Franz Liszt: "Funerailles", for piano

Martha Argerich, 1977 recording

In 1849, the slender and handsome Franz Liszt was 38 years old. A year earlier he had abandoned his career as a concert pianist at the suggestion of his life companion, Princess Carolyne, who urged him to compose, after their union. Gone were the years when he toured Europe reaping applause, the affection of his audience, and something more. The ladies attending his "recitals" (a soloist presentation, invented by himself in 1840) fainted, the most demure ones. The others pulled each other's hair out to get hold of the handkerchief that the maestro had carelessly forgotten on the piano cover.
But none of that occupied now the master's days.

The maestro was in Weimar, teaching, conducting court concerts, and composing, besides his princess. He led a peaceful life, but in Europe, the winds of revolution were blowing, which would eventually be crushed, of course. One of these uprisings affected him personally. Two of his friends were killed and another went into exile for ten years, after the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, one of the many European revolutions of that year and the next.

Funerailles, one of the fourteen pieces that make up the Poetic and Religious Harmonies collection, was written in homage to these unfortunate friends. It is the most famous of the series.

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886), in 1847

A tribute to Chopin?
The work has a subtitle: "October 1849".
For some time, some commentators saw in it a tribute by Liszt to his friend Chopin, who died on the 17th of that month and year.
But Liszt himself denied this assertion. He assured that he did not think of Chopin at all, although, for any moderately educated listener, the work contains a couple of pieces that recall the central part of the Polonaise Heroique, including the frenetic octaves of the left hand... How could it not be?

Funerailles, for piano - Poetic Harmonies No 7
The piece lasts about ten minutes. It is made up of four sections, with three main themes that are repeated throughout the work.

00:00  Introduction
02:02  After a pause, a funeral march, which modulates into an unexpected section marked "lagrimoso" at 04:04.
06:14  Heroic war march that grows in intensity (with a diabolical left hand in octaves), until reaching the conclusion.
07:30  Conclusion. The three themes are reintroduced, with greater emphasis. But now the war march will be abruptly interrupted by some piano chords, in very marked staccato, with which the piece ends.

The rendition is by the remarkable Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, in a 1977 recording.

Muzio Clementi, Piano Concerto

Clementi, pianist, and piano-maker

The composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, proofreader, and piano maker Muzio Clementi was born in Rome but spent most of his life in England. He was taken there at the age of fourteen by a wealthy British Member of Parliament, Sir Peter Beckford, after convincing the family that the boy exuded talent and that he could lead his genius to levels of excellence under his tutelage. For many years, Muzio devoted eight or more hours a day to the harpsichord when he did not have to please Sir Peter at the soirees that the eccentric parliamentarian organized regularly at the family estate in Wiltshire; the hours of study lost at each event were made up the next day by the young Clementi applying himself to the harpsichord for twelve or fourteen hours.

Clementi & Company
Thus, the young musician who made his debut in London in 1773, at twenty-one, was an exceptionally skilled harpsichordist who soon exchanged the harpsichord for the pianoforte. This instrument captivated him to such a degree that in the middle of his life, he abandoned recitals to become a partner in a piano factory that ended up bearing his name, Clementi & Company. This successful venture transformed his life forever. If he ever left London for the continent, it was to show his virtuosity on the pianoforte and, incidentally, the virtues of the instrument he made. Muzio Clementi died rich in 1832 after a thirty-year career as a pianist and pedagogue and a twenty-five-year career as a music entrepreneur.

Muzio Clementi (1752 - 1832)

Mozarts' opinion
But this remarkable pianist of the late 18th century was not everyone's cup of tea. Mozart liked him even less. We know of the competition between the two at the court of Joseph II, which the emperor saw fit to declare a "draw" in January 1781. A gentleman's challenge. However, in a letter to his sister Nannerl the following year, Mozart did not hesitate to describe Clementi as a "charlatan, like all Italians." The question arises: why so much bitterness?

Thrilling the audience

Till before Beethoven came along, Clementi far surpassed all his contemporary colleagues, including Mozart, at least in front of audiences, in piano technique. Mozart received the respect of all professionals. Mozart was the noble and serious musician. Clementi would agitate and thrill his audience as Wolfgang never could. Along with this, students and professionals of the time studied his sonatas and sonatinas with the utmost dedication and respect. Also, his only piano concerto, of an unconventional genesis one.

