Chopin, Etude Opus 25 No. 11

In the nineteen years he lived in Paris, Frédérik Chopin gave only thirteen public concerts. He did not like crowds, and so he once remarked to his friend Franz Liszt, a year his junior, adding to his words an ambiguous hint of irony:

"I am not fitted to give concerts, the public intimidates me. I feel choked by its breath, paralyzed by its curious glances, struck dumb by all those strange faces. You are destined for that, because you do not conquer the public, but you have the necessary means to pummel them!"

Indeed, listening to Franz Liszt, the ladies would fade away, and end up slumped in their boxes, having lost all their composure. Chopin, on the contrary, was made to enrapture a small audience of no more than ten or twelve listeners, in the private salon of some lady of the high Parisian aristocracy, or at the home of a noble compatriot, exiled like him.

The intimate atmosphere

In these salons, also frequented by Liszt, Berlioz, Délacroix, poets, and other artists, Chopin was in his element. And if he was in the mood, he could play for a couple of hours in a row. Obviously, in this intimate atmosphere, he did not play his greatest works, those with the greatest breath, but he improvised, or unveiled the last prelude, a nocturne, an elegant waltz, or even an etude.

Marie d'Agoult (1805 - 1876)

In 1935 he had finished the twelve Etudes of Opus 10, dedicated to his friend Franz Liszt, irony aside. The new series, opus 25, will be dedicated to Countess Marie d'Agoult, who, among other merits, played the piano and was the partner of his friend Franz.

Etudes from Opus 25 - No. 11 in A minor

Out of the twelve studies that make up the series, ten of them were composed simultaneously with those of Opus 10. Only the first and the last one were added at a later date, for their joint publication in 1837. Etude No. 11, with its scant three and a half minutes in length, is the longest of the series and, like its companions, constitutes an inescapable piece in the piano repertoire of our day. The technical challenges demand bursts of arpeggios from the right hand in opposition to a powerfully rhythmic motif from the left hand.

The performance is by the Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa, now settled in the USA.

Brahms, Six piano pieces, Op 118

Clara Schumann became a widow at the age of 37. From then on she had to care for and feed eight children on her own.
Johannes Brahms, then 23, would remain by her side, figuratively speaking, until Clara died in 1896. For forty years, they would maintain a close correspondence. Johannes, offering his love with brotherly affection in the lively hope that something would materialize. Clara, affectionate, but maintaining the right distance that would not lead to the estrangement of the faithful friend who cared for her beloved Robert during the last two years of his life.

Clara, an outstanding pianist
Clara needed support, of course, but she solved her helplessness by working. An outstanding pianist of the stature of Liszt and Thalberg, despite her status as a female concert pianist at the core of the 19th century, she was able to carry out an active professional career, giving acclaimed and well-paid concerts throughout Europe.

Brahms, a helpmate
So Brahms's encouragement did not contemplate any economic dimension but was simply expressed in the friendly word that helped to overcome states of despondency, and perhaps something more, when they both decided to replace the pronoun Sie (formal you) with the more familiar du (you) in their correspondence. It was also the time when Brahms began to dedicate part of his work to Clara.

Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896)

Six piano pieces, opus 118
Brahms dedicated a total of thirteen works, in various genres, to Clara, in forty years. In 1892, in a composer's stage of fullness, five years before his death, he offered Clara what would be his penultimate work for solo piano, the Six Pieces of Opus 118. Absolute master of his art, the author has returned to the small forms, and to the intimate richness of the unique and so beloved timbre of the piano, without fuss. Perhaps the last colloquy, the last confidence, from Brahms to Clara.

More than with any previous set of miniatures, with opus 118 Brahms achieved a work that functions as a whole. And this is how it is generally performed, even when the particular beauty of some of its pieces moves performers to offer it as an encore in their performances, as is the custom with the second in the series, the popular Intermezzo in A major.

The complete work includes four intermezzi, a ballade and a romanza:

No. 1. Intermezzo in A minor. Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato.

