Beethoven, Sonata Kreutzer

The notable violinist George Bridgetower was a mulatto musician. His father, who claimed to be the son of an African prince, was probably born in Barbados, and his mother came from the historic region of Suavia, now Germany. The racial amalgam made George tall, handsome, besieged by the opposite sex, and therefore lucky in love affairs.

George had spent the last decade of the century of enlightenment showing his genius through all the theaters of London and the south of England, offering nearly fifty concertos greatly applauded. In 1803 he traveled to Vienna and met Beethoven, who immediately recognized his talent to the point that they played together at least once. In view of the occasion, George suggested to Beethoven to compose a sonata for violin and piano, to be released by both, when the occasion arises.

Interested in finding out the greatness of the young mulatto, Ludwig agreed. To make things easier, he borrowed the last movement of a previous sonata, added a new slow movement and a very difficult allegro, and handed them to George on the day before the performance.

On the morning of May 24, 1803, the prestigious Augarten Pavilion on the outskirts of Vienna was brimming with influential personalities and art lovers. Shortly after the sonata had started, at bar 35, George dismissed an indication for the piano to repeat a passage and, in front of a stupefied Ludwig, he tackled the repetition with his violin, playing it without blemish. Contrary to what might be expected, Ludwig got up from the stool and walked over to George, hugging him, excited. (This scene, which may seem unusual and not very credible, is completely plausible for that time, as musical evenings did not have the solemnity that distinguishes them today).

George Bridgetower (1779 - 1860)

Tradition tells that afterwards, while they were celebrating the premiere and the successful performance with a lively chatting and Viennese musts, Ludwig announced to the mulatto violinist that he would dedicate the sonata to him. Right there, before an exultant George, Ludwig wrote in the score: Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer.

When it came the time for the third bottle, the conversation took its natural course and drifted towards the eternal feminine. Excited by the twist, George relaxed and made a discourteous comment about a lady who happened to be a friend of Beethoven. The maestro stood up indignant and tore the manuscript from George, announcing that he had changed his mind and preferred to dedicate it to who was at that time the best violinist in the world: the Frenchman Rudolphe Kreutzer.

As much as George begged, Beethoven did not budge an inch. They said goodbye resentful, perhaps warned that they would never see each other again.

The best violinist in the world received the manuscript shortly after, in Paris. As soon as he saw it, he commented that the piece was untouchable: Beethoven does not understand the violin, he said. A man of honor, Kreutzer never performed in public the piece dedicated to him.

Sonata Kreutzer - Mov. 1
Sonata No. 9 for violin and piano, known today as the Kreutzer Sonata, is in three movements and takes about 40 minutes to complete. The first movement is presented here in the release of a very young and beautiful Martha Argerich at the piano, accompanied by the Latvian-born violinist, Gidon Kremer. The video offers an annotated analysis.

The picture at the top of these lines (painted by René Prinet, 1901) is inspired by the novel The Kreutzer Sonata, published by Leon Tolstoi in 1899. The novel took its title from Beethoven's sonata and was censored by the Russian authorities of the time.

Arturo Marquez, Danzón No 2

 
As Erik Satie did in his time (Trois Morceaux en forme de Poire), the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez Navarro was used to fiddle around with the titles of his works. Examples are the Leyenda de Miliano, a nice name to title a piece paying homage to Emiliano Zapata, and La Pasión según Marcos (because of the Subcomandante, from the Zapatist Army, I suppose).

Born in Sonora, Mexico, in 1950, Arturo Márquez arrived at the age of ten in Los Angeles, California, in 1960, by the hand of his parents (otherwise, he would not have arrived). There he forged his first ties with music and at sixteen he had already written his first pieces. Today he is a worldwide recognized author, whose work shows variety, richness and an indisputable craft, the product of his vast walk through various musical paths: first, it was the piano, the violin and the trombone, then jazz and rock; to all this, he added a musical education in France and at the California Institute of the Arts.

As a scholar and connoisseur of the popular music of Mexico, he has been able to incorporate its essence into his symphonic works without falling into nationalist or "folkloric" allusions. His most popular work is Danzón N° 2, whose inspiration came after a trip to Malinanco, in the south of the State of Mexico, in the company of a friendly couple, passionate lovers of danzón.

