Beethoven, Six Variations for piano on a theme by Paisiello

 
The Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello was primarily a composer of operas who enjoyed no small amount of success in his long life. His setting of Beaumarchais's comedy Il Barbiere di Siviglia ovvero La precauzione inutile toured Europe with overwhelming success in the 1780s. Therefore, when Rossini "remusicalised" the libretto in 1816 under "another" name: Almaviva o sia L' inutile precauzione, Paisello followers hit the roof, although he was by no means the first to set the French comedy to music.

The successful duet
His output in the genre totals 94 works, all of which abound in beautiful, simple melodies. His greatest "hit", to this day, is the duet from the second act of La Molinara, from 1788, known as "Nel cor piu non mi sento", its first verse which, very loosely, can be translated as "My heart no longer feels". Dozens of composers have made use of the theme: Paganini, Sor, Giuliani, Hummel, and many others arranged it for various instruments, including the double bass.

Variations on request

Giovanni Paisiello (1740 - 1816)

But it was Beethoven who took the cake. In his first years in Vienna, teaching aristocratic girls and making contacts in musical circles to make himself known (he was 25 years old), the maestro was not in a position to produce particularly important works. So it happened that on one such evening, the lady of the house suggested that he should write some variations on melodies from Paisiello's recently premiered work. It is said that Beethoven would have taken note and completed the request a couple of days later in the course of a single evening.

Six variations for piano on Nel cor piu non mi sento
Full of charm rather than depth, and with no major technical demands (they suited his pupils like a glove), the variations in G major are catalogued as WoO 70 (WoO: Works without opus number) and were composed in 1795. From then until today, the little jewel of no more than six minutes in length is the most serious incursion into Beethoven's work of any novice pianist, after, of course, the celebrated bagatelle Für Elise.

The original theme

But before listening to the set of piano variations, we thought it was important to present Paisiello's original theme. It is sung by Pavarotti.

Theme and Variations performed by the Georgian pianist Ketevan Sepashvili:

00 Theme

01:16 Variation 1

01:52 Variation 2

02:31 Variation 3

03:12 Variation 4 (the " prescribed " variation in a minor key)

04:24 Variation 5

05:10 Variation 6 (a little faster than desirable, in our humble opinion)

Vivaldi, The Four Seasons - Autumn

 
Antonio Vivaldi, known in his time as il prete rosso (the red priest, because of the color of his hair, a family characteristic) received minor orders when he had just turned fifteen. However, the young violinist did not feel a strong religious vocation. Apparently, he chose the habits as a way of gaining access to a social status that would otherwise have been forbidden to him: his family album is full of unvirtuous personages, with an abundance of sailors, pirates, and bandits, with the exception of his father, who was also a famous violinist. However, in 1703, at the age of twenty-five, he was ordained a priest.

At L'Ospedale
That same year he began in Venice a very long and fruitful relationship with the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage he would remain in relatively regular contact with for 36 years. It was there that he composed most of his works, which total an astonishing 454 concertos, according to the latest research. However, most of these compositions remained unknown until the first quarter of the 20th century, when 300 autograph manuscripts plus nine operas and a beautiful oratorio were collected.

Il Cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione
Needless to say, only a tiny part of this immense work was published during the author's lifetime. An exception to this were the twelve concertos that make up the collection Il Cimento dell'armonia e dell'invenzione, published in Amsterdam in 1725, and whose first four concertos have become very famous under the title of The Four Seasons.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)

The imitation of nature

Perhaps for the first time in his entire oeuvre, Vivaldi resorts here to the imitation of nature as a reflection of one of the basic tendencies of enlightenment culture, understanding that imitation of nature here means "imitation of human nature," that is, the translation of sensible human impressions into music.
They constitute the first incursions into the so-called "programmatic music" that would have a notable presence during the romantic century to come.
The four concertos already mentioned are: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, all written for solo violin, string orchestra and harpsichord, and structured in three movements: fast - slow - fast.

Presented here is the Concerto in F major, Autumn, in a rendition by German violinist (and also pianist) Julia Fischer, accompanied by the London-based ensemble Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Movements:
00        Allegro
04:48  Adagio molto
07:11  Allegro pastorale

Haendel, "Largo", from opera "Xerxes"

Georg Friedrich Haendel settled definitively in London in 1712. He was then 27 years old and remained there building a prolific career as a composer and entrepreneur, until his death in April 1759. He had to overcome many ups and downs and setbacks in his role as an impresario but nevertheless managed to become the leading exponent of English opera of his time.

