Chopin, Nocturne Opus 32 No 1

In 1837, after meeting in Dresden and sharing pleasantly for fifteen days, Frederick and Maria Wodzinska – the young Polish woman with whom he had thought to lead a life together – saw their relationship coming to an end. That summer Chopin waited in vain for an invitation to spend the season again with the Wodzinski family, but the offer never came. What did arrive but to the mother's ears, was the rumor about Chopin's incurable illness.

The favored
But in Paris life went on. And some of his colleagues, Franz Liszt, for example, were having a wonderful time. That same year Cosima Liszt was born, the fruit of Liszt's relationship with Countess Marie d'Agoult. (Many years later, Cosima would marry Richard Wagner, after leaving her husband, the conductor Hans von Büllow, but that is another story).

Chopin, a water-color painting,
by Maria Wodzinska

The unfavored
And those who were not having a good time, faced the definitive end. It's the case of the Irish pianist and composer John Field, "inventor" of the nocturne form, who died that year in Moscow, on January 23, at the age of 55. Creator of short pieces, sort of reveries or meditations, he liked to accompany his rather tender melodic lines with arpeggios, or broken chords of the left hand. Chopin was inspired by them, of course, and will give soul, heart, and life to this new form, somewhat weak at first, devised by Field.

A tribute?
Who knows if in 1837 Chopin learned of the death of his "master" in the genre. And who knows whether, if so – although the nocturne is dedicated to a pupil – perhaps Chopin did want to pay tangential homage to Field with this simple piece, a quiet, brief romanza, just as his inspirer warned that the nocturnes should be.

Nocturne Opus 32 No 1 in B major
It's initially marked andante sostenuto and is in 4/4 meter. The piece transitions to adagio in the last two measures, un interruption that, as a foreground Chopin's desire, makes the music speaks, according to some scholars.
The performance is by Dutch pianist Arthur Jussen, at the end of a concert.

Ravel, Piano Concerto for the left hand

Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, older brother of Ludwig, the philosopher, had a psychological constitution that today we would call very typical of a resilient personality. A very good pianist, he returned from the Russian front during World War I without his right arm. An unfortunate loss, of course. But against all odds, he decided to continue his career at all costs. To this end, he engaged in a sustained campaign asking composers of the time for works to be performed on the piano with only the left hand.

A difficult customer
Wittgenstein, however, was not an easy client to please. For example, he rejected music written by Richard Strauss and Sergei Prokofiev. To the latter, he returned his Fourth Piano Concerto with a note that read something like thank you very much but I do not understand a single note of your concerto and do not intend to play it. Maurice Ravel did not fare so badly. At least Wittgenstein did not reject the work although he claimed that it was necessary to modify to a significant extent the Concerto in D major, requested in the spring of 1929 and completed in nine months. Ravel would not allow it.

Giving in
He could not afford it. Ravel was 55 years old, he was a celebrity in Europe and three years ago he had made a worldwide hit with the brilliant Bolero, which, by the way, had the curious virtue of surprising the composer himself.

So Wittgenstein, somewhat reluctant (he did not like the long cadenza that opens the work), was forced to premiere the Concerto in D major for the left hand just as Ravel had written it. It was the least he could do, to give in. To fulfill the commission from the "handicapped" pianist, Ravel had suspended the creative work on his Concerto in G, a long-standing desire of the composer, although it seems that at times he worked on both simultaneously.

Paul Wittgenstein (1887 - 1961)

The subsequent enthusiasm
Despite Wittgenstein's initial reluctance (perhaps he was not initially enthusiastic about the jazz-like rhythmic and harmonic nods it presents), he eventually "loved" the work. And everyone else too: today it has become the most famous of all compositions ever written for the left hand.

Premiere and musical structure
Its premiere took place in Vienna on January 5, 1932, accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted not by Ravel but by the French conductor Robert Heger.
With a length of about twenty minutes, opinions about its structure are divided. Some argue that it consists of a single movement. Others say two, but linked. A third claims that as opposed to the usual fast - slow - fast, the concerto shows three sections: slow - fast - slow. The latter is undoubtedly true. It is also true that to dare to play it, one must be a first-rate virtuoso.

The performance is by the French pianist Hélene Tysman, accompanied by the Orchestra of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, conducted by Nicolas Pasquet.

With this performance, the pianist passed her graduation exam.

Richard Wagner, "Siegfried Idyll"

 
After three years wandering from one creditor to another, selling and reselling the royalties from his works, Richard Wagner found the peace of mind he so sorely missed thanks to the royal offices of a 19-year-old monarch, Ludwig II of Bavaria, who in 1864 cancelled all the composer's debts and purchased the copyrights to The Ring of the Nibelung. Among other benefits, he installed him in a comfortable villa just a few minutes from the palace.

Hans and Cosima
The conductor Hans von Büllow arrived there, summoned by Wagner to assist him in one more of his ambitious musical projects, which were now coming to life under the auspices of the adolescent king. The famous conductor arrived in the company of his wife Cosima, the natural daughter of Franz Liszt and Countess Marie d'Agoult. The couple and the composer had known each other long before, it was not the first time they had spent time in Wagner's company, but this time it was different.

