Piano Summer

Schubert - Sonata in A major op. 120
Bartok - Out of doors suite
Rachmaninoff - 4 preludes
Debussy - Images bk. II

The Sonata in A Major by Franz Schubert is one of pure lyricism. Gentle shifts from major to minor, light to shade, color the work. Schubert composed it for a young lady who, he wrote, "is very pretty, plays the piano well, and is going to sing some of my songs." She was 18 years old at the time. Schubert was 22.

A titanic pianist himself, Bela Bartok wrote Out of Doors, along with his Sonata and first Piano Concerto, the same year for his own concert tours. Primitive, barbaric rhythms, melodies and textures permeate With Drums and Pipes, while the undulating accompaniment of Barcarolla supports a haunting melody. In Musettes, a possibly out of tune bagpipe wails away with discordant harmonies (which I actually find beautiful), while The Night’s Music, with its eerie, creepy crawly sonorities and timbers, paved the way for much 20th century music to come. Finally, The Chase - wild, frenetic, and rhapsodic, is quintessential Bartok.

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Preludes utilize the longstanding tradition, established by J. S. Bach, of weaving an entire composition out of a single motif. A roaming accompaniment supports an easy going melody in Prelude in E flat while a lilting figure proceeds though several transformations in the Prelude in B flat minor. Spinning an unending web, the Prelude in A flat spews a sparkling shower of color. Lastly, drama and angst infuse in the final Prelude in C minor.

In the second book of Images Claude Debussy steps into the countryside where sensation is king. Inspired by a rural walk on a rainy day, Debussy exploits the sonorities of the piano in Cloches à travers les feuilles where rustling patterns persist as a backdrop for sustained church bell-like tones. Influenced by the poet and dedicatee Louis Laloy, the exotic harmonies and fragmented melodies of Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut paint a forlorn picture of the past. Poissons d'or, with its glittering tremolos and capricious, darting twists and turns, is said to be inspired by a Japanese lacquer panel which the composer owned.
-M.V.