Mozart, Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457

In a sudden burst of composure and balance, in early 1784 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began a meticulous recording of his works. Thanks to this, we know today that Sonata No. 14 in C minor was completed on October 14 of that year. At least, it entered his private catalog with that date. Six months later, Mozart added to this record a new piano work, the Fantasia in C minor. Both pieces were sent in 1785 to his publisher in Vienna, the Artaria publishing house, to be published together as Opus 11, with the title "Fantasie et Sonate pour le Forte-Piano", and the opus dedicated to Therese von Trattner.

The Mozart family moves

For reasons that have never been fully elucidated, the Mozart family moved several times while living in Vienna. The years 1784-85 find them renting a house owned by Johann von Trattner, a Viennese bookseller and publisher who had built a small empire within the other empire thanks to a privilege granted by Maria Theresa that gave him the exclusive right to print all the textbooks required by the schools in and around Austria.

Therese von Trattner, dedicatée

Von Trattner was thus an impetuous and wealthy businessman, a prominent member of the rising bourgeoisie who could acquire with no hesitation a modern forte-piano for the enjoyment and solace of his family... An expensive Stein, for example, Mozart's favorite piano, which, however, he could never access. Unless the Trattner family piano had been precisely a Stein. Yes, because as befitted their interests and social status, Therese, Trattner's wife, became Mozart's pupil. And it is to her that the Sonata is dedicated, along with the Fantasia, of course, to give more soar to the offering.

The Sonata in C minor is the last of the five sonatas grouped in a "sonatistic" period that goes from 1782 (Mozart just settled in Vienna) to 1784. This production had no other purpose than to compose for his own satisfaction or for the practice of his students. Mozart was aware that the sonata form was the most complete of the "home" musical forms, the type of pieces intended for the enjoyment and solace of families, on an intimate level. Therese von Trattner, we suppose, would not have been out of place.

Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457

Ludwig von Köchel himself, the compiler of Mozart's work in the mid-nineteenth century, catalogued the work as the most important of the twenty-two piano sonatas composed by the genius of Salzburg for solo piano. Lasting around fifteen minutes in length, it exhibits a passion and intensity unusual for Mozart (we are talking about his sonatas), foreshadowing what the genre would later become in the hands of the subsequent genius, Beethoven. Moreover, in the noble and suffering adagio cantabile it is not difficult to hear "anticipations" of the adagio from the Pathetique Sonata, which would be released fifteen years later.

Movements

Like all Mozart's piano concertos, it is in three movements following the classical scheme: fast-slow-fast.

00:00  Allegro

08:26  Adagio cantabile

17:35  Allegro assai

The rendition is by the remarkable Austrian pianist and poet Alfred Brendel.

J.C.F. Bach, "the Bach of Bückeburg". Piano concerto in E major

As all we know, Johann Sebastian Bach was married twice. First with Maria Barbara, in 1707, and after her death, with Anna Magdalena, in 1721. Less said, or forgotten, is that Johann Sebastian was not only the father of harmony but also the father of no less than twenty children. Seven were born to Maria Barbara, and thirteen to Anna Magdalena. Of the twenty, only ten reached adulthood. Of these, four became great musicians. Each mother contributed an equal number of composers, two: Maria Barbara, with Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel; Anna Magdalena with Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian.

"The Bach of Bückeburg"

Of these four great composers, Johann Christoph Friedrich turns out today to be the least mentioned of Bach's musical sons. However, his long sojourn at the court of the small town of Bückeburg earned him a similar appellation to that of his two more famous brothers (Johann Christian, "the Bach of London", and Carl Philipp Emanuel, "the Bach of Hamburg"). Born in Leipzig when his father served as Kantor of the Thomaskirche in that city, at the age of eighteen he entered the service of a count established in Bückeburg. And there he remained all his life, to be remembered today as "the Bach of Bückeburg".

JCF Bach (1732 - 1795)

The end of the line

In 1755, Johann Christoph Friedrich married. He fathered a musician and composer son, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, who married twice, like his grandfather, but had only one son, who died in infancy. Thus, this early death ended forever the Bach lineage, the most important and extensive family of German musicians of the 17th and 18th centuries.

A fruitful author  

Unlike the paths chosen by his three musical brothers, Johann Christoph Friedrich was the one who remained closest to his father's style. He is the most classical, the most restrained, and perhaps the most conservative of the musical sons of the "old Bach". He wrote twenty symphonies, a good number of oratorios, liturgical pieces, motets, concertos, and sonatas for the keyboard, although much of it disappeared with the bombing of Berlin during the Second World War.