Cosima and Richard

Richard and Cosima Wagner.
Photograph, 1872

Cosima seemed unhappy in her marriage and soon fell under Richard's sway. After six years of extramarital affairs, Cosima, 32, and Richard, 56, made their holy vows in August 1870. By this time, they had already conceived three children. The last was named Siegfried, born in 1869.

A symphonic gift

On 24 December 1870, Cosima turned 33. The couple had been living in the villa Tribschen on Lake Lucerne since they moved there as a couple in 1866. Wagner decided to greet the birth of his last child and Cosima's first birthday as his legitimate wife in a special way.

A small group of musicians set up on the entrance staircase and woke Cosima up with the first bars of a short chamber piece composed a few weeks earlier, entitled, for the occasion, "Symphonic Birthday Gift". Cosima noted in her diary that new and wonderful music had roused her from her sleep.

The Siegfried Idyll

Originally, the work was not intended for publication, but due to financial difficulties, Wagner was forced to publish it in 1878, under the title Siegfried Idyll. The charming piece, lasting no more than twenty minutes, is one of the composer's few symphonic works. Its themes were, predictably, incorporated into the 1876 opera Siegfried.

The performance is by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Donald Runnicles.

Telemann, Concerto for Flute and Violin

During his long life, the self-taught musician Georg Philipp Telemann had enough time to publish three autobiographies, the first at the age of 37 in 1718. Two more followed, in 1729 and 1739. Thanks to them, it can be stated with some certainty that his output came to total around 3,600 works. An astonishing output, to say the least, if we remember that Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the most prolific musicians in the history of music, produced in a similar lifespan "barely" 1,200, although in this case it must be borne in mind that much of his music was lost or simply remained uncatalogued. 

The craft
Telemann composed without correction, almost spontaneously. His friend Handel went so far as to say that he could compose a motet as easily as everybody else could write a letter. Such spontaneity, of course, meant that at certain periods of his life his output bordered on routine work, a circumstance that was otherwise common to most of his contemporary colleagues. So none of this, we believe, must have troubled the composer greatly.

A wide reception
Regarded as the most significant representative of the North German school in the first half of the 18th century, his music is essentially simple and natural (shall we say, spontaneous), so it was guaranteed to reach a wide audience. As is evident from the three autobiographical versions as a whole, the author was convinced that those who wanted to reach a wide audience had to write better than those who addressed a cultured minority.

G.P. Telemann (1681 - 1767)

Diversity of genres
Given the ecclesiastical posts that allowed him to live, his output is primarily of a religious nature. However, this did not prevent him from venturing into almost all genres. His instrumental output abounds in overtures, concertos, fantasies, and fugues for almost all solo instruments.

Concerto for flute and violin in E minor, TWV 52:e3
(TWV: Telemann Werke Verzeichnis, Telemann's catalogue of works)(52:e3: the third work in E minor (e) in the set of pieces catalogued under No. 52)

Published in 1768, a year after his death, the concerto is in five movements in the sequence: fast - slow - fast - slow - fast, although the first movement has no tempo indication. Like all baroque concertos, it is short, lasting no more than ten minutes.

Movements:

00 [Allegro]

03:12  Adagio

05:32  Presto

06:53  Adagio

07:42  Allegro

The central movement, presto, links with the very short adagio without interruption, a sort of link with the allegro finale. Although this is a double concerto, it is the violin that takes the lead: the flute does not participate in the presto.

The rendition is by the New York-based REBEL Ensemble for Baroque Music.

Chopin, Nocturne Op 55 No 1

 
The last concert Chopin gave in Paris took place on February 16, 1848. A week later the insurrection known as the February Revolution broke out and ended with the fall of King Louis Philippe, who hurried across the English Channel to Newhaven under an assumed name, Mr. Smith. But Mr. Smith did not flee alone, he took with him part of the aristocracy and with it a good number of Chopin's pupils.

Alone, in Paris
George Sand was not there either. The relationship had long since ended (not for the best, by the way). So Chopin was alone in a Paris bristling with barricades, and without students. Fortunately, he had a relationship with one of them, a student, a Scottish national, who was not interested in running away anywhere. On the contrary, Jane Stirling wanted to stay close to her master, with whom she was apparently in love.

Great Britain
The lady, six years Chopin's senior, invited him to Britain. Nothing kept Chopin in Paris, so in mid-April, he packed his bags and arrived in London on the 21st. He stayed on the island (he also visited Scotland) until November of that year, giving a few concerts and taking a couple of pupils, nothing significant. He returned to Paris without a penny. He had less than a year to live.

Nocturnes from opus 55
Composed between 1842-44, they were published in August 1844, dedicated to his enthusiastic Scottish pupil, Jane Stirling. Two nocturnes make up the opus: No. 1 in F minor, and No 2 in E flat major.
No 1, with its ternary structure (theme, second theme, return to the first theme), has a melodic line of extreme simplicity. Perhaps, for this reason, it is the more popular of the two. That's why it has also been included in the soundtrack of a couple of films.

The rendition is by the Israeli pianist Tzvi Erez.