Chopin in Marseille, Scherzo No 3

Severe and prolonged was the nosebleed Chopin suffered on his return trip from Mallorca. In the company of George Sand and her two children, they were returning from a frustrated vacation started in November 1838, scheduled to escape the French winter. But the holliday lasted only three months because the weather, extremely favorable at the beginning ("the sky is like turquoise, sea like azure, mountains like emerald, air like heaven") changed dramatically in January causing a substantial deterioration in Frédérick's fragile health.

The homecoming
In a modest boat that also carried as passengers – in the cargo compartment, of course – a herd of pigs that growled day and night, they set off on their return to Barcelona in February 1839. Chopin is still bleeding from the nose, and Sand is on the verge of despair. Eight days after his arrival in the city, George sighs a French warship in the harbor and decides to talk with the captain, getting the doctor on board to see Frédérick and, good news, taking them all to Marseille. After 36 hours of stoic rocking, the four passengers arrived at the French port on February 25, 1839, the hemorrhage stopped thanks to the solicitous doctor, "and the endless care of my angel", Chopin notes – alluding George, we want to believe.

"Marseille is ugly" says Chopin. "All the literary mob chases George and the musical mob follows me. It's an old city though not ancient, and we are a little bored." As for Sand, she does not seem very happy in "this city of merchants and shopkeepers ...":

"We moved from one inn to another. Apart from the mistral we have a pretty good time. Chopin must not breathe cold air. The windy mistral days we stay at home and work each in his own ... Our existence is highly innocent and simple, almost primitive... "

On May 22 they return, not to Paris but to Nohant where the cozy summer house of Sand is located. Finally at home! exclaims Chopin, with some ease.

Chopin's Scherzos
Chopin had already managed to unlink the prelude from the fugue. He would soon separate the scherzo from the symphony and the sonata, particularly that of his closest model, the beethovenian, a playful or graceful scherzo, existing at least in the symphonies prior to the fifth, and whose purpose was to separate the allegro from the adagio or this one from the end of the work. Chopin would build with its metric four individual pieces, of a ternary nature, that is, first theme, second theme and return to the first theme, or structure A-B-A. The rhythm is in 3/4 and its speed is presto.

Scherzo No. 3 op 39 in C sharp minor
The Scherzo No 3 was composed or completed in 1839, in Mallorca, and published in 1840. It is dedicated to one of his closest pupils, Adolphe Gutmann.
Of stormy beginning, it then links up with a cantabile theme that is accompanied by descending arpeggios; finally a coda will lead to the high brilliant conclusion, with a "Picardy third", that is, a major chord when the piece is in a minor key, as it's the case.

The rendition is by the Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, awarded with the first prize at the 2010 International Chopin Contest, in Warsaw.

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Bizet, "Habanera", from Carmen

To cover the expenses of his innumerable wars and his lavish palaces, Louis XIV increased taxes on peasants in the middle of the second half of the 17th century. It seems perverse but it was the only way to relieve state finances because the nobility and clergy did not pay taxes. But not for that reason we are going to label the Sun King an infamous monarch. Lover of the arts, the Prix de Rome was created under his reign, in 1663. The award would distinguish young artists with a four-year stay at the Academy of France, in Rome, an internship liberally covered by the king or, rather, covered by the French servants.

Prix ​​de Rome for musicians 
A century and a half later, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte expanded the universe of beneficiaries to include musicians. The French musician Georges Bizet, an outstanding student of the Paris Conservatoire who had entered at age ten not without difficulties because he was under the age to be admitted, applied in 1857 to the coveted Prix de Rome. He won it on second vote. The award involved a five-year scholarship (usually 4), and the only requirement was to submit an original work each year to the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris.

Surviving in Paris
Georges, whose mother was a pianist, became, in turn, an exceptional pianist, but his musical vocation was oriented to drama. It was not a good choice, because he had to get used to accepting scarcely encouraging criticism. The year his mother died, he returned definitively to Paris and delivered a comic opera to the Academy, his last commitment to the Prix de Rome.
From that moment on, the struggle to survive in the French musical world began. He composes operettas that later destroys, gives lessons and publishes small pieces for piano and songs, also makes transcriptions of famous operas for the piano.