No. 2. Intermezzo in A major. Andante teneramente 02:33

No. 3. Ballade in G minor. Allegro energico 08:08

No. 4. Intermezzo in F minor. Allegretto un poco agitato 11:26

No. 5. Romanza in F major. Andante 14:05

No. 6. Intermezzo in E flat minor. Andante, largo e mesto 18:13

The rendition is by German pianist Alexander Lonquich.

Mikhail Glinka, "Jota aragonesa"

"The Spaniards are sincere and direct when speaking, they do not have a language affected and full of ceremony like the French". Thus wrote the Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka to his mother in the summer of 1845, from Valladolid, where he had arrived after a nine-month stay in Paris. Nonetheless, despite his disenchantment with the Parisians, his colleague Hector Berlioz had conducted excerpts of his works in Paris and published a praiseworthy article about him. But he did not like the French and that is why he had left for Spain.

Valladolid
The composer was about 41 years old and three years ago one of his works in which he had put all his efforts, his second opera, Russlan and Ludmilla, had received a cold reception in St. Petersburg. In 1845, still shocked by the rejection, he decided to leave Russia and embark on a concert tour of some European cities to become acquainted with and nourished by the musical traditions, mainly French and Spanish. Thus, that summer, he was in Valladolid, enthusiastic and delighted to meet the local people.

Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857)

An Aragonese jota
In that cozy atmosphere, he got to know a local merchant, Félix Castilla, who was also an excellent guitarist. One afternoon, Castilla played for him a traditional folk dance, a jota aragonesa. It was what Glinka was looking for. The melody became the basis for one of his most popular works. Entitled Capricho brillante sobre la jota aragonesa, he began writing it in Madrid where he moved later and where he finished it at the end of 1845.

Capricho brillante sobre la jota aragonesa - Obertura Española No. 1
Despite Glinka's interest that audiences in Spain would appreciate his attempt to integrate the Spanish sound into the Western musical tradition, the work was not premiered in Spain but in Warsaw three years later, in 1848.
Also known as Spanish Overture No. 1 (No. 2 being the somewhat less celebrated Noche de verano en Madrid, from 1851), it is presented here in two versions.
The first, a choreographed reduced version, danced by the Igor Moiseyev Ballet of Moscow, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the great Russian choreographer and dancer Igor Moiseyev (1906 - 2007).

Complete original version. Glinka's orchestration is remarkable here for its extensive use of multiple orchestral colors. With several instrumental combinations, he is able to produce a lush, full sound. And when required, he resorts to harp and pizzicato strings to imitate the sound of the guitar.

The edition is by the Zhukovsky Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladislav Ivanovskyi.

Shostakovich, Piano Concerto no 1

Comrade Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, so-called Stalin, did not immediately realize that the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, a work by the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, was anti-democratic from head to toe, and alien to the artistic inclinations of the Soviet people. Premiered in 1932 with resounding success, the work remained on the bill for two years until the unlucky day when Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili attended the first performance of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. As a result of such a visit, the play was withdrawn from the stage, losing overnight its status as a masterpiece.

Surviving the purges
It was the first confrontation that the author of the Funeral March in Memory of the Victims of the October Revolution had with the Soviet authorities. It would not be the last. But, as it turned out, comrade Dmitri knew how to navigate in troubled waters.
Dmitri survived the purges of 1948 by remaining serene and composing the soundtrack of a curious film – The Unforgettable Year 1919 – which sang of the courage of the young Comrade Stalin during the war against the White Russians. But for many years he refrained from joining the Communist Party. He only decided to do so in 1960, at a stage in his life when it was not easy to scold a world-famous Soviet artist.

The "confession"
And by the early thirties she had overcome Lady Macbeth's impasse in the style in vogue. That is, by means of a confession. Musical in his case: his Symphony No. 5, from 1937, was subtitled "A Soviet artist's response to just criticism". Nevertheless, confessions aside, it was possible to contrast the orthodox voice, to oppose the ideological mandate, by simply composing for oneself. In this spirit, Dmitri Shostakovich finished his first Piano Concerto in 1933, at the age of 27.

