A l s o ava i l a b l e A selection of Piano Classics titles For the full listing please visit www.piano-classics.com
Rachmaninoff Moments Musicaux Op. 16 Transcriptions
RAVEL COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC
FRANร OIS DUMONT
MENDELSSOHN LIEDER OHNE WORTE
CILEA
Acque correnti
Songs without Words Complete
Piano Music Cello Sonata
Alexander Ghindin 2-CD
PCL0054
PCLD0055
Sandro De Palma, piano
PCL0059
Fiorentino EDITION
VOLUME 3
SERGIO FIORENTINO
Bach
& THE EARLY PIANOFORTE
PCL0062
EDITION VOL. 3
Luca Guglielmi CRISTOFORI PIANO 1726 SILBERMANN PIANO 1749 HUBERT CLAVICHORD 1784
MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen
Alexander Gavrylyuk
PCL0063
RACHMANINOFF Preludes Piano Sonatas 1 & 2 Transcriptions
PCLD0065
2-CD
Balรกzs Szokolay
2-CD
By 1832, when Mendelssohn began selecting various short piano pieces he had written over the previous three years for publication, the term Lied defined a lyrical “art” song of a romantic nature in which musical ideas were generated by the subject matter and themselves enhanced the text - with words and music existing in a symbiotic relationship. So the concept of a Lied ohne Worte - a song without words - must have seemed a contradiction in terms. However it appears that in the Mendelssohn household, Lied could carry a special meaning. In 1828 Fanny Mendelssohn received a piano miniature in E flat major from Felix on the occasion of her twentythird birthday which she referred to as a “Lied ohne Worte”, the first recorded use of the term. In 1830 Felix sent another short piano piece with accompanying comment: “ I
have written a song for you expressive of my wishes and thoughts”. So for Fanny and Felix, it seems that a Lied could comprise a purely instrumental vehicle for the wordless communication of feelings and thoughts. A later reference by Fanny (in 1838) to their habit of creating textless songs in childhood suggests that this was a longstanding practice (and one to be distinguished from the “tasteless” production of concert fodder by certain “great talents” who simply removed text from existing Lieder - an obvious dig at Liszt whose transcriptions of Schubert songs had just begun appearing). “Lieder ohne Worte” was not however Mendelssohn’s first choice as a title for his new collection: this was the more generalized “Romanzen”, a term freighted with no textual associations. Yet when the English edition appeared in August
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1832, it was under the even more anodyne “Six Original Melodies for the Pianoforte”. As the publisher Novello had merely issued the work under its imprint, with the actual printing of the music overseen by his friend Ignaz Moscheles, it is likely that this bland title, which may have been a contributory factor in the disappointingly low sales of the first English edition, was Mendelssohn’s own. The French version appeared under the more intriguingly evocative “Romances san paroles” (perhaps in reaction to the poor reception of the London edition) but it was only when Simrock’s German version came out in 1833 that the work and all its successors achieved their defining identity as Lieder ohne Worte. Mendelssohn was careful to avoid providing any clues that might assist a search for concealed meaning within or behind these pieces. Of the thirty-
six published during his lifetime, only five are given titles - all generic and unrevealing of any extramusical hinterland (Ops. 19b/6, 30/6, 62/5, 38/6 and 53/2), with any descriptive material that may have appeared in the manuscript versions suppressed on publication (e.g. in the cases of Ops. 30/1 and 62/6). Such reticence did not however prevent the rapid accretion of interpretative titles or attempts to discern hidden meanings or even actual texts behind the Lieder. In response to one such speculation, Mendelssohn declared that words were inadequate (“so vague”, “so ambiguous”) as a vehicle for his true thoughts, which only music could convey: indeed the thoughts he was able to express in music were if anything “zu bestimmte” (too definite). So for him, it was not merely prima la musica… but solamente la musica.
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P i a n i s t B a l á z s S z o k o l ay Schumann perceptively identified the essence of the Lieder ohne Worte as sung melody arising spontaneously and unconsciously out of keyboard improvisation. And, although words may be absent, the Lieder are certainly constructed as songs. The Op 19b set established a pattern repeated in all its successors: a sequence of six pieces with distinct melodic lines for one, two or more voices (Op. 19b nos. 1 and 2, 6 and 3 and 4 respectively) often including a character piece (in this instance the sonata form no. 5). There is a balance of major and minor, fast and slow although Ops. 38 and 53 are faster paced overall. Mendelssohn published five more such sets on a regular basis every two or three years (and created bespoke collections for friends and acquaintances). The later sets contained works written several years previously so although
each one was carefully compiled, its component parts were not necessarily specifically composed with the others in mind to create an organic cycle. But the obvious attention Mendelssohn paid to the structure of each set (Op 67, his last personal selection, was entirely rethought at a very late stage) should discourage the cherry picking of pieces for separate performance – each one was intended to be heard in its place in its particular sequence. After Mendelssohn’s death in 1847, Simrock compiled further selections from unpublished material as Op. 85 (1850) and Op. 102 (1868) with several others, including the dramatic Reiterlied, one of the last minute exclusions from Op. 67, remaining unpublished for several more years (all of which are included here).
Text: David Moncur
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Balázs Szokolay was born into a family of musicians in Budapest in 1961. His father is a Kossuth prizewinner, composer Sándor Szokolay. Balázs started to play the piano at the age of five, taught by Erna Czövek. Later, at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, his professors included Klára Máthé, Pál Kadosa, Zoltán Kocsis, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados. Following his graduation in 1983, he won scholarships for two more years of studies in Munich and Moscow . He was instructed by Mikhail S. Voskresensky, Amadeus Webersinke, Ludwig Hoffmann and Yvonne Lefebure. From 1973 to 1990, he has been a prizewinner at many international piano and chamber music competitions, (including Usti-nad-Labem, Zwickau, Leeds, Brussels, Montreal, Terni, Monza, Glasgow and Budapest). More recently, he has been a frequent juror in major music competitions in countries such as the Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Bulgaria, and Russia. He has given concerts and offered masterclasses in over thirty countries on four continents. His repertoire covers a wide range of styles with a strong focus on chamber music. Among his chamber music partners are Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Amadinda ensemble, Clemens Hagen, Aurèle Nicolet, Zoltán Kocsis, Miklós Perényi, Gervaise de Peyer, Barnabás Kelemen, Vilmos Szabadi, Kristóf Baráti, István Várdai, Ádám Banda. As a soloist, Mr. Szokolay has performed with many orchestras, including the Franz Liszt ~5~
Chamber Orchestra and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. Among his most important concert invitations are: Festival La Roque d’Antheron; Miami Piano Festival; SchleswigHolstein; Spoleto; Sebok Festival; Tour in Japan; Concertgebouw; Konzerthaus Wien; Royal Festival Hall; Wigmore Hall; Torino Rai. He has recorded extensively with Naxos, Hungaroton, and other recording companies, included his own transcriptions. Some of his recordings has got international prizes. He has played numerous radio and television broadcasts at the request, among others, of the BBC – London, the RIAS – Berlin, the Bavarian Radio, the AVRO and TROS – Holland, the RAI – Torino, and the Hungarian Radio and Television. He has been a piano professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest since 1987. During the 1997-98 academic year, he worked as a guest professor at Yeungnam University, South Korea. In the Spring Semester of 2006, he was invited as a Visiting Scholar and piano professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, USA. 2009-12. He was a guest professor at the University of Graz, and since 2011 october he is a professor in Weimar F.Liszt Academy of Music. In 2001, he was awarded the prestigious Liszt Prize by the Hungarian Government.
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