In his own words:

"From these experiences I begin to learn their rhythms, their form and their melodic contours by listening to the old recordings of Acerina and his Danzonera, and to my fascination, I understand that the apparent lightness of the danzón is only a letter of introduction to a music full of sensuality and qualitative rigor that our old Mexicans continue to live with nostalgia and joy as an escape into their emotional world, which fortunately we can still see in the embrace that music and dance are given in Veracruz and in the halls of the city of Mexico. Danzón N ° 2 is a tribute to that atmosphere that nurtures it. [...] Danzón No. 2 was composed thanks to a commission from the Directorate of Musical Activities of the UNAM and is dedicated to my daughter Lily."

The Danzón
It is a rhythm and a dance of Cuban origin created by the Matanzas composer Miguel Failde, back in 1879, born from another Cuban genre, the danza, a variation of the Spanish contradanza. In Cuba, it is performed with wind instruments, flute, violins, timpani and Cuban percussion.

The danzón arrived in Mexico around 1890, staying first in Yucatán, and later spreading to other areas. Very shortly after, it enjoyed great popularity in Mexico, thanks to the influx of Cuban musicians such as the Orquesta Aragón, Benny Moré and Acerina and his Danzonera.

The rendition is by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, conducted by its founder and artistic director, Alondra de la Parra, born in New York in 1980.

Chopin, Fantaisie in F minor

The Fantaisie in F minor is one of those "diverse works" by Chopin that do not fit into a renowned traditional structure. Among them, for example, there is a barcarole, a lullaby and even a Spanish bolero. Chopin called the work a "fantasy", a title that best accommodates to a free composition, with unforeseen changes in tonality, texture and rhythm, and passages that seem to be aimed for improvisation.

Upon returning from Mallorca, 1839
On his return from the unfortunate adventure in Mallorca with George Sand and her children, the curious family spent the summer together in Nohant. Afterwards, Chopin returned to Paris. So did his lover.
In October 1839, Sand, Solange and Maurice settled in a two-pavilion residence at 16 Rue Pigalle. The same did Frédérik at number 5 Rue Tronchet, relatively close to Sand, whose home had become for him a substitute for the family home.

But it was not long before Frédérik felt uncomfortable in his new quarters, which seemed dark, cold, and damp. Without further ado, at the beginning of November, he took up all his belongings and moved to Rue Pigalle. In an attempt to keep up appearances, George and Solange would occupy one of the pavilions, and Frédérik and Maurice the other. Crossing a small garden you could go from one pavilion to the other.

Evenings at the Rui Pigalle
In the evenings the couple would attend theatrical performances, or go to the opera. Soirees were also offered in one pavilion or the other. At Sand's pavilion, Chopin had to share with the friends of the writer, restless politicians, saint-simonists in their majority. In Frédérik's, the attendants were exiled Poles and the novelist's artist friends, Heine and Délacroix among them; also, the musician friends: Liszt, Berlioz. If Countess Delfina Potocka (to whom Chopin dedicated the "minute waltz") was passing through Paris, she would join the group and sing, accompanied on the piano by Frédérik.

Paris, the summer of 1840
This was how life unfolded until the summer of 1840, when the couple had to stay in Paris. Sand had not done well with her latest drama, Cosima, so there was no money to pay for her stay in Nohant, whose way of life involved an outlay of almost four thousand francs. Chopin did not take it wrong. He just worked in Paris all that summer, intensely. If he needed a break, he just had to take a walk around the Bois de Boulogne, in the company of Solange.

Before the end of the year, the ashes of Napoleon would arrive, on December 15th. Parisians took to the streets, but Chopin did not attend. He was finishing composing the Fantaisie in F minor.

Fantasy in F minor Op. 49
After a somewhat solemn and quiet start, in tempo di marcia, we will have to wait for a seductive phrase to appear. But later on, a noble and chivalric chant will break out at 4:16, which will be the subject to repetitions, with a great display of virtuosity between them, tinged by serene intervals. At the end, after a brief moment of stillness, a cluster of arpeggios will lead to an emphatic close with two dry hits.

This Fantaisie is one of Chopin's longest pieces (11-14 min), and is considered one of his greatest works.

