Brahms, Ballades from Op 10, Nos 1 & 2

The four ballads of the opus 10 were written by Brahms shortly after he met the Schumann family in Düsseldorf, which at that time, 1853, consisted of Robert, Clara, and seven children. On the occasion, the good-natured Schumann openly praised the talented 20-year-old. Clara was not far behind, and recorded in her diary that Brahms "seemed to have been sent to them directly by God".

Johannes and Clara

Brahms was trying to make a career, and Robert Schumann would become his mentor, although only for a short time, for Robert would die only three years later. In the meantime, Johannes and Clara will establish a communion of ideas and interests very close to a sentimental relationship, although Brahms would have liked to go further. Three months before Robert's death, in 1856, while Robert was bedridden in an asylum for the mentally ill, Brahms wrote to Clara:

My Beloved Clara,

I wish I could write to you as tenderly as I love you and tell you all the good things that I wish you. You are so infinitely dear to me, dearer than I can say. I should like to spend the whole day calling you endearing names and paying you compliments without ever being satisfied. ...If only things could go further than they are right now... If only I could live in the same city with you and my parents... write me a beautiful letter soon. Your letters are like kisses.

One would think that Brahms was definitely in love. Clara responded, we believe, as far as respect for the memory of her beloved Robert allowed. The epistolary relationship would continue until their deaths, which occurred, barely a year apart, forty years later.

Johannes Brahms, in his twenties
(1833 - 1897)

The Ballades from Opus 10

It is said that they were composed eager to show the musical world (including Robert and Clara) the progress achieved in his mastery of the piano up to that moment -remember that Clara was an extraordinary pianist. The composer is 21 years old and has only composed works in which the piano is the mainstay (solo, voice, and piano, also a trio with piano). The ballades, four short pieces that form a unit, will prepare him mentally for the approach of major works. Brahms would not take up this form, the ballad, until very late, in the third of his Six Piano Pieces of 1892, dedicated, by the way, to Clara Schumann.

The first of these four pieces, Ballad No. 1 in D minor, is inspired by a Scottish poem, "Edward", of no little dramatic content as it deals with a patricide, committed by that very Edward. It is the only piece of the set with a "programmatic" character. In keeping with the nature of the tragedy, the piece ends in the greatest stillness, but in the key of D major. It is in this key that Ballade No. 2 will come to life.

Dated 1854, the set is dedicated to his friend composer and conductor Julius Otto Grimm.

The performance is by the highly talented Chinese pianist Yuja Wang.

Chopin, Variations on a theme by Mozart - "Là ci darem la mano"

 
" Hats off gentlemen: a genius! Listening to these variations, I imagined that unknown eyes were opening before me [...] At various moments ... I thought I could perceive Mozart's Là ci darem through a hundred linked chords... Don Juan was flying before me in his white cloak."

The words are Robert Schumann's. He wrote them in 1831 after hearing in Leipzig the variations that a young musician, whom he did not know and whose name was Chopin, had composed on Mozart's duet, Là ci darem la mano, from the first act of the opera Don Giovanni.

From then on, there were countless occasions when Robert Schumann enthusiastically praised Chopin's compositions and his ability to make prodigious sounds emerge from the piano. But the young Polish musician, only three months older than Schumann (both, 21 years), never reciprocated the enthusiasm of his German admirer. And the ardent words already transcribed seemed to him exaggerated, even for laughter:

“I received a few days ago a ten-page review from a German in Kassel who is full of enthusiasm for [the variations]. After a long-winded preface, he proceeds to analyze them bar by bar, explaining that they are not ordinary variations but a fantastic tableau. In the second variation he says that Don Giovanni runs around with Leporello; in the third he kisses Zerlina while Massetto’s rage is pictured in the left hand—and in the fifth bar of the Adagio he declares that Don Giovanni kisses Zerlina on the D-flat…I could die of laughing at this German’s imagination.”

