Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Tks. 11, 20

Johannes Brahms was a Romantic composer who brought organic refinement of form and impassioned harmonic progression into the music of the late nineteenth century.  Published late in his life, between 1892-1893, are four sets of brief piano works, Op. 116, 117, 118 and 119, which are among his most memorable and characteristic. The two pieces here, Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118, No. 2 and Intermezzo in b minor, Op. 119, No. 1, are different in mood, and yet both embody Brahms’s sense of longing, remembrance and introspection. His style uniquely bridges the gulf between major and minor keys while often provoking in his listeners a yearning for the unattainable.

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) Tks. 3, 10, 24

The Polish composer Frédéric Chopin’s ability to use the entire keyboard to create color, to develop long, intricately lyrical lines, and to bring to our ears harmonically and technically complex music, is unsurpassed in the nineteenth century. Chopin composed twenty-one nocturnes between 1827-1846, typically published in sets of two to three.  Two of the three nocturnes presented here are in a minor key, the Nocturne in Bb minor, Op. 9, No. 1 and the posthumous work, Nocturne in c# minor. As the minor keys suggest, both nocturnes bring forth melancholy and nostalgia. The third, Nocturne in Eb Major, Op. 9, No. 1 is probably the best loved nocturne in all the keyboard literature. The simplicity of its melody, heard four times in the course of the work, evokes serenity and peace.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Tk. 1

Clair de lune is Claude Debussy’s most famous compostion for piano.  It was composed circa 1890 and revised before its publication in 1905. In fact, it is so famous as an individual composition that listeners are often not aware that it is part of a larger set titled, Suite Bergamasque.  The suite consists of four pieces which, to some extent, were inspired by the poems of Paul Verlaine from his early collection Fêtes galantes (Gallant Parties, 1869).  The first poem in the collection, also titled, Clair de lune, begins, “Your soul is a select landscape / Where charming masqueraders and bergamaskers go… And their song mingles with the moonlight, /With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful,…” Debussy’s piece truly captures the imagery set forth by this most famous symbolist poet.

Niels Gade (1817-1890) Tk. 17, 22

Considered the most important Danish composer in his day, Niels Gade was also a conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. In 1848 he became the Director of the Copenhagen Musical Society, a post he held until his death in 1890. He taught both Edvard Grieg and Carl Nielsen. He was friends with both Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann and his shorter piano works exhibit a similar sensibility. Akvareller is a character piece which means Watercolor in Danish. Gade published a total of ten short Akvarelleren divided equally into two volumes, each loosely representing the character of a watercolor painting. The piece included here, Barcarolle, is a gently flowing composition in 6/8 time with constantly cascading 16^th notes. With its unhurried rhythm the listener may summon the image of a swaying Venetian gondolier’s boat.

Reinhold Glière (1875-1956) Tks. 4, 12

Russian composer and teacher Reinhold Glière successfully navigated through Russian upheavals and totalitarian regimes. His students included Sergei Prokofiev and Aram Khachaturian.  Glière’s music is a rich mix of lyrical melodies and colorful harmonies composed in traditional forms. Though some of his larger works are known outside Russian, his piano works remain relatively obscure. Mazurka and Arietta are found in a collection of character pieces titled, Eight Easy Pieces, published in 1910.

Enrique Granados (1867-1916) Tk. 6

Composed sometime between 1892-1900, Danzas Españolas, are twelve piano pieces, each with a descriptive title. The Spanish nationalist sound of these dances made them particularly appropriate to be transcribed for classical guitar. Dance No. 2, Orientale, included here, is the one most frequently performed.  

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Tk. 15

Edvard Grieg is probably most widely known for his Piano Concerto in a minor. He is often viewed as a cosmopolitan composer, yet much of Grieg’s writing is nationalistic and reflects his Norwegian heritage. Some of the best and most beautiful expressions of this music can be found in his Lyric Pieces, sixty-six piano compositions in all, which appeared in ten separate collections between 1867 and 1901. The Lyric Pieces, together with the 25 Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances, Op. 17 published around 1895, comprise an important body of works illustrating Norwegian musical culture.  Within the outlines of traditional small forms, Grieg managed to create a variety of mood-sketches. The Cowherd’s Song is only 22 measures long and yet it completely captures the calm and peace of a cowherd, who after a long day’s drive, watches with pride over his settled herd.

Anatoly Lyadov (1855-1914) Tks. 2, 18

Anatoly Lyadov was a Russian pianist, composer, teacher and conductor. He leaned towards a conservative style of composition which sometimes caused friction with his students such as Sergei Prokofiev, who was more willing to explore new tonal horizons and techniques. Having married into money in 1884, Lyadov was able to establish a publishing company in Leipzig in 1885. Along with his own compositions, he also published new works by Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin often at his own expense. He is more often known these days for his piano miniatures and did not compose many large-scale works. The two Preludes on this CD reveal a delicate lyricism often found in his more gently inspired pieces.

