Chopin in Marseille, Scherzo No 3

Severe and prolonged was the nosebleed Chopin suffered on his return trip from Mallorca. In the company of George Sand and her two children, they were returning from a frustrated vacation started in November 1838, scheduled to escape the French winter. But the holliday lasted only three months because the weather, extremely favorable at the beginning ("the sky is like turquoise, sea like azure, mountains like emerald, air like heaven") changed dramatically in January causing a substantial deterioration in Frédérick's fragile health.

The homecoming
In a modest boat that also carried as passengers – in the cargo compartment, of course – a herd of pigs that growled day and night, they set off on their return to Barcelona in February 1839. Chopin is still bleeding from the nose, and Sand is on the verge of despair. Eight days after his arrival in the city, George sighs a French warship in the harbor and decides to talk with the captain, getting the doctor on board to see Frédérick and, good news, taking them all to Marseille. After 36 hours of stoic rocking, the four passengers arrived at the French port on February 25, 1839, the hemorrhage stopped thanks to the solicitous doctor, "and the endless care of my angel", Chopin notes – alluding George, we want to believe.

"Marseille is ugly" says Chopin. "All the literary mob chases George and the musical mob follows me. It's an old city though not ancient, and we are a little bored." As for Sand, she does not seem very happy in "this city of merchants and shopkeepers ...":

"We moved from one inn to another. Apart from the mistral we have a pretty good time. Chopin must not breathe cold air. The windy mistral days we stay at home and work each in his own ... Our existence is highly innocent and simple, almost primitive... "

On May 22 they return, not to Paris but to Nohant where the cozy summer house of Sand is located. Finally at home! exclaims Chopin, with some ease.

Chopin's Scherzos
Chopin had already managed to unlink the prelude from the fugue. He would soon separate the scherzo from the symphony and the sonata, particularly that of his closest model, the beethovenian, a playful or graceful scherzo, existing at least in the symphonies prior to the fifth, and whose purpose was to separate the allegro from the adagio or this one from the end of the work. Chopin would build with its metric four individual pieces, of a ternary nature, that is, first theme, second theme and return to the first theme, or structure A-B-A. The rhythm is in 3/4 and its speed is presto.

Scherzo No. 3 op 39 in C sharp minor
The Scherzo No 3 was composed or completed in 1839, in Mallorca, and published in 1840. It is dedicated to one of his closest pupils, Adolphe Gutmann.
Of stormy beginning, it then links up with a cantabile theme that is accompanied by descending arpeggios; finally a coda will lead to the high brilliant conclusion, with a "Picardy third", that is, a major chord when the piece is in a minor key, as it's the case.

The rendition is by the Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, awarded with the first prize at the 2010 International Chopin Contest, in Warsaw.

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Bizet, "Habanera", from Carmen

To cover the expenses of his innumerable wars and his lavish palaces, Louis XIV increased taxes on peasants in the middle of the second half of the 17th century. It seems perverse but it was the only way to relieve state finances because the nobility and clergy did not pay taxes. But not for that reason we are going to label the Sun King an infamous monarch. Lover of the arts, the Prix de Rome was created under his reign, in 1663. The award would distinguish young artists with a four-year stay at the Academy of France, in Rome, an internship liberally covered by the king or, rather, covered by the French servants.

Prix ​​de Rome for musicians 
A century and a half later, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte expanded the universe of beneficiaries to include musicians. The French musician Georges Bizet, an outstanding student of the Paris Conservatoire who had entered at age ten not without difficulties because he was under the age to be admitted, applied in 1857 to the coveted Prix de Rome. He won it on second vote. The award involved a five-year scholarship (usually 4), and the only requirement was to submit an original work each year to the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.

Surviving in Paris
Georges, whose mother was a pianist, became, in turn, an exceptional pianist, but his musical vocation was oriented to drama. It was not a good choice, because he had to get used to accepting scarcely encouraging criticism. The year his mother died, he returned definitively to Paris and delivered a comic opera to the Academy, his last commitment to the Prix de Rome.
From that moment on, the struggle to survive in the French musical world began. He composes operettas that later destroys, gives lessons and publishes small pieces for piano and songs, also makes transcriptions of famous operas for the piano.