The post mortem success

Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875)

After composing in 1872 another work poorly received by the public, he decided to stage the opera Carmen, mainly for overcoming depression than for another motive. The work dated from 1845 but had never been released for fear that his subjects of treason and murder could irritate the audience. The heroine, to make matters worse, was a licentious seducer and not a virtuous woman. As expected, its premiere in March 1875 was a failure. However, seven months later it was performed in Vienna to great acclaim of both public and critics. But Bizet had already died, in June of that year, shortly before his 37th birthday. Carmen is considered today a work of universal category, but Bizet never got to know.

All the above notwithstanding, Georges Bizet definitely transformed the genre of the French Opera Comique (somewhat light and with musical numbers separated by dialogue) and accelerated the cult of realism helping to forge the Italian post-Romantic operatic tradition that will later be known as verismo (Leoncavallo, Puccini).

Carmen
It is an opera in four acts, based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. Set in Seville, it is starring Carmen, a beautiful and fiery gipsy woman ("if you do not love me, I love you; if you love me, be careful", are words from the Habanera) who seduces an inexperienced soldier in matters of the heart who out of love for her rejects his former beloved. Regrettably, Carmen will later choose another male as the object of her love, a bullfighter. In jealousy, the soldier will be going to kill Carmencita.

In act I, Carmen shares her philosophy of love by singing the famous Habanera, at the exit of the tobacco factory, right next to the soldiers' barracks.

The rendition is by the Latvian-born mezzo-soprano, Elina Garança, in a performance at the New York Met.

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JS Bach: Partita No 2 in C minor

At the beginning of his stay at the court of Köthen, the Bach's relations with his employer Prince Leopold were particularly good, since he was, in turn, a talented musician who held Bach in high esteem. But relations came to be sharpy deteriorating after the prince married a cousin, Princess Friederica, a lady who never showed the slightest interest in music and, generally, in any form of culture. His dire influence on Leopold, a prince and submissive husband at a time, ended up taking him away from the concerts that were held in court and therefore from his own musicians, including his kapellmeister, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Kantor at the Thomaskirche
Therefore, when the position of Kantor in the St. Thomas Church (Thomaskirche) became vacant in Leipzig due to the death of its owner, Johann Sebastian did not think twice and applied for the position even when the post also entailed responsibilities in the children's school that the Church housed, the Thomasschule. The application was very challenging (Bach competed with other musicians) but finally, the twenty-seven present councilors of the City Council gave its vote to Bach, unanimously.

Among the conditions imposed by the Council, besides those relating to teaching school students, and his obligation to compose and conduct the music in another important church in Leipzig, was the teacher's commitment to "arrange, to maintain the good order in the church, that the music to be played does not last too long and, in addition, ensure that it is not theatrical, but encourages listeners to devotion."

After many formalities, including a theology exam, Bach took the position of Kantor of the Saint Thomas Church on May 15, 1723. Thus began the most glorious period of Bach's life and as a composer, a successful stage in the company of his second wife, Anna Magdalena, and his numerous offspring. He would remain in Leipzig until his death, in 1750.

Partitas by Bach
The group of pieces known as "Partitas by Bach" are a set of six keyboard suites, published separately between 1726 and 1730 and finally assembled by Bach in a volume entitled Clavierübung I (Exercises for keyboard) in 1731. The partitas, such as the French and English suites, and overtures, are made up of several pieces that follow an order and receive a name established by the musical tradition of their time.

Partita No. 2 in C minor
Its sections are six:
00:00  Symphony,
04:45  Allemande
07:33  Courante
08:54  Sarabande
10:52  Rondeau
12:09  Capriccio

The rendition is by the brilliant Ukranian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.

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Beethoven: The Emperor Concerto - Claudio Arrau

"Song of triumph for combat. Victory!" These are words that Beethoven wrote in the margins of some notes for the composition of the Piano Concerto No. 5, popularly known as the "Emperor Concerto." At the time the exhortation helped to sustain the idea that its grandiose character responded to the author's intention to greet an epic event, some military feat led by a relevant actor, for example, an emperor.

The occupied Vienna
Four years earlier, on November 1805, Napoleonic troops had occupied Vienna for the first time. Emperor Francis I of Austria, the same who did not hesitate on banning the performances of the Figaro by Mozart, must have left running out, but his exile was short-lived and he entered Vienna, triumphantly, in March 1806.

The peace, however, did not last long. In May 1809 Napoleon's armies were once again encamped on the outskirts of Vienna, and the emperor was forced to undertake a second escape. Peace returned, as always, but this time with humiliating conditions for the empire. To the pitiful armistice, Napoleon added a secret clause: the commitment of his marriage to Maria Luisa of Habsburg-Lorraine, daughter of the monarch.

