Earlier this week I went to Alice Tully Hall to hear an hour-long piano recital, part of Juilliard's Wednesdays at One series, that featured an eclectic array of short pieces whose dates of composition stretched from the Baroque to the late twentieth century.
The full program was as follows:
J.S. Bach - Toccata in F-sharp minor, BWV 910 (1712) performed by Rixiang Huang. There are questions among musicologists regarding the dating of this piece, and some believe it was assembled in its present form from fragments composed earlier in Bach's career. The highlight of piece is the final fugue that anticipates the Chromatic Fugue, BWV 903.
Beethoven - Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78 (1809) performed by Anna Han. Nicknamed "à Thérèse" in honor of its dedicatee, Thérèse von Brunswick, the two-movement sonata was held in quite high esteem by the composer himself. It is distinguished from many other middle period works by its serenity and lightness of spirit, most especially in the opening adagio cantabile. It is as though Beethoven had finally found some degree of peace of mind seven years after having penned the despairing Heiligenstadt Testament.
Szymanowski - Four Etudes, Op. 4 (1900-1902) performed by Ryan Soeyadi. The four - Allegro moderato in E-flat minor; Allegro molto in G-flat major; Andante in B-flat minor; and Allegro in C major - represent the composer's attempt to follow the form that had been popularized by Chopin decades before. Szymanowski found his greatest success with the third etude, the B-flat minor, that took on a life of its own independent of the other three. It became, in fact, so popular a recital piece that for a long while it was the only work for which Szymanowski was known, thus leading him to ruefully comment of it, "Very bad luck to have composed one’s Ninth Symphony while so young!"
Chopin - Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major, Op. 47 (1841) performed by Natalie Nedvetsky. Of all Chopin's pieces for solo piano I've always felt the Ballades to be the most successful. The No. 3, in particular, is a showcase for pianists to display their virtuosity. It has an almost playful rollicking rhythm that delights the listener as it gradually builds to a passionate climax.
Chopin - Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20 (1831-1832) performed by Vicky Yin-yu Lam. I've never really enjoyed hearing this piece - it's simply too depressing and repetitive for my taste. Some critics have suggested that when Chopin wrote the piece while more or less living in self-imposed exile in Vienna he was downcast by the political turmoil in his native Poland and expressed his unhappiness in his music. Whether or not there's any truth to that, the work does not possess any of the lightheartedness that the term "scherzo" would normally suggest.
Samuel Zyman - Two Motions in one movement (1996) performed by Athena Tsianos. Before Wednesday's recital I had never heard any music by Zyman, a long time member of Juilliard's faculty, and I now feel I've been missing something. The piece played on Wednesday afternoon, though extremly brief, was highly innovative and appeared to hold any number of technical challenges for the pianist. Both the brevity and the difficulty are almost certainly due to the fact that it was commissioned by the California Music Teachers Association as a required piece to be performed by all participants at a Young Artists competition. Though the work contained jazz elements, it never strayed far from its sources in twentieth century classical music. I only wish it had been longer - it ended before I even had time to begin enjoying it.
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