The post mortem success

Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875)

After composing in 1872 another work poorly received by the public, he decided to stage the opera Carmen, mainly for overcoming depression than for another motive. The work dated from 1845 but had never been released for fear that his subjects of treason and murder could irritate the audience. The heroine, to make matters worse, was a licentious seducer and not a virtuous woman. As expected, its premiere in March 1875 was a failure. However, seven months later it was performed in Vienna to great acclaim of both public and critics. But Bizet had already died, in June of that year, shortly before his 37th birthday. Carmen is considered today a work of universal category, but Bizet never got to know.

All the above notwithstanding, Georges Bizet definitely transformed the genre of the French Opera Comique (somewhat light and with musical numbers separated by dialogue) and accelerated the cult of realism helping to forge the Italian post-Romantic operatic tradition that will later be known as verismo (Leoncavallo, Puccini).

Carmen
It is an opera in four acts, based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. Set in Seville, it is starring Carmen, a beautiful and fiery gipsy woman ("if you do not love me, I love you; if you love me, be careful", are words from the Habanera) who seduces an inexperienced soldier in matters of the heart who out of love for her rejects his former beloved. Regrettably, Carmen will later choose another male as the object of her love, a bullfighter. In jealousy, the soldier will be going to kill Carmencita.

In act I, Carmen shares her philosophy of love by singing the famous Habanera, at the exit of the tobacco factory, right next to the soldiers' barracks.

The rendition is by the Latvian-born mezzo-soprano, Elina Garança, in a performance at the New York Met.

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JS Bach: Partita No 2 in C minor

At the beginning of his stay at the court of Köthen, the Bach's relations with his employer Prince Leopold were particularly good, since he was, in turn, a talented musician who held Bach in high esteem. But relations came to be sharpy deteriorating after the prince married a cousin, Princess Friederica, a lady who never showed the slightest interest in music and, generally, in any form of culture. His dire influence on Leopold, a prince and submissive husband at a time, ended up taking him away from the concerts that were held in court and therefore from his own musicians, including his kapellmeister, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Kantor at the Thomaskirche
Therefore, when the position of Kantor in the St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) became vacant in Leipzig due to the death of its owner, Johann Sebastian did not think twice and applied for the position even when the post also entailed responsibilities in the children's school that the Church housed, the Thomasschule. The application was very challenging (Bach competed with other musicians) but finally, the twenty-seven present councilors of the City Council gave its vote to Bach, unanimously.

Among the conditions imposed by the Council, besides those relating to teaching school students, and his obligation to compose and conduct the music in another important church in Leipzig, was the teacher's commitment to "arrange, to maintain the good order in the church, that the music to be played does not last too long and, in addition, ensure that it is not theatrical, but encourages listeners to devotion."

After many formalities, including a theology exam, Bach took the position of Kantor of the Saint Thomas Church on May 15, 1723. Thus began the most glorious period of Bach's life and as a composer, a successful stage in the company of his second wife, Anna Magdalena, and his numerous offspring. He would remain in Leipzig until his death, in 1750.

Partitas by Bach
The group of pieces known as "Partitas by Bach" are a set of six keyboard suites, published separately between 1726 and 1730 and finally assembled by Bach in a volume entitled Clavierübung I (Exercises for keyboard) in 1731. The partitas, such as the French and English suites, and overtures, are made up of several pieces that follow an order and receive a name established by the musical tradition of their time.

Partita No. 2 in C minor
Its sections are six:
00:00  Symphony,
04:45  Allemande
07:33  Courante
08:54  Sarabande
10:52  Rondeau
12:09  Capriccio

The rendition is by the brilliant Ukranian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.