The rendition is by the Russian pianist, Yulianna Avdeeva, the first lady to win, in 2010, the Chopin International Competition, after Martha Argerich in 1965.

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 5

The fair copy of the scores of the Six Concertos for various instruments sent by Johann Sebastian Bach to the Margrave in Brandenburg, dated March 21, 1721, was not commissioned to a scribe but written down by the proper hands of Bach, perhaps because he took a long time in sending the concertos, or because he had not composed them especially for the occasion. A little courtesy would settle all that minutiae.

Indeed, the concertos mainly were written during Bach's sojourn as court Kapellmeister of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen between 1718 and 1720, and some were born as far back as 1713, at least in their earliest version. Furthermore, some of them were partially used by Bach, before and after 1721, in other compositions.

Christian Ludwig, the Margrave
The Margrave may have suspected that he was not the exclusive recipient, or he simply did not like the concertos, because although we are not sure that he acknowledged receipt, we do know that the Margrave filed them in his library and never had them performed by his musicians. Let us note in his defense that the number of musicians at his disposal needed to be increased.

At the death of the margrave, a list of the compositions in his possession resulted in a total of 177 works, among which were the Six Concertos that, according to some, were later sold for a ridiculous sum, or went to the possession of one of the heirs. Thus, the concertos were lost until 1849, when they were rediscovered in the archives of Brandenburg. The following year, they were published in a special edition made to commemorate the second centenary of the death of the great master of the Baroque.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
Concerto No. 5 was probably written in 1719, to celebrate the acquisition of a new harpsichord for the court of Köthen that Bach had just made in Berlin. Three instruments have outstanding soloist participation: the flute, the violin, and the harpsichord, the latter standing out at the end of the first movement with a solo that announces the cadenza of the future concertos for solo instrument and orchestra.

Movements:
It is in three movements, following the traditional Vivaldian structure, fast-slow-fast:

00:00  Allegro
09:11  Affettuoso
14:59  Allegro

From the "Spiegelsaal" Castle Cöthen (Schloß Köthen), the Freiburger Barockorchester.

JS Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No 3

As he himself confesses, Johann Sebastian Bach was not quite diligent in complying with the request of the Margrave of Brandenburg, who had asked him a couple of years ago for some pieces to perform with his court's musicians.

Perhaps this explains the language overloaded with humility with which on March 24, 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote – in French, according to custom – the dedication of the Six Concertos for several instruments addressed to Monsignor Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, transcribed below:

"Since I had a few years ago, the good luck of being heard by Your Royal Highness, by virtue of his command, & that I observed then, that He took some pleasure in the small talents that Heaven gave me for Music, & that in taking leave of Your Royal Highness, He wished to make me the honor of ordering to send Him some pieces of my Composition: I therefore according to his very gracious orders, took the liberty of giving my very-humble respects to Your Royal Highness, by the present Concertos, which I have arranged for several Instruments; praying Him very-humbly to not want to judge their imperfection, according to the severity of fine and delicate taste, that everyone knows that He has for musical pieces …
I very humbly beg Your Royal Highness, to have the goodness to maintain his kind favour toward me, and to be persuaded that I have nothing more at heart than to be able to be employed in some opportunities more worthy of Him and of his service … "

The words, highly condescending, are those that match, of course, the manners of a servant addressing a personality of the category of the "Margrave", the title in Spanish for Markgraf, equivalent to marquis.

It would be natural to suppose that the Margrave did receive the concertos. What is not in doubt is that he did not acknowledge receipt. Furthermore, the concertos were never performed in his court. A serious disregard for the maestro, arguably, but the fact is that the Baroque's master did not burn his eyelashes to make his gift to the Margrave either: from those who he already had written he chose six, made some changes and sent them accompanied of the thoughtful dedication heading this article.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major (BWV 1048)
The six concerts that make up the collection – which we now know as the Brandenburg Concertos – are written for different instruments. The third of them, the most popular of the entire series (as well as the shortest: less than 9 min), is composed for solo violin accompanied by strings and basso continuo. Written in three movements, the second, Adagio, consists of a single measure with only two chords, apparently intended for solo improvisation.

Movements:
0:00  Allegro
5:34  Adagio
5:45  Allegro

The rendition is by the Early Music ensemble Voices of Music, performed on original instruments.