Piano Concerto in C major
It was composed sometime before 1793 (Mozart had died two years earlier), but the modern orchestration belongs to another composer, Johann Baptist Schenk, who gave it instrumental form around 1796.
Two years earlier, Clementi had revised the concerto and, not satisfied with the original orchestration, condensed the piece to reduce it to a simple sonata, the Sonata in C major, Opus 33-3, probably making it easier to demand. Then. Schenk stepped in and reorchestrated it to his liking, with Clementi's permission.
Clementi probably wrote other concertos that he later transformed into sonatas, but this is the only one that has survived, thanks – in part, of course – to Schenk.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro con spirit
09:35  Adagio cantabile con grande espressione
16:49  Presto

The performance is by Italian pianist and musicologist Pietro Spada, accompanied by The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by the late Italian conductor Francesco d'Avalos.

J.S. Bach: Mass in B minor - Kyrie Eleison

The beginning of a monumental sacred work
From his post as Kantor in Leipzig, Johann Sebastian Bach long entertained the idea of applying to His Lord for a courtly title. But Frederick Augustus I, known as the Strong One, had little time to answer the notes of footmen because he was busy making love to damsels and bearing children (a brood that numbered more than the days in a year, hence his nickname). So, he simply waited, because sooner or later so much virility would have to affect the health of the monarch who finally left this world at the age of 63, in February 1733. He was succeeded by his son who, as expected, was named Frederick Augustus II. To him are addressed these restrained words, written in the handwriting of Johann Sebastian Bach:

"With the greatest devotion I present to your Royal Highness this little fruit of that skill which I have attained in the science of music, with the humblest request that you will deign to consider it not according to the imperfection of its composition, but with the most clement of eyes...and thus take me under your most powerful protection."

Bach accompanied his humble request with the offering of a "missa brevis" which, as you may have guessed, is a short mass, consisting of only two pieces of the traditional Christian liturgy: Kyrie Eleison and Gloria. They were composed during the six months of national mourning for the death of the monarch during which the public performance of music was forbidden. As the monarch was a Catholic and Bach a Lutheran, nothing was more suitable for the sacred homage than a mass, a common territory of the two doctrines, although built on the Latin texts of the Catholic liturgy.

Mass in B minor, for soloists, choirs, and orchestra
If Bach had six months for the offering, the complete Mass took the rest of his life. In 1749, a year before his death, the King's Court Composer (a title given in 1736) finished the remaining sections of the work that would become known as Mass in B minor, a timeless interdenominational work, which his son Carl Philipp Emanuel would call the "Great Catholic Mass," and which the Western world would cherish as the greatest musical construction of all time,

Sections
The work contains 27 "movements" (if the subsections or subparts are considered as such). But not all of them were written especially to integrate the mass. A good part of them are "parodies", that is, already existing original material, rewritten and given a new dimension.

The complete performance of the mass takes almost two hours, which made it difficult to perform in a traditional liturgy, whether Catholic or Lutheran. It is very likely, then, that Bach himself never heard the complete work. The first complete performance that can be attested to took place only in 1859, in Leipzig.

Kyrie eleison 1 - Chorus
The section called "Kyrie eleison" is the heart-wrenching chant that begins the work. It is a plea, in three parts, addressed once to Christ and twice to the Lord, with the English equivalent of: "Lord, have mercy".  It does not reach ten minutes in duration but it is the beginning of the greatest musical legacy of the Leipzig Kantor, a monumental sacred work that managed to transcend linguistic, confessional, and even territorial boundaries. Since 2015, Bach's Mass in B-flat has been part of the Documentary Heritage of Humanity.

The rendition is by the English Baroque Soloists and the Monteverdi Choir, conducted by the British maestro Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Beethoven, Sonata for cello and piano No 1 Yo-Yo Ma - Emanuel Ax

During May and July 1796, Beethoven was in Berlin during a concert tour in the company of Prince Lichnowsky (before they became disaffected after the prince asked Beethoven to play for his guests, French officers, in 1806).
There in Berlin, the maestro began the composition of several important works for cello and piano, among which stand out the Variations for cello and piano in G major on a work by Handel, and the valuable two Sonatas of Opus 5, dedicated to Frederick William II, King of Prussia, who apart from ruling Prussia and a few other territories, played the cello without disturbing anyone.

