Recording in Beethovensaal, Hannover Germany, Dec 2009. Wilhelm Kempff recorded Beethoven cycle in the very same hall. Buy Moonlight Sonata DVD http://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Royal-Al…
From Valentina: Sonata #7, one of so called “war” sonatas, written mostly in 1942 , premiered in January 1943 by Richter.
A long bit of pre-history to how this sonata came along: Prokofiev-the-human was not exactly a kind of person you would dream of to be your best friend As a kid studying in conservatory he was both nerdy and arrogant — he never missed an opportunity flaunt his formidable talents in front of his older classmates ( he was by far the youngest in his class), yet he was so jealous of his fellow composers that he couldn’t even hide his bile, not even when he wrote and re-wrote and re-edited (FOR POSTERITY! In his own admission ) his school-days diary to make himself look really good and smart….In fact , he was always smart and thought himself even smarter. How many underage musical school students do you, dear reader, know — who trade their own stocks and bonds in a spare time from studying Beethoven Sonatas? Yes, me neither… Anyway, he thought he will always outsmart everybody and for a while he was lucky. He escaped newly-hatched SovietRussia just before the iron curtain closed, enjoying admiration of the West as a young brilliant composer from red Russia, hailed by critics as “an apostle of Bolshevism” . He commuted between trendy circles of Paris and US with ease while his compatriots were being enslaved and starved . He got himself a gorgeous trophy foreign wife, drove fast cars ,gambled a lot , made visits to Russia where he was feted as a celebrity ,incurred a lot of debts…. When time came to pay those debts he though he can once again outsmart everybody, by pulling a magic trick out of his fashionable hat — by denouncing capitalist West and moving back to Mother Russia, safely out of reach of creditors. He did move — and heard a clicking noise of mousetrap closing upon him. For the first time in his life he lost, he got caught – with no escape in sight. From a visiting globe-trotting celebrity he was turned overnight into a humble public servant, required to compose what and when the Communist party would order him. No more Romeos and Juliettes , now the music had to be about workers of factories and collective farms, or — like he was made to write just before this Sonata — a panegyric oratorio wishing happy birthday to Stalin…. Prokofiev was not interested in history or politics and his music never before reflected on sufferings of millions or entire nations ( like Shostakovich or Mussorgsky did ), he was always writing about himself and HIS feelings. We can’t blame him for this, ok? It is enough to say that this music reflects mortal anxiety and fear that he and countless others felt in those years. The music of Allegro Inquieto is about this anxiety verging on hysterics, when you feel that something should be done, something MUST be done but you are powerless to do anything. Like a trapped animal that can’t comprehend what awaits it, keeps hitting the walls or running around in its cage, aimlessly. And then , in the second — contrasting – theme, stupor and reverie of most pitiful kind, passivity and pacifism of dying. One, only ONE thing , short 4 notes motive — that stands apart through this entire movement . Tah-tah-tah-Daah. A triplet of 8th notes and a quarter, repeated over and over , low and high, loud and quiet. This is the SAME motive that traces its genealogy from this sonata back to Beethoven Appasionata and from there to Fifth Symphony famous theme, This rhythm stands in Morse code for a letter V , V is for VICTORY, the “secret” code known for what it meant even during radio broadcasts during the war. This V and 100s times it repeats is he only ray of hope in the vast abyss this movement is.
Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, by Ludwig van Beethoven was composed in 1821. It is the central piano sonata in the group of three opp. 109–111 which he wrote between 1820 and 1822, and the thirty-first of his published piano sonatas.
The sonata is in three movements. The moderato first movement in sonata form, marked con amabilità, is followed by a fast scherzo. The finale comprises a slow recitative and arioso dolente, a fugue, a return of the arioso lament, and a second fugue that builds to an affirmative conclusion.
I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo II. Scherzo: Allegro molto III. Adagio ma non troppo. Fuga: Allegro ma non troppo
– Pastorale. Lento, dolce rubato. – Interlude: Tempo di Minuetto. – Finale. Allegro moderato ma risoluto.
Syrinx, for Flute solo. Doriot Anthony Dwyer, flute.
The Sonata for flute, viola and harp (French: Sonate pour flûte, alto, et harpe), L. 137, was written by Claude Debussy in 1915. The first performance was a private one at the home of Jacques Durand, Debussy’s publisher, on December 10, 1916 and the first public performance was thought to be at a charity concert on March 9, 1917 (Walker, 1988). However, Thompson (1968) reported a performance of the sonata at London’sAeolian Hall by Albert Fransella, H. Waldo Warner and Miriam Timothy on February 2, 1917 as part of a concert otherwise given by the London String Quartet. According to Léon Vallas (1929, cited in Walker, 1988), Debussy initially planned this as a piece for flute, oboe and harp. He subsequently decided that the viola’s timbre would be a better combination for the flute than the oboe’s, so he changed the instrumentation to flute, viola and harp
Many of the most distinguished composers of our time — Gyorgy Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Alberto Ginastera, Milko Keleman, and Vincent Perischetti — have written works especially for Professor di Bonaventura, and he has performed world premiers of each of the composers’ compositions.
The first image in the video above is by the Italian urban landscape painter Bernardo Bellotto (1720 — 1780) entitled “View of Verona and the River Adige from the Ponte Nuovo” (1747-48).
