6 minute read
Yefim Bronfman (Wu Tsai QRT.yrd
YEFIM BRONFMAN, piano
TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021 · 4:30 PM & 7:30 PM
WU TSAI QRT.yrd
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, Opus 22
(1770-1827)
Allegro con brio Adagio con molta espressione Menueto Rondo: Allegretto SCHUMANN Arabeske in C Major, Opus 18
(1810-1856)
CHOPIN Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Opus 58
(1810-1849) Allegro maestoso
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Largo
Finale: Presto non tanto Yefim Bronfman, piano
Program Notes by Eric Bromberger
Born December 16, 1770, Bonn Died March 26, 1827, Vienna Composed: 1800 Approximate Duration: 25 minutes
Beethoven made his early reputation in Vienna as a pianist, and it is not surprising that much of his early music is for that instrument: among his first 31 opus numbers are eighteen piano sonatas. The composer designated three of these early works “Grand Sonatas,” including the Sonata in B-flat Major heard on this program. This is a term without precise musical meaning, and without even a clear general meaning, since several of the sonatas that lack this title are in fact longer. That name is probably more a reflection of the composer’s sense that these are works of an unusual scope and range of expression: in a letter to his publisher, Beethoven enthusiastically proclaimed, “This sonata is really something.”
Beethoven composed the Sonata in B-flat Major during the second half of 1800. Earlier that year, his First Symphony and Septet had been successfully premiered in Vienna, but even now—as he was approaching his thirtieth birthday— Beethoven was still working to consolidate his command of classical form. Though this sonata is in four movements rather than the three of the classical style, it is in no sense a revolutionary or even groundbreaking work but is content to ride along on its amiable spirit and smooth rhythmic flow. The opening Allegro con brio illustrates this perfectly: despite the terse, almost epigrammatic opening measures, the music is soon flowing easily on its agreeable melodic material; Beethoven offers the expected exposition repeat, an extended development, and a fairly literal recapitulation. The Adagio, which Beethoven further qualifies con molta espressione, features a long span of melody, made ornate by its many trills, turns, and accidentals. The meter is a slowly-pulsing 9/8, but the music is remarkable for its sometimes florid runs and dark keys shift. The most striking feature of the brief Menueto is its trio section, which moves unexpectedly to G minor and turns fierce, with pounding chords over steady runs; the return to the opening minuet sounds virtually innocent after all this sharp energy. The last movement is an extended rondo, but the interesting thing here is the pace: Beethoven marks it Allegretto—unexpectedly slow for a rondo-finale—and the movement begins with a stately grace and at a tempo slow enough that the rondo theme can reappear in octaves. Yet Beethoven then breaks this easy manner with a number of differing episodes: some of these feel much faster, but only because they are written in 32nd-notes: the basic speed remains Allegretto throughout. Some of these episodes can be quite extroverted, even virtuosic, but the civilized spirit of the opening always returns as this agreeable music makes its way to the firm close.
Arabeske in C Major, Opus 18 ROBERT SCHUMANN
Born June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Germany Died July 29, 1856, Endenich, Germany Composed: 1838 Approximate Duration: 7 minutes
Schumann moved to Vienna in the fall of 1838, thinking that he and Clara Wieck might establish their home in that fabled city after their marriage. The visit was not a success. Unlike so many other composers, Schumann did not like Vienna—he found it a closed society, so conservative in its attitudes that he could not think of publishing his progressive musical journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik there. He remained only until the end of March 1839, when the death of his brother called him back to Leipzig.
The visit was not a total loss, however. While in Vienna, Schumann visited Schubert’s brother and in a stack of old music discovered the manuscript to the “Great” Symphony in C Major; this he sent to Mendelssohn, who performed it even before Schumann left Vienna. And while there, Schumann composed some pieces for piano. To his publisher he wrote: “I am composing very intensely at the moment and hoping to elevate myself to the rank of favorite composer of all women in Vienna.” His intending this music for women pianists was not meant as disparagement (Clara Wieck was one of the finest pianists on the planet) but as a statement about the music’s marketability: he was well aware of the growing number of young amateur women pianists, the daughters of the growing middle class. Like Schubert before him, he was ready to write for this new market, and the Arabeske—composed in December 1838—was intended (at least in part) for it.
Yet this lovely music should not be written off as a relatively easy piece intended for domestic consumption. Schumann’s use of the title Arabeske may seem open to question. An arabeske is not a specific musical form but rather a composition full of florid atmosphere and decoration (as in Debussy’s two Arabesques). Schumann’s Arabeske is in a classical form: it is a rondo based on a flowing—almost
impulsive—main subject, heard immediately. Along the way, Schumann offers two contrasting episodes, both full of dark and expressive shading, then rounds things off with a slow coda derived from the rondo tune. Whatever its original purpose, Schumann’s Arabeske continues to bring pleasure to audiences and performers—female and male—long after it was written.
Born February 22, 1810, ˙ Zelazowa Wola, Poland Died October 17, 1849, Paris Composed: 1844 Approximate Duration: 27 minutes
Chopin wrote the Piano Sonata in B Minor, his last large-scale composition for piano, during the summer of 1844, when he was 34. He composed the sonata at Nohant, the summer estate in central France he shared with the novelist George Sand. That summer represented a last moment of stasis in the composer’s life—over the next several years his relationship with Sand would deteriorate, and his health, long ravaged by tuberculosis, would begin to fail irretrievably. Dedicated to Madame la Comtesse Emilie de Perthuis, a friend and pupil, the Sonata in B Minor was published in 1845. Chopin himself never performed it in public.
Chopin’s sonatas have come in for a hard time from some critics, and this criticism intensifies to the degree that they depart from the formal pattern of the classical piano sonata. But it is far better to take these sonatas on their own terms and recognize that Chopin—like Beethoven before him—was willing to adapt classical forms for his own expressive purposes. The Sonata in B Minor is a big work—its four movements stretch out to nearly half an hour. The opening Allegro maestoso does indeed have a majestic beginning with the first theme plunging downward out of the silence, followed moments later by the gorgeous second subject in D major, marked sostenuto. The movement treats both these ideas but dispenses with a complete recapitulation and closes with a restatement of the second theme. The brief Molto vivace is a scherzo, yet here that form is without the violence it sometimes takes on in Beethoven. This scherzo has a distinctly light touch, with the music flickering and flashing across the keyboard (the right-hand part is particularly demanding). A quiet legato middle section offers a moment of repose before the returning of the opening rush.
Chopin launches the lengthy Largo with sharplydotted rhythms, over which the main theme—itself dotted and marked cantabile—rises quietly and gracefully. This movement is also in ternary form, with a flowing middle section in E major. The finale—Presto, non tanto—leaps to life with a powerful eight-bar introduction built of octaves before the main theme, correctly marked Agitato, launches this rondo in B minor. Of unsurpassed difficulty, this final movement—one of the greatest in the Chopin sonatas— brings the work to a brilliant close.
