Norman Bemelmans and Elizabeth Loparits
January 28, 2016
7:30 p.m.
Kenan Auditorium
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Born in a small village near Warsaw, Chopin considered himself first and foremost a Polish
composer even while spending much of his brief adult life in Paris. Few if any 19th-century
composers so immediately, intuitively or intimately realized the musical potential of the
modern piano, and Chopin's extensive compositional output for that instrument remain central
to the contemporary concert repertoire, revered by pianists and audiences alike.
The Prelude in c-sharp minor, op.45 was composed several years after the well-known
collection of twenty-four preludes (op. 28), and on its own provides a singular testament to the
composer's mature genius for subtle harmonic modulation, melodic eloquence and emotional
profundity.
Chopin's two volumes of Etudes (op. 10 and op. 25) were to have an enormous impact on the
development of the modern piano technique, directly influencing the piano compositions of
Liszt, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, among many others. While each of Chopin's etudes is
designed to emphasize a specific keyboard characteristic or challenge, their unparalleled
craftsmanship and their range in mood -- from the hauntingly lyrical to the dazzlingly virtuosic -elevate the music from that of mere "exercises" to the realm of the ingeniously imaginative, as
exemplified by the four etudes chosen for this program.
Like many of Chopin's compositions, the Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat, op. 61 was in large part
inspired by, and an homage to, the music of his homeland. The music's "Polish" elements are
constantly and intricately intertwined with the more free-ranging "fantasy" components,
creating a seamless musical tapestry of unparalleled nobility. Completed three years before
Chopin's death, the composition is one of the acknowledged masterworks in the piano
literature of the Romantic era.
Beethoven developed the scherzo ("joke", in Italian) into a sometimes bumptiously rollicking
movement replacing the more traditional and more graceful minuet in the construction of his
symphonies. Chopin took the "joke" one step further, using the term scherzo as a title for four
of his most intensely dramatic piano compositions. The Scherzo #2 in b-flat minor, op. 31,
perhaps the best-known of the four, is indeed intensely dramatic, by turns demonically
energetic and liltingly melodic, and possessing a volatile emotional force of it's own
unconstrained by the limitations of traditional form and expectation. It was an immediate
audience favorite (described by one critic after its premiere as "a long ribbon of melody sung on
a single breath") and remains a preeminent example of Chopin's remarkable genius for
exploiting the piano's potential for both poetry and sonority.
Alexander Scriabin (1871 - 1915)
Highly regarded in his native Russia as both pianist and composer, Scriabin was greatly
influenced in his youthful compositions by the music of both Chopin and Liszt, but in his later
years developed a deeply mystical and radically innovative musical style and sound which
remains unique to itself.
The Two Poems, op. 32, while miniature in scope, clearly evidence the lingering influence of
Liszt and Chopin; equally evident however is the composer's recognizably individual, radiantly
colorful, musical voice.
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 -1943)
A young colleague of Scriabin's at the Moscow Conservatory, Rachmaninoff fled Russia
following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, achieving world-wide acclaim as composer and
conductor while at the same time enthusiastically heralded as one of the preeminent pianists of
the 20th-century.
Two selections from the Fantasy Pieces, op. 3, are included on this program: the Prelude in csharp minor, subtitled "Bells of Moscow"; and Polichinelle, a boisterous depiction of the
traditional comic character found within the commedia dell'arte folk theater tradition.
Rachmaninoff composed two sets of Preludes for piano (op. 23 and op. 32), both written when
at the pinnacle of his compositional creativity. The three selections included on this program
exemplify the wide range of emotional content and virtuosic challenges found in these works,
which Rachmaninoff performed frequently in his own concert performances.
Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886)
Acknowledged by his contemporaries as the most brilliant pianist of his time --- and still
considered by many the supreme pianist in musical history --- Liszt was in many ways the
embodiment of musical Romanticism; a Byronic persona whose compositions explore with
remarkable craftsmanship the contradictions between the sublime and the macabre, and the
poet and the virtuoso.
As both man and musician Liszt was exceedingly generous with his time and talent, not only
providing tangible support and encouragement to numerous colleagues, but also transcribing
for piano a wide selection of their symphonic, vocal and operatic compositions in order to make
them better known to a wider audience. Richard Wagner was a prime recipient of this
generosity, and Liszt's transcription of the final scene (Liebestod) from Wagner's music-drama
Tristan und Isolde is one of his most acclaimed transcriptions, pianistically recreating the multivoiced orchestral sonorities of Wagner's complex depiction of passion, loss and transcendence.
St. Francis of Paola Walks Upon the Waves, the second of the "Two St. Francis Legends",
represents Liszt at his most dramatically evocative. St. Francis of Paola is portrayed crossing the
Strait of Messina to minister to the sick and needy of Sicily, and encountering a violent storm so
intense that he could complete the journey only by miraculously walking across the stormtossed sea as the crashing waves surge and billow around him. Liszt himself had a particular
fondness for this work, performing it frequently in numerous fundraising charity concerts given
during the last years of his life.
─ Written by Norman Bemelmans, January 2016 ─