Of his keyboard concertos, the Concerto for piano and strings in E major stands out in the preference of performers and audiences alike.

These are his movements:

00:00  Allegro

08:45  Adagio

14:01  Allegro moderato

The performance is by the French-Cypriot pianist and composer Cyprien Katsaris, accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra of the Echternach Festival, conducted by the South Korean conductor Yoon K. Lee.

Clementi's Sonata in B flat / Clementi and Mozart: A Pianistic Duel

Muzio Clementi (1752 - 1832)

In the first days of January 1781, the court of Vienna was dressed up (more than usual) to receive the most renowned Austrian pianist facing the most renowned non-Austrian pianist of those years.
At the invitation of the music-loving Emperor Joseph II, the Salzburg-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Italian Muzio Clementi met in his salons to delight the noble audience with their improvisations and display of virtuoso technique, in order to define once and for all what kept such an exquisite audience in suspense: which of the two was the best pianist in that small world.

Muzio Clementi, pianist, composer, future publisher, and piano maker had long been established in England, where he was a celebrity. But he had yet to be heard on the continent. Four years older than Mozart, he would take the opportunity to show his skills before the court of the most glamorous empire of the time.

A draw

According to tradition, the competition was declared a draw. Though in his innermost self, Joseph II favored the grace and touché of his fellow countryman, as he would later tell a famed composer. Both musicians performed pieces of their own, then improvised on themes proposed by the audience, and sight-read scores on which they were asked to elaborate variations. At the end, Clementi accompanied Mozart on a second piano and vice versa.

Mozart gets ready

This information would be enough to satisfy us, but there was an eyewitness who allows us to go further. Giuseppe Antonio Bridi, Mozart's friend, left a chronicle of the evening. From him we know that Clementi was the first to jump into the ring, improvising a prelude. He then played a sonata, a sonata in B flat major that enchanted Mozart, to such an extent that ten years later he would use its opening theme in the overture to The Magic Flute. Clementi, who was delighted to meet Mozart that night, never forgave him for the trick.

Sonata in B flat major, opus 24 No 2 (erroneously catalogued as opus 47 in some editions).
As might be expected, the dates of composition and publication can only be estimated. However, due to Mozart's misappropriation of it in 1791 – a common misappropriation at the time – Clementi was obliged, each time he republished the sonata, to add a note that it had been written "ten years earlier" than The Magic Flute, i.e. in 1781, or a little earlier. And regarding the publication, recent studies also date it to that year, and in Vienna, which seems most wise given that the piece had been made "public" at the court of Joseph II, only a couple of months before.

Movements
Structured in the traditional Vivaldian fast-slow-fast style, the exquisite piece is part of the most correct and careful classical piano, a jewel.

00:00  Allegro con brio

04:18  Andante - quasi allegretto

08:35  Rondo - allegro assai

The superb version is by pianist Zenan Kwan, born in Hong Kong. It is an extraordinary experience to listen to it remembering that Mozart attended the same experience, more than two hundred years ago, although "live", coming from the hands of Clementi himself.

Chopin, Piano Sonata No 3 in B minor / Kate Liu - audition guide

It is often said that Chopin was essentially a composer of miniatures. And this is true if the label is used to describe pieces for solo piano that do not exceed ten minutes. However, he was also capable of handling the sonata form with remarkable competence, as attested by the three sonatas he composed during his lifetime, or at least, the last two (the first, a youthful work... of course, Chopin was eighteen years old). No. 2 is the famous Funeral Sonata, from 1837, which incorporates as its third movement the even more famous Funeral March.

Seven years had to go by for the third venture into the form. The Sonata in B minor was begun in the quiet and peacefulness of Nohant, during the summer of 1844, and finished the same year in Paris.

The death of the father

One might think that Nohant's calmness was excessive because the production of that year only includes two pieces, the sonata No. 3 and the Berceuse op 57, the latter the only lullaby written by Chopin. It so happened that in April of that year, the Polish master received very bad news. In Warsaw, one thousand five hundred kilometers away, his seventy-three-year-old father had died. It was a hard blow for the musician, who had seen his parents for the last time almost ten years ago.

A visit from Luisa

She had not seen either her sister Louise in fourteen years. Mrs. Sand, wise and compassionate, invited Louise and her husband to visit them in Nohant. Becoming a singular master of the house, Chopin entertained his sister with gardens, fountains and groves for three weeks. They strolled in the evenings. Chopin composed in the mornings, and some music was made in the evenings, as a family. Perhaps Luisa caught a glimpse of some sketches of the sonata.