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Beethoven: The Emperor Concerto - Claudio Arrau

"Song of triumph for combat. Victory!" These are words that Beethoven wrote in the margins of some notes for the composition of the Piano Concerto No. 5, popularly known as the "Emperor Concerto." At the time the exhortation helped to sustain the idea that its grandiose character responded to the author's intention to greet an epic event, some military feat led by a relevant actor, for example, an emperor.

The occupied Vienna
Four years earlier, on November 1805, Napoleonic troops had occupied Vienna for the first time. Emperor Francis I of Austria, the same who did not hesitate on banning the performances of the Figaro by Mozart, must have left running out, but his exile was short-lived and he entered Vienna, triumphantly, in March 1806.

The peace, however, did not last long. In May 1809 Napoleon's armies were once again encamped on the outskirts of Vienna, and the emperor was forced to undertake a second escape. Peace returned, as always, but this time with humiliating conditions for the empire. To the pitiful armistice, Napoleon added a secret clause: the commitment of his marriage to Maria Luisa of Habsburg-Lorraine, daughter of the monarch.

A great work
We know that in 1809 Beethoven had long since removed from the Eroica Symphony the dedication to the revolutionary general who forgot the ideals of freedom and equality when he became emperor. About Francis I, we have said it all. So, to date, there is no character in sight that tradition or custom identifies with a war hero who would have inspired Beethoven to compose a great work. In fact, almost the opposite. Tradition and custom came to call "Emperor" the concerto No. 5 not for anything other than the great proportions and majesty of the work itself.

Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" in E♭, Op 73
The concerto is dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, patron and brilliant Beethoven's pupil, one of the three members of the so-called "pact of the three princes" that assured the maestro an annual income, from precisely the year of the work's composition. It is the last that Beethoven composed for piano and, definitely, the one with the greatest virtuosity and character. Its premiere took place in the Gewandhaus Hall in Leipzig, on November 28, 1811.

Movements
Three movements make up the concerto: Allegro - Adagio un poco mosso - Rondo, allegro ma non tropo. As Beethoven used to do, the first movement is the longest. The second, intensely lyric, stands as one of the most beautiful pages written for piano and orchestra. It links with the third movement with no pause. The last movement cadenza, before the final tutti, ends with an untold ritardando, in which piano and timpani play twinned, till silence. Then, a furious scale by the piano will lead to a great and resounding orchestral ending.

Claudio Arrau, 85
On November 3, 1988, the London Symphony Orchestra scheduled a concert entirely dedicated to Beethoven that somehow also constituted a tribute to Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, who would participate in the first part of the evening with the performance of the Emperor Concerto. The Chilean maestro had turned 85, and at the beginning of the video we can see the director Sir Colin Davis holding Arrau by the arm while he comes to the piano. I beg you to excuse a couple of jumps and overexposures of the audio in minutes 3-6, but seeing and listening to Arrau, almost an old man, playing like a boy, makes this record a real jewel, despite the failures mentioned.

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Erik Satie, Gnossienne No 1

The first irreverence with which Erik Satie greeted the French academy was to label Opus 62 as the first work he composed, when he was 19 years old. Six years ago he had entered the Paris Conservatoire, standing out as an excellent student, in theory, harmony and piano; however, he will leave the institution at 21, a bit annoyed with the aesthetic trends of the epoch, whether they were academic or avant-garde.

A Cabaret Pianist
But, after all, his eight years of studies at the Conservatory provided him with a solid foundation, especially as a pianist. With this instrument, he would make a living and for it, he would compose most of his music. The same year he abandoned the academy, 1887, he began working as a pianist in the Le Chat Noir Cabaret, but soon after he was fired, and violently. However, it did not take long to find work as a pianist in a similar establishment. This time it was the turn of the cabaret L'auberge du clou, where he stayed for several years and where he was lucky to meet Claude Debussy, with whom he began a friendship with ups and downs.