A great work
We know that in 1809 Beethoven had long since removed from the Eroica Symphony the dedication to the revolutionary general who forgot the ideals of freedom and equality when he became emperor. About Francis I, we have said it all. So, to date, there is no character in sight that tradition or custom identifies with a war hero who would have inspired Beethoven to compose a great work. In fact, almost the opposite. Tradition and custom came to call "Emperor" the concerto No. 5 not for anything other than the great proportions and majesty of the work itself.

Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" in E♭, Op 73
The concerto is dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, patron and brilliant Beethoven's pupil, one of the three members of the so-called "pact of the three princes" that assured the maestro an annual income, from precisely the year of the work's composition. It is the last that Beethoven composed for piano and, definitely, the one with the greatest virtuosity and character. Its premiere took place in the Gewandhaus Hall in Leipzig, on November 28, 1811.

Movements
Three movements make up the concerto: Allegro - Adagio un poco mosso - Rondo, allegro ma non tropo. As Beethoven used to do, the first movement is the longest. The second, intensely lyric, stands as one of the most beautiful pages written for piano and orchestra. It links with the third movement with no pause. The last movement cadenza, before the final tutti, ends with an untold ritardando, in which piano and timpani play twinned, till silence. Then, a furious scale by the piano will lead to a great and resounding orchestral ending.

Claudio Arrau, 85
On November 3, 1988, the London Symphony Orchestra scheduled a concert entirely dedicated to Beethoven that somehow also constituted a tribute to Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, who would participate in the first part of the evening with the performance of the Emperor Concerto. The Chilean maestro had turned 85, and at the beginning of the video we can see the director Sir Colin Davis holding Arrau by the arm while he comes to the piano. I beg you to excuse a couple of jumps and overexposures of the audio in minutes 3-6, but seeing and listening to Arrau, almost an old man, playing like a boy, makes this record a real jewel, despite the failures mentioned.

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Erik Satie, Gnossienne No 1

The first irreverence with which Erik Satie greeted the French academy was to label Opus 62 as the first work he composed, when he was 19 years old. Six years ago he had entered the Paris Conservatoire, standing out as an excellent student, in theory, harmony and piano; however, he will leave the institution at 21, a bit annoyed with the aesthetic trends of the epoch, whether they were academic or avant-garde.

A Cabaret Pianist
But, after all, his eight years of studies at the Conservatory provided him with a solid foundation, especially as a pianist. With this instrument, he would make a living and for it, he would compose most of his music. The same year he abandoned the academy, 1887, he began working as a pianist in the Le Chat Noir Cabaret, but soon after he was fired, and violently. However, it did not take long to find work as a pianist in a similar establishment. This time it was the turn of the cabaret L'auberge du clou, where he stayed for several years and where he was lucky to meet Claude Debussy, with whom he began a friendship with ups and downs.

Erik Satie (1866 - 1925)

It was precisely Debussy who reproached him on a couple of times that his music seemed at times careless in regard to musical forms. In response to this claim, Satie replied with the composition of a small work entitled "Three pieces in the shape of a pear", for four-hand piano, which are neither three nor, of course, are pear-shaped.

Exotic music
The 1900 Paris Exposition opened the way for many musicians to come into contact with other and more exotic musical universes. There was born, for example, Debussy's taste for Javanese music. Satie didn't fall behind and was enthusiastic about Romanian music, a footprint that scholars swear to observe in the enigmatic Gnossiennes, composed a year later. These are the years when Satie proves to have a special preference for number three. Hence the three Gnossiennes, which culminates a stage begun with the three Sarabandes (1887) and the three Gymnopédies (1888).

"Furniture music"
Beyond his commitment to the production of fun compositions, full of fantasy and humour, Satie always continued to be a hipster, an experimental musician. That was how in 1920, in the company of other composers, the production of what they called "furniture music" was focused, a music that is not an object in itself, but a kind of musical decoration, whose purpose is purely utilitarian, as with furniture.

Although in principle the exotic Gnossienne No. 1 does not belong to the category just described, it is undeniable that it acquires another meaning, another dimension, "a new beauty" if it is heard as background music (!), or piped music? in this simple video illustrating the routine of its author on his daily trip from home to work.
At the piano, the Frenchman Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

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