A fruitful composer
Although they were not always well received by the public, in the thirty years between 1710 and 1740, the prolific German composer wrote no less than 40 operas. Even after the resounding failure in 1737 of his third foray as a trainer of opera companies, he had the courage to compose a couple of operas of Italian style. The most famous of them is a sort of comedy, whose protagonist is the king of Persia, Xerxes, and from whom the opera takes its name.

Xerxes, the opera
Its premiere, in 1738, was a commercial failure. Xerxes only reached five performances. The work confused audiences and critics in different ways. Some considered it an opera buffa, others a farcical comedy, and one colleague even added that it seemed to be the product of a "sick mind".

All in all, the work incorporates one of the most famous arias written by Haendel, the famous Ombra mai fu ("There was never a dearer, lovelier, sweeter shade," the verse continues), popularly known as Largo de Xerxes, even though it is a larghetto and not a largo.

Song in the shade of a tree

The aria belongs to the first scene of Act I. King Xerxes sings in rapture in the shade of a tree, that of a Platanus orientalis, by the way. Originally written for a soprano castrato, today it is generally sung, if male, by a countertenor, if female, by a contralto or mezzo-soprano. There are also countless versions for different instruments.

We present here an outstanding version by the German countertenor Andreas Scholl, whose timbre reveals to us a miracle, the miracle of the human voice.

Chopin, Étude opus 10 No 4

In a letter written in the autumn of 1829, Chopin mentioned to a friend that he had just finished composing an etude "in my own style". Indeed, the author, then nineteen years old, would take distance from the compositions in the genre coming from the pen of his predecessors, with the production of his 24 Études divided into two volumes, Opus 10 (dedicated to Franz Liszt) and Opus 25 (dedicated to Marie d'Agoult, Franz's friend during those years).

Beyond dexterity
Both published in Paris, the first volume in 1833 and the second in 1837, Chopin's Etudes are much more than a set of technically demanding piano pieces aimed at achieving the indispensable dexterity on the instrument. On the contrary, the author's "own style" generated 24 pieces of inexhaustible melodic and harmonic beauty, full of colors, textures, and diverse moods. To these are added three studies without opus number published in 1840.

Etude Opus 10 No 4
Written in the key of C sharp minor, marked presto con fuoco (very fast, fiery), it is one of the most difficult of Opus 10, and perhaps of the entire work, despite its short duration. Nevertheless, it is possible to distinguish in it four sections. After introducing the first theme, the piece progresses rapidly to a second, brief theme at 0:20. The first theme returns at 0:30, and then at 1:15, progressing to the climax at 1:31, followed by the coda, with significant momentum. The piece ends with two dramatic chords, fortissimo.

The rendition is by the outstanding Chinese pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu.

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No 2

The Conquest of Vienna
Sometime after settling permanently in Vienna in November 1792, Beethoven realized that in order to captivate the Viennese public he had not only to show himself as the skilled pianist he was but also as a composer, even if he was in his early stages –if that could be said of the twenty-two-year-old master. To this end, he had to gather a good number of compositions, either wholly new or unheard by a broad audience, to face the stage on which his debut before the Viennese public was to take place.

1795, the year of his debut
So along with his aspiration to become a master of counterpoint – for which he took classes with Haydn and other masters – Beethoven collected for three years his own works in various genres – solo piano, piano with accompaniment, strings, songs, and piano concertos – with the determination to approach the conquest of Vienna from all possible sides.
The maestro's debut took place one Easter weekend, on Sunday, March 29, 1795, at the Burgtheater in Vienna, which was available for instrumental concerts because the Catholic faith of the Habsburgs did not allow theatrical performances during Lent. On the occasion, he presented one of his Piano Concertos.

Bust made on a mask
during his lifetime

Beethoven Piano Concerto nº 2, in B-flat major, Op. 19 

It is still debated today whether the "new concerto" presented on the occasion was No. 1 or No. 2, although most opinions are in favor of the latter, composed many years before the "first", between 1787 and 1789. At least this was the case with respect to its first two movements because for the 1795 performance Beethoven rewrote the final movement, a modification arising from his studies with Haydn. Three years later, for a performance in Prague, the composer revised the work again, writing another finale for the occasion, finally discarded because the version published in 1801 and the one that has come down to us is the one heard in Vienna in 1795, according to the most reliable testimonies.

Although considered by scholars (an opinion joined by Beethoven himself) as a rather weak and conventional work, clearly tributary of Haydn and Mozart, it contains as a whole a sense of drama and contrasts that clearly announces the magnificent master of the later concertos. Surely, its beautiful Adagio must have made a deep impression on the audience attending that Easter Sunday.

Movements:
00        Allegro con brio
15:28   Adagio
25:10   Rondo. Molto allegro
Encore:
(34:51  "Bailecito", from the pianist and composer Carlos Guastavino)