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CHOPIN COMPLETE ETUDES Alessandro Deljavan
ETUDES ‘Chopin carries you with him into a dreamland, in which you would like to dwell for ever’ Sir Charles Hallé The sunrise of modern piansim. The étude years, perfection of art and artistry. Chopin, Schumann, Moscheles, Henselt, Liszt. Chopin’s twenty-seven span a period from his post-Conservatoire days in Warsaw, through his travels across a Europe in turmoil, to his arrival in Paris, stage of his greatest triumphs and consummation as a creative artist. They stop just short of the George Sand era. Op.10 (1829-32) ‘Studies in my own manner’. Dedicated ‘a son ami F Liszt’. No.1 in C major Bachian in origin, Chopinesque in origination, this study, like the great closing one of the Op.25 set, takes the form of a romanticised baroque chorale essaying harmonic distinct from vocal melody. ‘The irregular, black, ascending and descending staircases of notes strike the neophyte with terror […exercising] a charm, hypnotic if you will, for eye as well as ear […] The nub of modern piano music is in […this study…] the key with which Chopin unlocked – not his heart, but the kingdom of technique’ (Huneker). No.2 in A minor Staccato bass, legato righthand chromatics for the third, fourth and fifth fingers. ‘As delicate as a silver-point drawing, as rounded and finished as a lyric of Heine’ (Jonson). No.3 in E major Arguably Chopin’s most illustrious melody – descendant of the adagio from Field’s Fifth Concerto. Originally marked vivace. No.4 in C sharp minor A technically spectacular, inventively extraordinary display of two-art polyphony. No.5 in G flat major [Black Key] The composer in Gradus ad Parnassum mood, witty and teasing, transcending the school-room, the right-hand black-note pentatonics ready to trip up even the most consumate klavier eagles. A piano fancier’s little paradise. No.6 in E flat minor Fatalistic melancholy, obsessed with inner semitones. No.7 in C major A 2
brilliant thirds and sixths toccata, ‘at times […] like light dripping through the trees of a mysterious forest’ (Huneker). No.8 in F major Rapid (but not too fast) righthand harmonies against an irresistible left-hand motif. No.9 in F minor At one level stretching the left hand, at another encapsulating the urgent and the wistful. Said to have been written for Moscheles, the Prague composer and pianist who befriended Beethoven and was an active force in London musical life. No.10 in A flat major Sixths, off-beat accents, intricate voicings, contrasted articulations, metric conflict. ‘He who can play this study in a real finished manner may congratulate himself on having climbed to the highest point of the pianist’s Parnassus’ (Hans von Bülow). No.11 in E flat major From the first group of studies written (autumn 1829), this is a remarkable exercise in widely-spread broken chords. A ‘guitar […] dowered with a soul,’ ‘tendrils of tone’ ‘celestial’, the ‘sigh’ of sundown (Huneker). No.12 in C minor [Revolutionary] A roaring bravura piece, subject of much anecdotal speculation associated with the Tsar’s crushing of the Warsaw Uprising, 6-8 September 1831. Op.25 (1832-36) Dedicated to Countess Marie d’Agoult, friend of Chopin, Sand and the literati, Liszt’s companion. At his Paris recital in Érard’s rooms, 9 April 1837, Liszt gave the first performance of several of the Op.25 collection, as well as possibly joining Chopin in a closing Grande valse. Reports of the occasion, however, strangely disagree. According to Le monde, Chopin was too ill to play; according to Le moniteur universel he was ‘warmly applauded’. No.1 in A flat major [Aeolian Harp; Shepherd Boy] The last of the set to be written (Dresden, by 12 September 1836). ‘Imagine that a [wind-blown] Aeolian harp possessed all the scales, and that an artist’s hand struck these with all kinds of fantastic, elegant embellishments […] and you will have some idea of [Chopin’s] playing […] we felt as though we had seen a lovely form in a dream, and, half awake, we strove to seize it again’ (Schumann). Kleczynski says that Chopin taught the piece in pastoral terms. ‘Imagine a little shepherd who takes refuge in a peaceful grotto from an approaching storm. In the distance rushes 3
