The 4th Annual Chiang Mai Music Festival 2552 (2009) in Bangkok

Dr. Thaworn Phornprapha Auditorium (Siam Motors Buidling) - Tuesday, February 10th at 19:30

Great Romantic Piano Solos

This wonderful recital – an expression of love for simply beautiful music – features that majestic and versatile instrument loved by so many composers over the centuries – the piano. The piano evolved from its predecessor the harpsichord and as we know it today, had reached that form at around the time of late Beethoven – early 19th century. With loud and soft pedals, a huge range of octaves and today being constructed in many shapes and forms, the piano is the perfect medium for tonight’s expression of talent, devotion and expertise.

The versatility of this instrument will be seen tonight as the inspirational program contains music from some of the greatest piano composers of the middle romantic period in the 19th century, namely Frederick Chopin, Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann. But also included is an adaptation flute and piano from the early classical period, from an opera by Christoph von Gluck; this truly beautiful melody was actually composed long before the piano as we know it today had been invented!

The pieces we are honoured to be hearing tonight have been carefully chosen to give a delicate balance of sound and expression that will challenge the performers, impress the audience by using the instrument’s full range and versatility as well as providing us with an enchanted evening. These gifted young performers have all been practicing hard for many months to bring us this rare and very valuable experience – let us all sit back in this delightful Lanna setting and relax and enjoy the talent of youth and the sound of great music!

Program:

Franz Liszt:

Liebestraume

Liszt, born in Hungary, has often been called the greatest pianist of all time. His compositions for piano are tremendously challenging for performers (and often for listeners, too!) but no-one could ever doubt this composer’s complete mastery of the instrument. Entitled Dreams of Love, this marvelously evocative piece of music is one of Liszt’s best known compositions dating from 1850. Its gently persuasive flowing melody is hauntingly beautiful, full of deep reflection, passion and tenderness.

Tarantella: From Venezia e Napoli (from Years of Pilgimage)

In 1861, Liszt wrote a series of three suites called The Years of Pilgrimage, and the piece we are going to hear comes from the second suite. The tarantella is a very lively Mediterranean dance which many composers have used as the basis for their music – and this is no exception – it is bubbling and energetic throughout.

Frederic Chopin:

Barcarolle

This second great composer of piano music, Chopin, had a tragically short life of only 38 years but managed to enthrall the world with his genius and virtuosity in that short time. This piece was written between 1845 and 1846, three years before his death and is quite an extended piece of music. A ‘Barcarolle’ is a Venetian gondola song and this genre of music became quite popular in the 19th century, with composers such as Liszt, Mendelssohn and Offenbach all writing compositions of the same nature. The rocking rhythm in compound time rarely ceases for the left hand and gives a great sense of the waves gently rocking the gondola as the oarsman sings his rather sorrowful ‘bel canto’ melody; the right hand meanwhile is busy with a whole range of challenging linear passages.

Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor

Scherzo, meaning ‘joke’ in Italian, is usually a lively and often provocative piece of music and it was none other than Beethoven who introduced scherzi into his symphonies to replace the more traditional minuet. Both Beethoven and Schubert had written solo piano pieces entitled scherzo, but these are the only two examples known to exist prior to Chopin’s set of four of which this is the third. Written in 1839, the scherzo opens with a rush of energy before changing key and entering into a chorale-like melody of astonishing beauty. The whole piece is terse and tightly constructed with a finger bursting coda that will certainly have been a great challenge for our pianist tonight!

Franz Liszt:

Don Juan Fantasy

How wonderful an opportunity we have to be able to hear this rarely performed composition by Liszt, the third of his compositions this evening. Written in 1841, it is an extended fantasy based on several arias from Mozart’s opera of the same name, although we have come to know the Mozart by its more familiar title of ‘Don Giovanni’. Listeners will no doubt recognize La Ci Darem La Mano and Fin Ch’Han Del Vino (the champagne aria) as well as other passages from the original. It is a work of some length and dramatic intensity, which goes a long way to explaining why it is so rarely performed today.

Robert Schumann:

Symphonic Etudes

The third great composer of piano music, Robert Schumann, composed his symphonic variations, later to be revised and called Symphonic Etudes between 1834 and 1835. After many revisions and alterations, the work was dedicated to Schumann’s English friend, William Sterndale Bennett who played the final version to great acclaim to British audiences. However, Schumann himself belittled his own composition and even advised his wife Clara, another great pianist and composer of exercises that many learners of the piano will know, not to play it in public! The music alternates between the lyrical and melancholy and the more excitable and dynamic with nine of the twelve etudes designated as variations on an andante theme which opens the work.

Program notes by Jai-Pee