Concerto for piano, trumpet and string orchestra, in C minor
According to the composer himself, the original idea was to compose a concerto for trumpet and orchestra, to which he later added the piano part to build a double concerto, but the involvement of this instrument was gradually increased until the work finally became a piano concerto with the prominent contribution of a trumpet, especially in the last movement. Its premiere took place in Leningrad (i.e. St. Petersburg) in October 1933, with Shostakovich at the piano.

The "quotations"

With a "neo-baroque" combination of instruments and stylistically close to neoclassicism (not counting the cluster at minute 20:54 that interrupts a "circus-like" trumpet), the concerto adds to its undeniably playful character an abundant series of "quotations" to other authors, among them, Ravel, Beethoven and Haydn. This is undoubtedly true, but there are those who have taken things to the extreme, pretending to see in minute 1:06 (and of course, every time the "motif" is repeated) a "quotation" to the first movement of the Appassionata sonata.

Movements:
Depending on how you look at it, the concerto has, or three, or four movements, due to the fact that the third, in addition to its brief duration, links without pause with the last.

00:00  Allegretto - Two contrasting themes

07:14  Lento - Surprisingly lyrical (quote from Ravel, adagio from the G major concerto)

15:32  Moderato - More like an interlude

17:32  Allegro con brio - Contains the Haydn and Beethoven parodies, with some ragtime, too.

The rendition is by Daniil Trifonov, accompanied by the Marinsky Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Manuel de Falla, "El amor brujo", suite

Such was the eagerness of Manuel María de los Dolores de Falla y Matheu for setting foot in Paris, back in 1904, that he dared to participate simultaneously in two musical skills contests while in Madrid after his family moved there from his native Cadiz.
One of them summoned pianists, with a first prize consisting of an instrument donated by the piano builder who organized the contest. In the other, he had to compete with a symphonic work or an opera, whose royalties, if he won, would allow him to travel to the City of Light.

A double winner
Manuel de Falla was victorious in both contests. But the one he was most looking forward to, in which he won with the operetta La vida breve, turned out to be a fiasco. The ambiguous wording of the contract did not assure in any way that the piece was going to be performed, at all events. And there was just no theater that would take the risk with a novel composer.

On tour
Falla overcame his frustration by joining as a pianist a mime company that was preparing to tour France, Belgium, Switzerland and some German cities. Thus, the composer found himself in Paris in 1907, at the same time as his fellow countryman Albéniz, who was working hard on the Iberia suite, while Debussy was writing the triptych Imágenes, and Ravel was busy working on the Spanish Rhapsody.

"El amor brujo"

Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946)

After the outbreak of war in 1914, Falla returned to Madrid. And the first thing he did was to accept a commission from a gypsy artist, Pastora Imperio, who asked him to compose for her something as simple as "a song and dances". Falla responded with a "gitanería" in two scenes for small orchestral ensemble, which tells the story of a gypsy girl who wins back an indifferent lover with the magic of love; the story ends happily. This was not the case with "gitanería". Premiered at the Teatro de Lara, in Madrid, in April 1915, with the title "El amor brujo", the work was not well received.

Versions and arrangements - Ritual fire dance

In view of the failure, the following year Falla rewrote the work for symphony orchestra, dividing it into two tableaux and adding three mezzo-soprano songs. In late 1930, he took four pieces from the original "gitanería" and turned them into a suite for piano. But before that, in 1924, he had made the arrangement that has survived to the present day. It is the ballet version, a one-act "ballet-pantomima", which was the most successful of all and the one commonly heard in concert halls as an orchestral piece, consisting of thirteen pieces, including the popular "Danza ritual del fuego", which can be heard from minute 09:40 in the version of the Radio Kamer Filharmonie ensemble, conducted by the Spanish conductor Alejo Perez.