Jules Massenet (1842-1912) Tk. 16

Jules Massenet is known for his operatic works including, Manon and Werther. He was a well-respected and prolific composer who taught at the Paris Conservatoire and disciplined himself to compose several hours each day. However, by the end of his career many critics considered his work outdated. The short piece here, Mélodie, also sometimes translated Élégie, is probably his best-known piano work. Its lyricism is indicative of the vocal stylings found in Massenet’s operatic works. The piece is somber, and yet not morose. It is simple and yet beautiful, with the melody chromatically descending in the left hand. Such descending chromatic lines are used with some frequency to evoke a sense of loss and introspection.

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Tk. 5

Henry Purcell is one of the most renown English composers of all time, and the quintessential representative of the English Baroque period. After Purcell, no English composers of any international prominence came to be recognized until Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughn Williams and Benjamin Britten. Purcell’s father and brother were musicians closely associated with the Restoration church and court; young Henry began composing at age nine and produced a prodigious corpus of work in his short lifetime. Purcell is best known for larger scale works he composed for the courts, the theatre and the church. However, he has many one-movement keyboard works accessible to intermediate players with abstract titles including: airs, grounds and preludes. The Ground in c minor is a representative example. The left-hand ground is repeated again and again while the delicate and somber right-hand melody creatively and expressively weaves ever around it.

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Tks. 14, 25

The six Moment Musicaux, Op. 16 were composed in 1896 when the composer was twenty-three. Interestingly, although not titled as such, each piece has a formal structure often used for character pieces from the previous musical era. Character piece titles were meant to invoke a semblance of the mood the composer intended for the piece, but they were not meant to tell a specific story. This set includes styles which can be analyzed, in order, as a nocturne, an étude, a song without words, a second étude, a barcarolle, and a theme and variations. The fifth composition, in Db Major, thus implies a barcarolle (loosely translated as boat song) although the tempo marking is a generic Adagio Sostenuto.

 

Vladimir Rebikov (1866-1920) Tks. 8, 21

Vladimir Rebikov was a late Romantic Russian composer and pianist who widely taught and performed in his native land.  He composed many lyrical piano miniatures, perhaps as pieces he could then offer to his students. His short, harmonically advanced and engaging pieces often find their way into piano collections for intermediate to advancing levels. Fleurs d’automne, No. 1 and Valse mélancolique, included here, are representative of his lyrical style. Their aural simplicity belies the at times complex technical demands made on the performer to maintain that illusion of simplicity.

 

Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954) Tk. 19

French composer, Jean Roger-Ducasse was the star pupil and friend of Gabriel Fauré. He also succeeded Fauré as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire upon the latter’s death. Roger-Ducasse’s music is often virtuosic and his harmonies are indicative of the French school of composition. The impressionistic Prélude No. 2 features cascading sets of sextuplets which suggest a gentle brook. This music is serene, and yet the piece’s technical requirements challenge the pianist’s ability to realize the composer’s intent.

Erik Satie (1866-1925) Tk. 7

French composer Erik Satie significantly influenced the Parisian avant-garde. Less well-known are his Gnossiennes, a word that Satie coined to describe works that derive from his individual, and mystical, experience of the eternal. They are noted for their lack of bar lines; however, the first three of the pieces, the first of which is included in this collection, may easily be counted in 4/4 time throughout. The first three were published in 1893. Gnoissiennes No. 4-7 were not published until 1968 over 40 years after the composer’s death. These later compositions were not specifically titled as Gnossiennes by Satie, and it is unclear why they have been published with the same title since they are also very different in style, and form, from the first three.

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) Tk. 9, 23

Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist whose early compositional career was greatly influenced by the works of Chopin. The Prélude, Op. 11, No. 9, included here, is an early work from a set of 24 pieces modeled in a similar key arrangement to the 24 Préludes, Op. 28 composed by Chopin. The lyrical style of these short pieces reflects this affinity for Chopin. Scriabin also completed a set of twelve Études, Op. 8 meant to develop pianists’ technical prowess. Although they are in the major or minor key of nearly each of the twelve chromatic pitches, they do not follow the systematic outline of the Chopin, Études. Scriabin did, however, intend them to develop the prodigious technique required to execute his later, highly chromatic works. The early Étude in Bb minor is reminiscent of the Russian melancholy and longing one often hears in Rachmaninov’s meditative works.

Acknowledgements:

Recording Engineer/Editor: David Farrell 

Recorded on a Steinway concert grand piano in the University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center Recital Hall, October 2020

Piano Technician: A. J. Allulli

Producer: Robin H. Williams

 

Design and Manufacturing: Diana Thornton, Crescent Music Services; www.crescentmusic.com

Cover Art: Painted by and courtesy of Christine Diggs; www.christinediggs.com

 

Special Thanks to: Roxanne Rea of Hutchins and Rea Music, Atlanta, GA for her helpful repertoire suggestions, and encouragement in pursuit of this project. In print scores are available through Hutchins and Rea Music at: www.hutchinsandrea.com. Out of print scores are available through the online Petrucci Music Library at www.imslp.org.

 

A Piano in the House; ^©2020 All rights preserved including the rights of the producer and owner of the recorded works. Unauthorized copying, public performance, broadcasting, hiring or rental of this recording prohibited, as provided by applicable law.