Ah, well. Chopin was never known for patronizing his fellow musicians. And he always viewed praise with disdain. On the other hand, it must also be clearly established that he was never proud to express an opinion about his own music. It is not surprising then that so much praise seemed unconscionable to him.

The Variations

In addition to his two concertos, Chopin included the orchestra in only three of his compositions. And in these variations – the composer's first work for piano and orchestra, written at the age of 17 – the contribution of the orchestral ensemble is precarious, almost limited to providing a "refrain" between variation and variation. For the same reason, the composer will later dispense with the orchestral accompaniment by presenting the work as a piece for solo piano.

Dedicated to his friend Titus Woyciechowski, it was successfully premiered in Vienna in August 1829 with Chopin at the piano, during his first visit, from July to August of that year.

Sections:
00:00  Introduction: Largo / 04:55  Theme: Allegretto / 06:29  Variation 1 / 07:30  Variation 2 / 08:33  Variation 3 / 10:03  Variation 4 / 10:49  Variation 5 / 11:39  Adagio / 14:27  Coda: Alla polacca.

The version is by eighteen-year-old South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim, the youngest person to win a gold medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Mozart, "Là ci darem la mano", duettino

We know that the premiere of Don Giovanni, in Prague, in October 1787, was a success with the public and critics. The same did not happen in Vienna, the following year, although Mozart introduced some changes to please the Viennese spirit. It was not enough. Apparently, the more conservative Viennese of the time did not see favorably that the work ended with the protagonist being punished by death, however libertine he might be. After all, Don Juan was a nobleman, and the storming of the Bastille was a year and a little more away...

Duetinno "Là ci darem la mano"
For the Viennese premiere, Mozart added, removed, and modified arias, in accordance with the singers' specific abilities in the piazza. But one duet remained untouched.
It is the duet (rather, duettino) Là ci darem la mano, one of Mozart's most famous baritone and soprano (or mezzo) duets, sung in the first of the opera's two acts, and commissioned for Don Giovanni and Zerlina, the latter the fiancée of Masetto, a peasant.

"There we will hold hands."
Don Giovanni has fallen in love with Zerlina, as soon as he sees her. And he manages to drive Masetto away, after offering the couple his castle to celebrate the wedding there. With Masetto out of the picture, Don Giovanni begins the display of his amatory arts, assuring Zerlina that "there [in the castle] we will hold hands", and then he will hear from her, a yes. The seducer advances in his conquest at a steady pace. Zerlina is about to be captivated when Doña Elvira enters the scene, who will snatch her from the arms of the dissolute Giovanni, whom she knows well.

Duettino and not duet the piece is marked. And that is because it is not much of a duet if by duet we mean simultaneous singing. Indeed, the two voices only come together at the end, after Zerlina intones Andiam...! (5:15). Previously, Giovanni has intoned his text to seduce, Zerlina hers, showing her confusion.

Variations and fantasies

The piece, which does not exceed four minutes in length, encouraged a good number of composers to write variations or fantasies on it, commissioned to different instruments. There are variations for piano, clarinet, oboe, English horn, guitar... The most popular is Chopin's opus 2, from 1827, in its versions for solo piano and orchestrated. Beethoven, Berlioz, and Liszt, are other renowned authors who were also captivated by Mozart's duettino.

The performance is by American baritone Rodney Gilfry and Romanian mezzo soprano Liliana Nikiteanu. The video includes the prolegomena of Don Juan's seduction and Zerlina's confusion. Please excuse the abrupt ending.

Paisiello, Il Barbiere di Siviglia - Cavatina

On February 16, 1816, four months before his death, followers and supporters of Giovanni Paisiello decided to attend the premiere of Rossini's The Barber of Seville with the purpose of creating riots and causing the opera to fail. They were angry with Rossini. More than thirty years ago Paisiello had premiered in St. Petersburg an opera based on Beaumarchais' famous comedy, with great success, the first of all previous adaptations. The work toured Europe with similar acclaim. Its title was: Il Barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La Precauzione inutile.

