stays of Lisztian piano technique into an intox- Publisher Jacques Durand had every reason icating (and perhaps intoxicated) waltz. to feel skeptical about Debussy’s stated inten- tion to compose a set of piano studies to com- Frédéric Chopin plement Chopin’s landmark études of the 1830s. Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20 (1833) There was no question but that, Chopin Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31 (1837) notwithstanding, traditional piano studies were Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39 (1839) drab and cheerless affairs; consider exercise- Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 (1843) spinner par excellence Carl Czerny, whose soul- “Mozart encompasses the entire domain of mu- shredding mechanistic drills shrivelled budding sical creation, but I’ve got only the keyboard in young talents hither and yon. “You’ll agree,” my poor head” lamented Frédéric Chopin. We Debussy suggested to Durand, “that there’s no should all be so lucky as to have such a key- need to make technique any gloomier in order board in our own poor heads. Nobody mat- to appear more serious, and that a bit of charm tered more to the history of the instrument than has never spoilt anything.” That was all very well Frédéric Chopin; nobody changed piano writ- and good, but Durand well knew Debussy’s ing as much; nobody more enhanced the penchant for abandoning projects. He may have stature of the instrument, just then coming into considered it just talk, instigated by Debussy’s its maturity. recent editing of Durand’s new edition of the Nor was Chopin’s imagination restricted to complete Chopin études. what could be done with 10 fingers on a key- But Debussy meant it. He fell to work on the board. He was among music’s supreme har- Études with zeal, keeping Durand up to date on monists, a composer who re-thought the very his progress and offering observations about the function of chords and in so doing imbued works as they emerged. He pulled no punches Romantic music with unprecedented harmonic about their gob-smacking technical and musi- color. He brought the lyricism of bel canto opera cal difficulty. “Apart from the question of tech- to an instrument that creates its sounds via an nique, these Études will be a useful warning to act of violence—i.e., whacking a high-tension pianists not to take up the musical profession string with a hammer—and obliged pianists to unless they have remarkable hands.” re-think their entire approach to the instrument That challenge is far more than physical. in order to play his music successfully. These are études of the mind, not only of the And yet this most quietly radical of pianists body, and merely playing the notes will not do; originally aspired to the bread-and-circuses life each étude presents the pianist with a unique of travelling virtuosi, where fustian bombast dreamscape, engendered perhaps by some ruled the roost and artistry was an inhibiting morsel of piano technique (thirds, octaves, re- encumbrance. He even went so far as to con- peated notes, ornaments, etc.) but adventuring sider studying with the spectacularly superficial far beyond such mundane trivialities. Friedrich Kalkbrenner, empty-calorie note- Pour les cinq doigts (“For the five fingers”) spinner par excellence who could have ruined starts with a droll parody of those horrid old- the suggestible young Pole had not horrified school finger drills; it’s even marked “après M. parents and teachers intervened. Czerny.” It isn’t long before it soars into a near- So Chopin backed off that particular cliff and delirious fantasy, concluding with that opening headed towards his true destiny. His piano drill transformed into a shower of pyrotechnics. compositions are mostly short, save three Pour les tierces (“For thirds”) might bear a faint sonatas and a few sets of variations, but each en- resemblance to Chopin’s celebrated study in compasses its own unique and fully realized thirds, but while Chopin aims for a glittering cosmos.