Erik Satie (1866 - 1925)

It was precisely Debussy who reproached him on a couple of times that his music seemed at times careless in regard to musical forms. In response to this claim, Satie replied with the composition of a small work entitled "Three pieces in the shape of a pear", for four-hand piano, which are neither three nor, of course, are pear-shaped.

Exotic music
The 1900 Paris Exposition opened the way for many musicians to come into contact with other and more exotic musical universes. There was born, for example, Debussy's taste for Javanese music. Satie didn't fall behind and was enthusiastic about Romanian music, a footprint that scholars swear to observe in the enigmatic Gnossiennes, composed a year later. These are the years when Satie proves to have a special preference for number three. Hence the three Gnossiennes, which culminates a stage begun with the three Sarabandes (1887) and the three Gymnopédies (1888).

"Furniture music"
Beyond his commitment to the production of fun compositions, full of fantasy and humour, Satie always continued to be a hipster, an experimental musician. That was how in 1920, in the company of other composers, the production of what they called "furniture music" was focused, a music that is not an object in itself, but a kind of musical decoration, whose purpose is purely utilitarian, as with furniture.

Although in principle the exotic Gnossienne No. 1 does not belong to the category just described, it is undeniable that it acquires another meaning, another dimension, "a new beauty" if it is heard as background music (!), or piped music? in this simple video illustrating the routine of its author on his daily trip from home to work.
At the piano, the Frenchman Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

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Wagner, Tristan and Isolde, Prelude

Mathilde Wesendonk (1828 - 1902)

After finishing the reading of Schopenhauer´s work The World as Will and Representation, the German composer Richard Wagner began to write the first verses of his musical drama Tristan und Isolde, close to the thought of the Danzig philosopher, whom he took from then on as his inspirational guide and teacher. The work was based on an ancient German legend, whose leitmotiv were love, destiny, betrayal and death, which fit perfectly with the spirit of the romantic period.

Shortly after, on April 1857, his patron and advisor, the banker Otto Wesendonk, rented a simple house to Wagner, in Zurich, on the land he had prepared to build the mansion planned to inhabit in the company of his beautiful young woman Mathilde, thirteen years younger than him and a poet in addition.

In September of that year, Richard welcomed, as guests, the orchestra conductor Hans von Büllow and his wife Cosima, daughter of Franz Liszt. The Wesendonks, already moved to their splendid love nest, were frequent guests, especially Mathilde, who did spend a long time alone because Otto had to travel frequently. Thus, the evenings that used to take place in the little house, curiously called Assyl, counted on the presence – if we talk about the ladies – of Minna, Richard's wife, Cosima and Mathilde.

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)

One warm summer afternoon in 1858, Richard read the poems, already quite advanced, that would make up the musical drama script in three acts Tristan and Isolde, before the three ladies. While as sketches, Minna already knew them; Cosima was not indifferent to Richard's words but decided to procrastinate on it (she will marry Richard in 1866); Mathilde, on the other hand, was shuddered from head to toe by the musician's verses, causing instant crush on her. The story of Isolde and Tristan seemed to recall theirs.

Mystical and subjugating was the passion born between them. Mathilde's visits to Assyl became more frequent and also the exchange of letters in veiled language. But it all went to hell when Minna intercepted a letter from Mathilde, a letter in which language had already lost the veil. As a result, the Wesendonks set out on a trip to Italy, and Minna abandonned Wagner, who was forced to continue working in Tristan. Months later, he left Assyl and left for Venice, then to Lucerne, where he finished the work in August 1859. Tristan had died, also Isolde. Richard had not, he was alive, but alone.

Prelude and Liebestod ... and Melancholia 
"Melancholia", the film by Danish director Lars von Trier, was presented at the 2011 Cannes festival. It's a drama containing a curious mix of elements of science fiction and reflections on life and the destiny of human beings, which ends with the total destruction of the Earth by the collision with another planet.
The film begins with a kind of overture, about ten minutes, filmed in slow motion, without dialogues or ambient sound, in which, along with scenes of space and the impending collision, the themes and characters are presented in a dream sequence that von Trier will explore later. The complete sequence is accompanied by a reduced orchestral version that links the prelude to the third act and the final aria of Wagner's work.

