Chopin, Rondo a la mazur, opus 5

 
Some scholars speculate that Chopin was especially fond of the number four since he composed four ballades, four scherzos, four impromptus, and four rondos. But we must attribute it to pure chance because next to this undeniable count are the twenty nocturnes, the twenty-seven etudes, the fourteen waltzes, the twenty-six preludes, the fifty-seven mazurkas and a very long etcetera that has nothing to do with the aforementioned number.

Paris, 1832: nocturnes instead rondos
But it is also true that, as far as the production of rondos is concerned, Chopin wrote the fourth and last of them in 1832, when he was only 22 years old. Having just settled in Paris, it is likely that his audience, that of the salons of the rising bourgeoisie and fading aristocracy, rather than typically "classical" musical forms, would have celebrated with greater enthusiasm his more melodious and novel nocturnes or preludes, with which Chopin was establishing his most genuine musical personality in the composition of pieces with an intimate character.

Rondo a la mazur op 5 in F major
The rondo a la mazur (that is, in the style of a mazurka, a typically Polish dance) is the second rondo written by Chopin. At the time, 1826, the author was sixteen years old, was living with his parents and sisters in Warsaw and was about to take his maturitas – Latin exam to become a bachelor – which would open the doors to the university, or to the Conservatory. Chopin would prefer the latter. At the recently opened Warsaw Conservatory he would have lessons in harmony, counterpoint and composition, because his piano teacher, the violinist and harpsichordist Wojcieh Zwyny, had no more to teach him by the time Chopin turned twelve.

Published in 1827, the work is dedicated to his pupil Countess Alexandrine de Moriolles. (Indeed, Chopin had pupils at the age of sixteen.) Quite demanding, it presents two contrasting themes, lively and graceful the first over a mazurka rhythm, quiet and cantabile the second (1:35). The piece closes with a brilliant finale.

The performance is by Bulgarian pianist Evgeny Bozhanov, while participating in the International Chopin Competition, in Warsaw, 2010.

Chabrier, "España", a rhapsody for orchestra

As has already been said on this site on other occasions, there have always been "minor" musicians. The 19th century was rich in them, perhaps due to the popularization of music in that century. Although they were talented composers who earned their living as musicians, a scarce production, or simply the absence of dazzling genius, kept them on the periphery, at the rear of the great masters. However, as in any hierarchy, it also happened that among the "minor" musicians, some were more so than others, that is to say, even more minor.

Chabrier, a "minor" musician

This is the case, with all due respect, of the composer Emmanuel Chabrier, born in Ambert, France, in 1841, and author of España, a rhapsody for orchestra that became very popular in its time. Composed in 1883 after Chabrier spent a few months in the peninsula, España is part of the widespread tendency of those years to compose music "a la española", or with "Spanish airs", according to a somewhat exotic vision of the Spanish reality, shared by most of the romantic or later artists (Glinka with his Jota aragonesa, Lalo and his Sinfonía española, Bizet and Carmen, Rimski-Kórsakov and the Capriccio español, Ravel and his Rapsodia española; and of course, Erik Satie, who composed his Españaña to signify his ultra "Spanishness", and mock all of the above).

Emmanuel Chabrier
(1841 - 1894)

Not so "minor"

But Chabrier, in his time, apparently was not so "minor." An author of songs, piano and orchestral works, he also wrote operas, most famously Le Roi malgré lui, whose opening bars Ravel said had changed the course of harmony in France.

Recognizing the "minor" musicians

And curiously enough, it has been these "minor" musicians who today allow us to acknowledge a certain familiarity with classical music, even if it deals with only one work.
We owe it to the media. We have had the first hearing of España and so many other works in circumstances completely alien to musical circles. The repetition makes us subsequently remember its melody, but we do not know anything else. We recognize it but completely ignore the author and his era. But there it is, recognizable, the work of the "minor" composer who has gone through, in this case, one hundred and thirty years of history and is still in good health.

España is a short work, lasting less than seven minutes, and like all rhapsodies, it has no sections, or parts.

The performance is by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Plácido Domingo.

Brahms, Variations on a Theme of Haydn

Almost twenty years after Robert Schumann's death, the Hamburg composer Johannes Brahms was still writing to Clara Schumann, the object of that ideal passion, at once so close and yet so distant. On the occasion of the premiere of his first symphonic work of maturity, the Variations on a Theme of Haydn, he wrote to Clara confessing his special predilection for this piece, which, although short and simple, brought him "greater satisfaction and pleasure" than many others.

Nine variations
Brahms was certainly fascinated by the theme appearing in the first of six divertimenti for wind instruments published in 1831 and, as was believed at the time, written by Haydn around 1800. The theme was based on an old pilgrims' song called "St. Anthony's Chorale".