Sonata No 3 in B minor, op 58

Considered one of his most difficult pieces, harmonically and rhythmically, it lasts about 25 minutes or more. Chopin replicated in it the structure of the previous sonata: four movements, although the "funeral march" has been replaced by the largo as the third movement. Published in Leipzig the same year of its creation, 1844, and not long after in London and Paris, it is dedicated to the Countess of Perthuis, one of many noble ladies in whose salons Chopin more than once delighted a reduced audience, the one that best suited him.

Movements:
00:00 Allegro maestoso - An impetuous first theme will be followed by a lyrical second theme (sostenuto e molto espressivo, minute 1:33) that brings to mind the composer's unmistakable nocturnes. The recapitulation rests mostly on this second theme (6:43). Two vigorous chords close the movement.

09:42 Scherzo. Molto vivace - Very brief but agile and energetic, with a restful middle section (the trio: 10:18).

12:22 Largo - The core of the sonata. After a succinct introduction, the main theme is introduced at 12:55. The movement progresses to an articulated section in quiet eighth notes at 15:32. The initial theme returns at 20:08 with an accompanying left hand that murmurs rather than presses keys.

22:40 Finale. Presto non tanto - A rondo, of great tension. After a couple of dense bars, the main theme emerges, vehement and passionate (22:51). The contrasting element is a section in a major key that demands abysmal finger agility from the performer (beginning in bursts at 23:35 and continuing for more than twenty measures at 23:55). At 25:46, a grand coda initiates the magnificent denouement.

The rendition is by Singapore-born pianist Kate Liu during her participation in the 2015 Warsaw International Chopin Competition. She got there the third prize (bronze medal), stingy, in our opinion.

Henri Dutilleux, his only Piano Sonata (with a listening guide)

 

The French composer Henri Dutilleux did not have enough time to create an extensive and numerous body of work, despite living a long life that spanned nearly the entire twentieth century.
His catalog includes no more than thirty compositions. Nevertheless, a significant portion of them is still regarded as a bouquet of masterpieces of Western musical literature, moral heirs to the French tradition represented by Debussy and Ravel.
The author's unrelenting preference for quality over quantity and high level of self-demand led to the publication of such a small corpus. The beginning of World War II also played a role.

He returned to Paris shortly before France entered the war, having to serve his country as a stretcher-bearer until the Armistice of 1940. In the following years, he lived poorly in the occupied city. However, he had access to some positions in the Paris Opera and Radio France, continuing his training almost on his own, reading composition treatises and learning about the avant-garde by hearsay.

Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013)

Piano Sonata, opus 1
In 1941 he met Genevieve Joy, a fellow student at the Conservatoire, which in occupied France was still functioning as much as possible. They married at the end of the war. From then on and for a long time, Genevieve became the interpreter and disseminator of his piano works, especially his only Sonata, composed between 1948-49 and dedicated to Genevieve, as you may have guessed.

True to his overwhelming claim to his own work, the composer labeled the piece as Opus 1, thus relegating to a ghost plane the earlier, shorter works that had emerged over a ten-year period, because he considered the Sonata to be the first work up to his mature standards. 

Movements:
A work of enormous technical demands (Genevieve must have excelled at, for sure), it combines two great concerns of the mature Dutilleux: formal rigor and harmonic research. Hence the traditional three-movement structure on the one hand, and the sustained tonal ambiguity (more: sometimes tonal, sometimes atonal) on the other.

00:00  Allegro con moto: Beginning openly in 2/2 rhythm, soon there will be changes in the rhythmic structure (the "accent pattern"). The harmonic ambiguity already mentioned is also present here from the first bars, leaving the listener perplexed by the immediate change from a minor key to a major key and vice versa, giving the impression that the performer has not started where he should have, or that this particular video is badly edited. There is no such thing. The piece begins like this.

08:13  Lied: The shortest of the three movements, written in ternary form (theme A, theme B, return to theme A). Here also there are signs of tonal ambiguity, although a basic tonality is in principle discernible (D-flat major).

13:57  Choral et variations: An imposing chorale (in four voices according to scholars, though I struggle to hear three) is followed by four variations: Vivace 16:16 - Un poco più vivo 17:39 - Calmo 19:56 - Prestissimo 22:05. The work ends with a recapitulation of the opening chorale, with variations.

Some scholars have described the work as "brilliant, multi-layered with echoes of Bartók and Prokofiev". Others claim it could have been written by Debussy: a "sensual yet classical" sonata.

The rendition is by the Franco-German pianist Emil Reinert. Live recording during the European International Piano Competition, the year 2021.