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Agustín Barrios - Mangoré: "La Catedral"

Although much of his life was spent in the twentieth century, the music of the Paraguayan guitarist and composer Agustín Pío Barrios (1885 - 1944) is identified with the musical period known as "late romanticism". Fairly "late", in my opinion. But, romantic indeed, an important part of his work shows a great influence from the folk music of South and Central America.

Born in Misiones, Paraguay, Agustín Pío Barrios took his first steps on music from his mother, who served as a teacher at the local girls' school. His seven brothers used to play some instrument and together formed the so-called Orquesta Barrios, of which he was part until the age of 13 when a compatriot, a renowned musician, introduced him to the repertoire of the classical guitar. Thus he came to know the work of Tárrega and Fernando Sor, among others.

In 1907 he made his first solo performance and the following year he was already known throughout Paraguay. Then the tours of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and others) would come and, as a reward, the composer will be known as "the guitar magician". In the 1930s he will travel to Europe, thus achieving universal recognition as an excellent composer and guitarist. In 1932 he appeared in Brazil as Nitsuga (Agustin upside down) Mangoré (the name of a Guarani chieftain), the guitar Paganini, which led to him later being known worldwide as Agustín Barrios - Mangoré.

The work La Catedral is considered to be his pinnacle work. Composed around 1912, and according to some inspired by the religious music of Bach, it is made up of three movements, despite its brief extension: Prelude Saudade, Andante Religioso (1:26), and Allegro Solemne (3:17), the latter demanding a great technique. The work has become an unavoidable component of the universal repertoire for classical guitar.

The rendition is by the beautiful and superb Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic.

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Chopin as a child / "Barcarolle"

Nicolas Chopin, Frédéric's father, left France to try his luck in Poland when he was sixteen. After working for a while in a small tobacco factory run by a countryman, he managed to establish himself, by then an adult, as a teacher or tutor at the home of aristocratic Polish families. This is how he got to work for the Skarbek family, settled in the village of Zelasowa Wola, 60 km from Warsaw.

The mother, Justine
Mrs Skarbek, by those years a widow, was assisted in the house maintenance by a poor relative, an unaffected and charming twenty-year-old girl, with blond hair and blue eyes who wore a certain aura of distinction, despite her aquiline nose, which she will bequeath to one of her children. Yes indeed, she will be Frédéric's mother, because after four years, Justina and Nicolas, who saw each other every day during dinner and ran into each other through the halls and corners of the whole house, finally got married.

Ludwika and Izabella Chopin
Four children will be born from the marriage. Frédéric, the only male, is the second. His older sister, Ludwika, will be a kind of preceptor of little Chopin, in addition to being the one who started him on the path of music. Soon they will play four hands to their parents' delight. Ludwika is his affectionate advisor, almost his friend; long after, she will visit him in Paris and will be with his brother at the time of the final farewell.
The second sister, Izabella, is also a good musician but does not exceed Ludwika's brightness. Both, and also Frédéric, of course, have developed their piano skills guided by Justina, the mother, a talented amateur.

Emilia Chopin
The younger sister, Emilia, has decided to be a poet. At eleven, along with his brother, she writes a comedy in verse to celebrate the father's birthday. Later, Frédéric will join Ludwika to write children's books as a duo. Musicians, talkative, cheerful, friendly, adorable, with a talent for almost everything. So are the Chopin children. The one who shows the greatest talents is, no doubt, little Frédéric. Interestingly, he has an amazing facility for drawing and caricatures, and an unmatched gift for imitating characters. With these extra-musical skills, years later he will wow and impress those attending the artistic evenings in the Paris salons, where he has been invited, at first, to play the piano.

Barcarolle opus 60
The folk songs that Venetian gondoliers sing while they walk their passengers through the city canals are known as barcarolles. The tradition is ancient and it is said that the gondoliers did it so as not to listen to what their distinguished passengers, all noble people, would talk during the small journey.