Enchanted with the melody of irregular meter, Brahms built on it a set of nine variations that would become his first mature orchestral work, and whose good reception would open the way to the confidence needed to finish his First Symphony.
As usual, and for practical reasons, Brahms also wrote a version for two pianos.

Brahns, at the age of 20
(1833 -1897)

A Haydn theme?
Although Haydn's authorship of the divertimenti has been in doubt for more than fifty years - being today generally attributed to Ignaz Pleyel, a disciple of Haydn, and father of Camille, a friend of Chopin's -, current usage and recording tradition maintains the title given here and, probably, because of this, the error will be perpetuated. However, serious music lovers are accustomed to refer to the work as "St. Anthony Variations Chorale", for the sake of its seriousness.

The variations
Composed in the summer of 1873 during a stay of Brahms in a town in Bavaria, the work was premiered on November 2 of that year by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by its author, to great public and critical acclaim.

Its sections are:
00       Thme
02:24  Var 1. Poco più animato
03:40  Var 2. Più vivace
04:42  Var 3. Con moto
06:30  Var 4. Andante con moto
08:50  Var 5. Vivace
09:47  Var 6. Vivace
11:12  Var 7. Grazioso
14:29  Var 8. Presto non troppo
15:39  Finale. Andante

The rendition is by Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by Dima Slobodeniuk.

Léo Delibes: Lakmé - "Air de clochettes"

In the second half of the 19th century, Parisian aristocracy and nobility had long since abandoned the healthy custom of organizing musical evenings in their salons, as had been the norm in the previous period. With the romantic agitation also extinguished, the new ruling class, a bourgeoisie eager for culture and new knowledge, now turned to the theaters to listen to opera... not very sophisticated, mind you, a tragic love story was enough, and if set in some exotic locality, so much the better.

A romance in Tahiti
With the emergence of the travel writer in the 19th century, stories set in exotic places were counted by the dozen. Many of these globetrotters published their adventures in the form of travelogues, and there were those who published a couple of novels inspired by their experiences. The Frenchman Pierre Loti is one of them, who wrote the autobiographical novel Rarahu ou le marriage, from 1880, which narrates a romance that the author experienced in Tahiti, which ended tragically with the death of his beloved.

Léo Delibes (1836 - 1891)

Lakmé
The story enchanted the mature composer Léo Delibes, who had just been acclaimed for his masterpiece, the ballet Copellia, and decided to bring the story to the stage by producing what would be his last opera, Lakmé.

As Tahiti, a French protectorate, was not exotic enough, the action was moved to India, ruled by the British. The traveler Loti was transformed into a British officer and the girl into a Hindu priestess, Lakmé, to whom a poisonous plant will cause a poetic death, unlike the real story, which led the girl to die as a result of her alcoholism.

"Air de Clochettes"
Its premiere at the Opéra Comique de Paris, in April 1883, was a success. But the 20th century forgot it and only recently has it returned to the stage. However, two of her best-known arias are regularly performed as concert pieces: the Flower Duet, and the highly virtuosic Air de Clochettes (aria of the little bells) from Act II, intended to show off a light soprano (coloratura soprano), compelled to close the aria with an E6 (the note E in the sixth octave of the piano), at the extreme end of her register.

The brilliant performance is by the fine French soprano Natalie Dessay.

Elgar, Pomp and Circunstance, March 1

His Majesty Edward VII, by the grace of God, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the seas, defender of the faith, and emperor of India, earned that title the same day his mother, Queen Victoria, died, on January 22, 1901, after having been heir for 59 years, two months and thirteen days. For his coronation he had, likewise, to wait. It was not until August 9, 1902, that Edward ascended the throne in Westminster Abbey, where a melody composed the previous year and adapted for the occasion could have been heard if the king had not gone ill before.

The composer
The melody was the central part of a march composed by Edward Elgar, an English composer born in 1857 who had only gained fame and recognition at the age of 42, after the publication of his masterpiece, the Enigma Variations of 1899.

Having thus overcome a long period of low self-esteem, by 1901 he composed a pair of marches which on the day of their premiere were very acclaimed, the first of them being encored twice. The central section of March No. 1, the trio, would be included in the Ode composed by Elgar in 1902 for Edward's coronation, with the title Land of Hope and Glory.

Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934)

One march after another
The enthusiasm arose and in 1905 Elgar wrote a third march, in 1907 a fourth and, finally, a fifth, a little later, in 1930. The series was entitled Pomp and Circumstance, words taken from some lines of Shakespeare's Othello, although only the first march has ended up being known by that name.

March No. 1 - trio

From then until today, March No. 1 is part of the graduation ceremonies of institutes of higher education in much of the Western world. It is considered a second British anthem and closes the Proms every year. Its central section, the aforementioned trio, is one of the most popular melodies in the history of music.

The recording is by Orquesta y Coros de la Radio Televisión Española, conducted by Maestro Enrique García Ascencio (The choir sings the trio again at 5:04).