The concerto is in three movements: *Allegro molto moderato (A minor) *Adagio (D flat major) *Allegro moderato molto e marcato – Quasi presto – Andante maestoso (A minor → F major → A minor → A major)
Cover of Edvard Grieg
The first movement is noted for the timpani roll in the first bar that leads to a dramatic piano flourish. The movement is in the Sonata form. The movement finishes with a virtuosic cadenza and a similar flourish as in the beginning. The second movement is a lyrical movement in D flat major, which leads directly into the third movement. The third movement opens in A minor 4/4 time with an energetic theme (Theme 1), which is followed by a lyrical 3/4 theme in F Major (Theme 2). The movement returns to Theme 1. Following this recapitulation is the 3/4 A Major Quasi presto section, which consists of a variation of Theme 1. The movement concludes with the Andate maestoso in A Major (or in A mixolydian), which consists of a dramatic rendition of Theme 2 (as opposed to the lyrical fashion with which Theme 2 is introduced). Performance time of the whole concerto is around 28 minutes.
Edvard Grieg: Born in Bergen 1843.
Cover of Berliner Philharmoniker
After being taught piano by his mother, he went to the Leipzig Conservatory at the age of 15 to study music where his teachers included Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Reinecke. He then lived in Copenhagen and came under the influence of Niels W. Gade who encouraged him to compose a symphony and there also met fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak who inspired Grieg to champion the cause of Norwegian music. He went on to become his country’s greatest and most famous composer who excelled in many genres including orchestral, chamber, solo piano, vocal and choral. His output of purely orchestral music was small but included his Piano Concerto, Symphonic Dances and the 2 Suites derived from his incidental music to Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt.”
Painters: Ludvig Skramstad Nils Hansteen Philip Barlag Ole Juul Thorolf Holmboe Sophus Jacobsen Lyder Wenzel Nicolaysen Niels Björnson Möller
II. Andante poco moto, C major. (4 measures missing after measure 43) 8:06
III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace – Trio: Un poco più lento, A minor 17:13
IV. Rondo: Allegro vivace, A minor 23:58
The first movement is in sonata form though with ambiguity over the material in the development and the beginning of the recapitulation.[1]
The second movement is in variation form. Noted performers of the work in the 19th century included Hans von Bülow, who played the sonata in both Europe and the USA.[2]
Daniel Coren has discussed the nature of the recapitulation in the first movement of this sonata.[3]
Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was one of the great composers of the classical era in music that is associated with Vienna, the others being Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Schubert, who was born in a suburb of Vienna, was the fourth son of a schoolmaster. At age 5, he learned the violin from his father and the piano from an older brother. Because of Schubert’s excellent voice, at age 11 he became one of the Vienna Choir Boys at the Imperial Chapel. By the age of 16, Schubert wrote an opera, a series of quartets, and his Symphony No. 1.
Shortly afterward, he left Vienna’s Imperial Chapel and began teacher training to become a schoolmaster. However, Schubert’s genius lay in musical creativity, and between 1813 and 1818 he had a surge of creativity where he wrote five symphonies, six operas, and 300 “Lieder” songs, a term which is usually used to describe songs composed to a German poem.
While in the midst of all this creative composing, Schubert found teaching in a classroom to be too boring and in 1816 at age 19 he gave up teaching at the schoolhouse of his father and moved to Vienna where he devoted himself to composition, focusing on orchestral and choral works. During this creative activity, Schubert’s health deteriorated. He died at the age of thirty-one after a brief unconfirmed illness.
Rondo in A for Violin and Strings was written in June 1828, and may well have been intended to form a two-movement sonata along the lines of Beethoven’s E minor Sonata.
It is lovingly modeled on the lyrical finale of Beethoven’s sonata: his theme follows a similar harmonic pattern, and even the keyboard layout of its opening bars, with the melody’s initial phrase followed by a more assertive answer in octaves, echoes Beethoven’s.
Schubert mirrors Beethoven’s procedure, too, by transferring the final reprise of the Rondo theme to the sonorous tenor register, with a continuous pattern of semiquavers unfolding above it.
But Schubert’s composition is far from a slavish imitation, and it can more than hold its own against Beethoven’s. Particularly beautiful is the manner in which one of the important subsidiary themes returns towards the end, surmounted by a shimmering pianissimo accompaniment in repeated chords from the primo player.
Rondo in A for Violin and Strings was published in December 1828, less than a month after Schubert died.
CD4 Sonata in A flat major D557 0:00–12:41 1. Allegro moderato 2. Andante 3. Allegro Sonata in B major D575 12:41–37:50 4. Allegro ma non troppo 5. Andante 6. Scherzo. Allegro – Trio 7. Allegro giusto Sonata in G major D894 37:50 8. Molto moderato e cantabile 9. Andante 10. Menuetto: Allegro moderato – Trio 11. Allegretto
Dinu Lipatti‘s performance of Mozart‘s Sonata in A Minor, K310, at his last public recital, which took place at the Besançon International Music Festival on September 16, 1950. Included in this video are some photographs taken at the rehearsal in the Salle de Parlement that morning, as well as some pictures from the actual performance which were taken by Michel Meusy (who is at the time of this writing 102 years old). Also included is a previously unpublished picture of his hands which (along with all Besancon pictures) is featured in the upcoming documentary ‘Le Recital de Besançon’ on Sunless Films, directed by Philippe Roger.
Feel free to join the Dinu Lipatti Society fan page on Facebook to be kept informed of Lipatti news and events (including information on the recent tributes to Lipatti’s recital at the 2010 Besancon International Music Festival).
[caption id="attachment_99163" align="alignnone" width="300"] CIDSE – TOGETHER FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE (CHANGE FOR THE PLANET -CARE FOR THE PROPLE-ACCESS THIS NEW WEBSITE FROM EUZICASA)[/caption]
CIDSE - TOGETHER FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE (CHANGE FOR THE PLANET -CARE FOR THE PROPLE-ACCESS THIS NEW WEBSITE FROM EUZICASA)
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