A good number of classic authors approached the composition of barcarolles, after making a rigorous visit to Italy, and certainly Venice. Apart from the very popular one by Jacques Offenbach, from The Tales of Hoffmann (from which even Elvis Presley released his own version, a "rock" one, in the movie GI Blues), the most famous "classic" barcarolle is that of Frédéric Chopin, composed in 1845, during summer in Nohant, the summer residence of his companion of that time, the writer Georges Sand.

In a brief analysis that Maurice Ravel did on this little masterpiece, he said: "Chopin did in it everything that, by negligence, his masters only expressed imperfectly."

The impeccable rendition is by the Taiwanese pianist Ching-Yun Hu.

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Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, op 64

On the whole, it can be said that Felix Mendelssohn did quite well in his life, a very unusual issue among his romantic colleagues. The bad news is that it was very short. He only lived until age 38.
Born in Hamburg in 1809, a year before Chopin and two before Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy came from a family of bankers. His father was involved until 1811 in the banking business, running one of the most prestigious credit institutions in Europe. His mother, likewise, was the daughter of a prominent Berlin banker.

Mendelssohn: musician and painter
Felix was given his first piano lessons from his mother and soon showed great musical talent. When he turned eleven, his father Abraham ended up convincing himself of his son's extraordinary dispositions for music and, against all odds, coming from a person linked to business, he wrote the following sentence in a family letter: "Music will be for him perhaps a trade. "
And, so that the artistic formation of the son was complete, Abraham made Felix take lessons at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Throughout his life, Felix would paint extraordinarily well, showing in his watercolours a prodigious technique.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847)

The sabbatical years
Parallel to music and painting lessons, Mendelssohn pursues studies of aesthetics, geography and history of the French Revolution at the University of Berlin. When he was 20 years old (four years ago he had already composed the overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream) his father gave him a sort of a sabbatical year but multiplied by three. Indeed, for three years, Mendelssohn was able to travel all over Europe, with no other purpose than to compose and getting acquainted with the music of other countries.
In addition, if he wanted to be back in Berlin, he could stay in the family's palace, in whose gardens stood a pavilion that could accommodate about one hundred attendees, and where the young Felix premiered several of his works, and where at one time he received a visit by Chopin, or by the poet Heine. (Despite having met in Paris, it is unlikely that Liszt had been one of the frequent guests at the Mendelssohn house, as Felix did not like him, to the point of asserting that Liszt had "many fingers but little brain").

Marriage

Cécile Jeanrenaud (1817 - 1853)

In full enjoyment of this generous life, the summer of 1836 Felix was fortunate to meet the beautiful Cécile Jeanrenaud, aged tender 17 years. It was love at first sight for both of them, without crises or setbacks of any kind, unlike their contemporaries Liszt, Chopin, Wagner or Berlioz, and, needless to say, poor Schumann. They got married the following year and, by all accounts, they were very happy. They had five children.

But as happiness does not last forever, in May 1847 his sister Fanny died suddenly from a stroke. This pain caused in turn a stroke in Felix, from which he partially recovered although the sequels led him to death six months later. The beautiful Cécile did not endure the pain. She outlived him for only six years.

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64
The idea of ​​this concerto arose during the summer of 1838. He wrote to his friend the violinist Ferdinand David: "I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace." But the project did not get off the ground until 1844, during family vacations in an idyllic place near Frankfurt when, in Felix's words, he only intended "... to eat and sleep, without tails, without a piano, without business cards, without carriages or jobs, but with donkeys, field flowers, ruled paper, sketchbook, Cécile and children."
But the concerto running through his head was mightier.
The premiere took place on March 13, 1845, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, conducted by a Mendelssohn's fellow as the composer was too weak to do so.

Movements
The piece is in three movements, which follow on from each other without a pause:
00:00  Allegro molto appassionato (the movement that has made it famous)
13:30  Andante
20:52  Allegreto non troppo - allegro molto vivace...