The "first cello"
For the time, the composition of sonatas for cello and piano had no precedent. There were no models from which to take inspiration, in the works of Haydn or Mozart. Only very recently had the instrument begun to free itself from its traditional role of basso continuo. So the court orchestra of Frederick William II, King of Prussia, had a cellist who played, quite appropriately, the role of "first cello." His name was Jean-Pierre Duport (1741 - 1818). He was Frederick William's teacher, and for him, for Jean-Pierre, the two Sonatas of Opus 5 were written, and premiered in Berlin in May or June 1796, with Beethoven at the piano.

The little snuff box
Both sonatas were published in Vienna in February 1797. As was his custom, the Bonn master sought to dedicate the work to an influential person who was in a position to repay him in some way for his work. On the occasion, the honor fell to Frederick William II, who rewarded Beethoven with a snuff box filled with gold Louis, each equivalent to twenty francs. (Thirty years later, Chopin would charge that amount for his lessons.) It remains to be seen how much gold Louis fit in the little box, but it seems to be not a stingy gift.

Sonata for cello and piano No. 1 in F major op. 5 - Movements
Cello and piano. For these instruments the sonatas are written, and in that order. That is, we understand that the soloist is the cello. However, the piano assumes here a voice of similar prominence; quite a novelty, but well, the author is a pianist.

Sonata No. 1 has only two movements, lasting approximately 25 minutes.

00:00  Adagio sostenuto - Allegro: A slow introduction, in the style of Haydn's symphonies, precedes the main theme, the allegro.

18:26  Rondo. Allegro vivace: A rondo in 6/8, much lighter in character than the first movement, with almost humorous passages, very appropriate for each performer to display his or her ease with the instrument.

On the cello, a young Yo-Yo Ma (a cellist born in Paris of Chinese descent).
At the piano, another young man, Maestro Emanuel Ax (American born in Ukraine).

Chopin, Mazurka in D major, op 33

As a respite from the great forms explored by Beethoven and his contemporaries, the first half of the 19th century witnessed the emergence of new musical forms with a more reserved, intimate character, usually destined for the fashionable instrument in the homes of the rising middle class, the piano. As never before, these miniatures allowed the exploration of an idea, a feeling, or an emotion in a short time of two or three minutes. Amidst preludes, nocturnes, and impromptus, Chopin's mazurkas, of Polish ancestry, also made their way, triumphant, into the Paris salons of the 1830s.

Three Polish folk dances merge in Chopin's mazurka: the obereck, the kujawiak, and the mazur, from which it takes its name. With a 3/4 rhythm, they can be sung, danced to, or sung while dancing, without neglecting that the accents will go on the weak beats of the measure, usually on the second, a requirement of the dance choreography. The themes are mostly his own, Chopin's own because even when the melodies are reminiscent of popular tunes, they respond mainly to the inventiveness of the Polish genius. Chopin brought popular dance to the salons but stylized and transformed into a new and unique genre.

The mazurkas of Opus 33
Throughout his life, Chopin wrote 57 mazurkas, the first at the age of fourteen, the last in the last year of his life. Four of them, in different keys, make up Opus 33, dedicated to Miss Róza Mostowska, probably a pupil, we do not know, but certainly, a lady belonging to the circles of exiled Polish aristocrats for whom literature, poetry, and music are matters of the utmost importance.

1838, the year Chopin was in danger
In one of these salons, in the late autumn of 1836, Chopin met George Sand. The master is still mourning Maria Wodzinska, but Sand is patient and wants nothing more than to come to understand with all her soul this pale and complex being, her Chopinski. In October 1838, she takes him to Majorca, on a curious "family" vacation. What will come of it all? Never mind, along with other pieces, the mazurkas of Opus 33 have just gone to press in Leipzig.

Mazurka in D major, Opus 33 No 2
According to scholars, an undeniable "Oberek". Marked "vivace", it is an elegant and impetuous piece, joyously rhythmic and joyful, an A-B-A scheme, with almost comically irregular accents, in its just under three minutes duration. A little gem, the most popular of the series.

The rendition, remarkable, is by the young American pianist Ruta Kuzmickas.