Paul Lewis - Program Notes 92Y

PAUL LEWIS program notes

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN Born in Rohrau, Austria, March 31, 1732 Died in Vienna, May 31, 1809 PIANO SONATA IN E MINOR, HOB. XVI:34 Composed in 1778 or before; 14 minutes Long past the point when pirated scores had made Haydn world-famous, he negotiated a new contract in 1779 with his longtime employers, the Esterházy family, finally freeing him to publish more music for his own profit. The Keyboard Sonata in E Minor, first printed in 1783 in London, was just such a project, designed to appeal to amateurs who would play such works at home.

The fact that Haydn included dynamic markings of “forte” and “piano” indicates that his preferred instrument for this sonata would have been the cutting-edge fortepiano, a forerunner of the modern piano that allowed the performer to play at varying volumes. But plenty of families still had older harpsichords, and for maximum marketability these sonatas were advertised as being playable on either instrument.

There is a lightness and transparency to Haydn’s sonatas that sets them a world apart from the music his student/rival Beethoven wrote for the keyboard over the next several decades, especially as the piano developed rapidly into the heavier, richer instrument we know today.

The Presto first movement of Haydn’s E-minor Sonata makes the most of the clear and dry sonic environment, using pecking arpeggios, short phrase segments and ample pauses. But as the central Adagio demonstrates with its smooth slurs and luxurious ornaments, Haydn was also adept at drawing out broad, voice-like melodies. The very lively finale comes with the performance marking of “Innocently,” and alternations between E-minor and E-major preserve a sense of lightness to the end.

JOHANNES BRAHMS Born in Hamburg, May 7, 1833 Died in Vienna, April 3, 1897 THREE INTERMEZZI, OP. 117 Composed in 1892; 16 minutes Brahms announced his retirement in 1890, and again in 1894, but both times he felt compelled to continue composing, writing music that turned out to be some of the most haunting and beautiful of his entire life. Many of those late works were written for a particular clarinetist, resulting in the autumnal sonatas, trio and quintet featuring that instrument, but he also dedicated four consecutive opuses to music for solo piano, including the Three Intermezzi from 1892, works he described as “lullabies to my sorrows.”

For the first Intermezzo, in the key of E-flat major, Brahms inscribed a folk poem on the score that translates as, “Sleep softly my child, sleep softly and well! It hurts my heart to see you weeping.” The music’s surface has a child-like innocence, especially in the outer sections, where the right hand clings fast to the keynote of E-flat like a harmonic security blanket. The second Intermezzo in B-flat minor stitches together long, expressive arcs of melody using broken chords supported by a punctuated bass line. In the final Intermezzo in C-sharp minor, the recurring presentation of the theme in octaves and the dance-like rhythms evoke the bygone traditions of the Baroque era.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Born in Bonn, Germany, baptized December 17, 1770 Died in Vienna, March 26, 1827 33 VARIATIONS ON A WALTZ BY DIABELLI, OP. 120 Completed in 1823; 55 minutes

In 1819, the composer-turned-publisher Anton Diabelli circulated a patriotic waltz of his own invention among a diverse group of composers. His idea was to collect one variation from each and print them together as an album, a project that eventually included 50 contributions from such composers as Schubert (who had not been published before Diabelli began issuing his songs in 1821) and the 11-year-old Franz Liszt, who was invited into the project by his teacher, Carl Czerny.

Diabelli of course sought a contribution from Beethoven, the most famous composer alive.

There is conflicting evidence as to whether Beethoven refused outright at first—perhaps over the quality of Diabelli’s theme, which really is rather simplistic. Regardless, in that same year of 1819, Beethoven began elaborating on the theme with not one but several dozen variations. He set the variations aside while he composed the last three of his 32 piano sonatas, but the variations regained his attention in 1823, and they kept accumulating until they numbered 33.

We will never know exactly why Beethoven created this enormous, improbable set of variations based on relatively trivial source material. One important factor to remember is that he began his career in Vienna as a working pianist, entertaining his patrons with a mix of original compositions and improvisations on familiar tunes. While in his 20s, he took the time to write out many sets of variations on borrowed themes, and surely he invented many more on the fly. Even once his hearing loss sidelined him as a performer, and as he advanced beyond the orderly Classical style he inherited from Mozart and Haydn, variations remained a favorite method of musical development for Beethoven, as heard in standout symphonic movements like the Allegretto from the Seventh Symphony or the “Ode to Joy” from the Ninth Symphony.

Factors of nostalgia and legacy may have been at play when Beethoven constructed his “Diabelli” Variations. It seems no mere coincidence that he ended up with 33 variations, considering that the work’s closest analog in the history of music—Bach’s Goldberg Variations—comprised 32 sections, including the opening and closing presentation of the aria. There are certainly traces of Bach in Beethoven’s strict fugal writing in the 24th and 32nd variations. Mozart makes a humorous cameo as well, in the short 22nd variation that parodies a popular aria from Don Giovanni using nothing but bare octaves from the piano.

Coming from the late phase of Beethoven’s career that we associate with introspection and transcendence, the flat-out humor of the “Diabelli” Variations is striking, especially in the initial variations that manipulate and subvert Diabelli’s theme. Still, by the time the 33rd variation arrives some 45 minutes later to bookend the initial waltz with a wise and contemplative minuet, there is no doubt that a musical and spiritual transformation has occurred.