The rendition is by the American violinist Hilary Hahn, accompanied by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the Estonian-born director Paavo Järvi.

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Liszt - Paganini, "La Campanella"

Notable must have been her surprise when Carolyne de Saint-Cricq, a fourteen-year-old aristocrat girl, saw her piano teacher, Franz Liszt, enter the music room, barely a year older than her. The preteen, famous pianist, was returning from a tour of England, France and Switzerland. He had just lost his father, which forced him to become the provider of the short family – he and his mother – giving lessons to aristocratic girls and upper bourgeoisie ladies, in Paris in 1826.

As expected, Carolyne, the daughter of a minister of Carlos X, fell in love quickly with his young teacher, and the young teacher with her. It was love "at first lesson" but with no successful outcome. Anticipating fatal consequences, the minister ended the lessons and the music. Franz fell into depression but then managed to get away from his first – and perhaps unique – love setback. Soon, he was able to continue his successful tours throughout Europe, reaping applause everywhere. Carolyne got married, meanwhile.

Listening to Paganini
Shortly before finding true love in the person of Marie d'Agoult, the young teacher had the opportunity to attend in 1832 a concert presented by the Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini at the Paris Opera. For Franz, the experience was a first-rate one, and he decided to work intensely on his instrument with resolute determination to achieve the amazing excellence shown by the Italian devil with the violin.

Listening to Chopin
Fortunately, within a few months, Liszt went to the Pleyel Hall to listen to a colleague, another young man who was only one year older than him, a Polish, Frédérik Chopin. There he realized that the mere display of the mastery of an instrument was not enough, and that it was also possible to invent an intimate world on the keyboard of a piano. And he understood that if Paganini composed for his violin, he should aim to write for the piano.

Six Études
In the "Six Grandes Études de Paganini", from 1838, Franz Liszt fully fulfilled that purpose. In the Étude No. 3, nicknamed La Campanella, based on a theme from Paganini's Second Violin Concerto, Liszt dared to respond to the diabolic writing of the Italian with a work that, beyond mere virtuosity, constitutes an overwhelming achievement for the intrinsic value of the resulting music.

The rendition is by the Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.

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Chopin, Grande Vals Brillante, op 18

Frédérik Chopin composed his first waltz when he was 19 years old. In total, between 1829 and 1847 he composed fourteen waltzes, six of which were published only after his death.
Naturally, or so it seems now, these pieces are not made to be danced, but that was not so clear in the first half of the nineteenth century. And Chopin had to make it explicit, demanding that "they were not danced, because they are not intended for it," he notes in a letter to one of his editors.

Nor did he like they were considered "lounge music." And with good reason, since it is useless to look in  Chopin's waltzes for the charm of the Viennese waltzes. During his stay in Vienna, he said in a letter to a friend "I don't have anything it takes to imitate Strauss or Lanner."

However, the pianist, director and great Franco-Swiss pedagogue Alfred Cortot (1877 - 1962) manages to distinguish three styles in this long series of waltzes that get through almost all of Frédérik's musical existence.
There are the "allusive" waltzes in which the musical form languishes before the poetry they contain; the waltzes that oh, surprise! Cortot himself calls "lounge waltzes" with Chopin's forgiveness, destined to the listeners' reverie; and, last but not least, the "bright" waltzes that, following Cortot, open the way to the evocation of dance halls where couples spin, vehemently, despite Frédérik's wishes.

Grande Vals Brillante, Opus 18
The Grande Vals Brillante in E-flat (designation of the editor) of Opus 18, is the first to be edited but was composed at least after another five, in Paris, in 1834. It is probably one of the best known and most popular, for the public, and a small jewel suitable for displaying a comfortable show, for pianists. A biographer of Chopin aptly describes it as "piafante" and "tufted". Its conclusion, high brilliant, peaks an accelerando that would leave breathless those who, bold and naive, would think of dancing.

The rendition is by the Russian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.