So when his supporters saw in Rome the announcement of a work entitled Almaviva o sia La inutile precauzione with music by Gioacchino Rossini they had reason to be outraged. They felt that Maestro Rossini had not worn himself out in search of a novel topic but had merely worked comfortably on a tried-and-true work. That's why they were angry. And they got their way, Rossini's premiere turned out to be a failure.

Giovanni Paisiello
(1740 - 1816)

Paisiello versus Rossini
This was not the case with the following performances. But if Rossini's work is the most performed opera to this day, it is no less true that in its time it had to struggle arduously with Paisiello's work. Despite all the time that had elapsed since its premiere in September 1782, Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia was more popular than Rossini's work for a significant period of time. Rossini would eventually surpass it, but that would not happen until the middle of the 19th century. Paisiello's opera will disappear from the stage, but not completely from the world music scene.

Cavatina "Saper bramate"
In the first act, the Count of Almaviva sings a serenade to Rosina, introducing himself to her as Lindoro, a poor student. The cavatina, which begins with the words Se il mio nome saper bramate (something like "If my name you long to know"), is one of the surviving arias from Paisiello's opera. Moreover, the piece took on a new air since the insightful Stanley Kubrick included it in the soundtrack of Barry Lindon, in an instrumental version, to accompany the scene shown in the image that heads this article: the Lindon family makes music while the father, disengaged from home, goes around town visiting gambling houses.

The video has been created with scenes from the film.

Chopin, Waltz Opus 70 No 2

With the city occupied by the Russians, the cultural life of Warsaw around 1830 did not compare to that of Vienna or Paris, but it was not so poor either. At the theater, one could attend performances of Racine, Moliére, or Shakespeare. In music, Chopin did not miss any of the ten performances Paganini gave there.
He also listened to his colleagues Hummel, Rossini, and some ladies, such as the Polish pianist Maria Szymanowska, and his French colleague Anne Caroline de Belleville, only two years his senior, on tour in Warsaw. Of course, all this was before the November uprising, which inspired Chopin's "Revolutionary" Etude.

Anne Caroline de Belleville had been a talented pupil of Czerny's and had attracted the attention of Beethoven. She was also compared with Clara Wieck, favourably. In a letter to a friend, Chopin speaks of her in very good terms: "Here is also a certain Mlle Belleville, French, who plays the piano very well, with much grace and elegance". We know that Chopin was not at all fond of complimenting colleagues, so we must assume that Mlle Belleville, called Ninette in private, must have been a remarkable performer.

Anne Caroline de Belleville
French pianist (1808 - 1880)

A little waltz
Ten years after writing these words, having already become in Paris the famous pianist and composer we admire today, Chopin sent Ninette a "little waltz", dedicated to her and for her own exclusive pleasure, as he did not wish to see it published. And so he tells her:

"As for the little waltz I had the pleasure of writing for you, I beg you to keep it. I do not wish it to be published. But I would like to hear it played by you, dear lady, and to attend one of your elegant réunions, in which you wonderfully perform such great masters as Mozart, Beethoven and Hummel, who were the masters of us all. The adagio by Hummel which I heard you play a few years ago in Paris, at the house of Mr. Erard, still resounds in my ears; and I assure you that in spite of the great concerts offered here, there is little piano music that can make me forget the pleasure of having listened to you that evening."

Waltz Opus 70 No 2

The little waltz, dated 1842, was finally published, in 1855, six years after the death of its author. It is one of the three waltzes of opus 70, and one of the six (of the total of fourteen) waltzes published posthumously. Given its incomparable and simple beauty, it is surprising that Chopin did not want to see it published. But... he also wanted to throw his Fantasie Impromptu on the bonfire.

The performance is by eight-year-old Anne-Laure Bride-Lanoë, in a 2010 performance at the Salle Pleyel, Paris.