the wind and the rain, while the shepherd gently plays a melody on his flute.’ No.2 in F minor Purling presto ‘quiet- hand’ triplets. ‘How charming, how dreamy […] Soft as the song of a sleeping child’ (Schumann). No.3 in F major ‘The tantalising, elusive charm of a hummingbird in full flight […] the sun blazes in the blue, and all is gay’ (Huneker). Musically, the cleverness of the number is how it travels to the tritonal remoteness of B major and then back to F. No.4 in A minor Disquieting syncopations, heightened staccato/legato contrasts. No.5 in E minor Caprice and poetry (the broad chested maggiore melody of the middle section. No.6 in G sharp minor Will-o’the wisp right-hand thirds, expressive left-hand melody/accompaniment. ‘With the Schumann Toccata [this] stands at the portals of the delectable land of double notes’ (Huneker). No.7 in C sharp minor Tragedy and torment, the sombre and the mysterious. Minor key elegy, major key yearning. Autumn storms, winter calms. No.8 in D flat major Double sixths. No.9 in G flat major [Butterfly] Light-action octaves, not for the faint-hearted. No.10 in B minor Legato octaves double and single, heavyduty and songful. No.11 in A minor [Winter Wind] ‘Open-air music, storm music […] processional splendour. Small-souled men, no matter how agile their fingers, should avoid it’ (Huneker). No.12 in C minor One of the great tone-poems, of Titanic climax and heroic chorale. B130; KK IIb/3 Trois nouvelles études (1839) ‘Composed expressly’ for Part III of the Méthode des Méthodes de Moscheles et Fétis – a publication including studies by Henselt, Liszt, Mendelssohn and Thalberg. No.1 in F minor Rhythmic duality, running motion (8 against 6). No.2 in A flat major Rhythmic duality, chordal motion (6 against 4). No.3 in D flat major Simultaneous (upper) legato and (lower) staccato in the same hand (RH). In the original Berlin edition the autograph order is changed to 1, 3, 2. © Ates Orga
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Born of an Italian mother and Persian father, Alessandro Deljavan began learning to play piano before the age of two and gave his first performances at age three. He has since performed around the world including in Austria, Belgium, China, Columbia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United States. Praise coming from the press and eminent pianists include: “Deljavan’s performance was revelatory in every respect.” “Everyone in the hall knew that they were hearing something special—something wonderful—from the very first notes. At the end, the spontaneous eruption of cheers was so different from the perfunctory ovation that any decent performance is awarded, that being a part of the thrilled crowd was a unique experience in itself.” —Gregory Sullivan Isaacs, Theater Jones(Fort Worth, Texas) “He is one of the most interesting pianists I have heard in my life.” —Fou Ts’ong, eminent pianist and pedagogue
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“His playing is full of intensive power and contagious artistry.” —Dmitri Bashkirov, eminent pianist and pedagogue
Also available from Alessandro Deljavan
“He is one of the most major talents of his age that I have ever heard and one of the few pianists I would go out of my way to hear.” —John Perry, eminent pianist and pedagogue Alessandro Deljavan has won top prizes in competitions including “Concours musical de France” (1st Prize, Paris,1996), Hummel Competition (2nd Prize, Bratislava, 2005), Gina Bachauer Young Artist Competition (5th Prize, 2005), Cliburn Competition (John Giordano Discretionary Award, 2009), Isangyun Competition (2nd Prize, Tongyeong, South Korea, 2010), and Cliburn Competition (Raymond E. Buck Discretionary Award, 2013). Alessandro has performed with orchestras such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestra Sinfonica Leopolis, Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, and the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Alessandro has a discography of over 30 albums with the Stradivarius, Brilliant Classics, Onclassical, Aevea, Naxos, Tactus and Piano Classics labels. In 2010, Alessandro became the youngest professor in an Italian conservatory. He is currently professor of piano at the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory of Bari, Italy. In addition, in the fall of 2015 Alessandro begins his appointment as professor of piano at the Accademia Vivaldi in Locarno, Switzerland. www.alessandrodeljavan.com
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Chopin Complete Waltzes 95208 1CD
Rubinstein: Complete Violin Sonatas 94605 3CD
Hummel: Complete Piano Trios 94898 2CD
Thank you to Daniela Cammarano, whose musicality brings me great inspiration
Recording: 4–5 January 2015, Kulturni Center ‘Lojze Bratuž’, Gorizia, Italy Producer: Alessandro Simonetto (OnClassical) Piano technician: Giulio Passadori Cover image: at the “Musma Museum” in Matera, by Luca Centola - & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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