24th Singapore International Piano Festival

FANTASIES & MEMORIES 1-4 JUNE 2017 VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

JOSEPH MOOG WONG CHIYAN HüSEYIN SERMET STEPHEN KOVACEVICH

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Welcome to the 24th Singapore International Piano Festival.

Our theme this year, “Fantasies & Memories”, is drawn from two ideas prevalent in our pianists’ programmes. First, the idea that composers have for centuries expressed their most personal thoughts and experiences through their works, almost as if the score were a musical journal filled with autobiographical sketches and recollections. Perhaps the most vivid realisation of this idea is in Pictures At An Exhibition, where Mussorgsky imbues personal feelings over and above his raw depiction of the paintings by his late artistfriend as he walks through the gallery. There is also Mozart’s Masonic diary in the C minor Fantasy, K.475. And in the ground-breaking last movement of Beethoven’s late A-flat major Sonata, Op. 110, a pair of reflective, mournful arioso sections contrasts with a pair of more robust fugues, the second of which builds to an affirmative, exultant conclusion, likened by English musicologist Denis Matthews to “gathering of confidence after illness or despair”, a reflection of Beethoven’s mental and physical state at the time.

Second is the idea of old traditional musical forms being recast, re-looked at from a different perspective. For instance, the earliest fantasies – and there are several being performed this year – were improvisations centred around the textbook rules of strict musical form.

And there is the traditional sonata, which takes on a wider context in Schubert’s D.959: a sonata in name, but in its scale of expression, it is almost symphonic, or even like a lieder cycle in itself. Chopin, too, courageously recast the sonata to something altogether more dramatic and descriptive in his doom-laden Funeral March Sonata, confounding critics of the time – and Schumann – who condemned it for lack of cohesion.

To give pianistic voice to this rich variety of music is our exciting line-up of pianists this year, which, hopefully, once again reflects our effort to showcase music-making at the very highest level, from both established veterans as well as young musicians whom we believe are important rising stars. American-born Stephen Kovacevich, now 76, is one of the most revered pianists of our time, and Hüseyin Sermet, in his early 60s, is one of Turkey’s foremost pianists and composers with a wide-ranging repertoire. Hong Kong-born Chiyan Wong’s return this year follows from stunning Festival and SSO debuts here in 2012 and 2016 respectively, while German pianist Joseph Moog, 29, has already won all sorts of critical plaudits, including the coveted Young Artist of the Year from Gramophone in 2015.

For more than two decades we have been dedicated to presenting excellence in piano performance. This year, we are also rekindling our efforts to educate and enrich our community through outreach. After some adjustments to our resources and strategies, we are pleased to be able to present our first masterclasses, to be conducted by Sermet and Kovacevich.

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It is a testament to the greatness of the fifth maestro at work every year for 23 years running, often unseen, that virtually all our Festival pianists, and any others who have performed on our VCH Steinways, have had nothing but generous praise for his peerless work. I would like, on behalf of our staff and audience, to express our heartfelt thanks to our piano technician Walter Haass, without whom our Festival will certainly sound duller, and our pianists less satisfied with their Festival experience.

And our heartfelt gratitude, too, to you, our audience. Many of you are our regular supporters, some from far away. I truly appreciate the trust you have given us over the years to put together a meaningful, invigorating and, hopefully, inspiring musical concert experience for you.

I wish you an enjoyable Festival.

Lionel Choi Artistic Director

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FANTASIES & MEMORIES

PROGRAMME

Thu, 1 June 2017 JOSEPH MOOG HAYDN

Fantasy in C major, Hob. XVII:4

CHOPIN

Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35

Intermission 4

20'00

DEBUSSY

12 Etudes, L. 136: Livre I

LISZT arr. Joseph Moog

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor

Fri, 2 June 2017 WONG CHIYAN MOZART

Fantasy in C minor, K.475

CHOPIN

Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58

Intermission

20'00

MOZART/BUSONI

5 Kurze Stücke, BV 296: No. 5 Nach Mozart. Adagio

MOZART/BUSONI

An die Jugend, BV 254: No. 3 Giga, Bolero e Variazione

BUSONI

Sonatina Seconda, BV 259

LISZT/BUSONI

Réminiscences de Don Juan, S.418

Sat, 3 June 2017 HüSEYIN SERMET MENDELSSOHN

Fantasy in F-sharp minor, Op. 28 “Sonate écossaise”

BEETHOVEN

Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 “Waldstein”

Intermission

20'00

MUSSORGSKY

Pictures at an Exhibition

Sun, 4 June 2017 STEPHEN KOVACEVICH J.S. BACH

Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828

SCHUBERT

Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D.959

Intermission

20'00

BRAHMS

Ballade in B major, Op. 10, No. 4 Capriccio in D minor, Op. 116, No. 7 Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 76, No. 7 Intermezzo in A-flat major, Op. 76, No. 3 Intermezzo in E-flat minor, Op. 118, No. 6

BEETHOVEN

Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110

*There will be an autograph session after each recital at the VCH atrium, Level 1.

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JOSEPH MOOG

Born in 1987 in Ludwigshafen as the son of professional musicians, Joseph Moog’s ability to combine exquisite technical skill with a mature and intelligent musicality sets him apart as a pianist. A champion of rare and forgotten repertoire as well as composing his own works, Joseph was awarded the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year 2015 and was also GRAMMY-nominated for his most recent concerto recording.

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This season sees Joseph debut throughout Asia, performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Christoph Poppen, plus recitals at the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, Musashino Swing Hall in Tokyo and the 24th Singapore International Piano Festival.

Joseph has earned a reputation as a formidable recitalist, opening the Master Pianists Series last season at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as well as performing at the Moscow International House of Music, Louvre Auditorium in Paris, New Ross Piano Festival, Fribourg International Concert Series, Istanbul Recitals and the Tallinn Piano Festival among others.

Plus, following his Wigmore debut in 2014, Joseph will return to London for a series of recitals up to 2021.

Equally as impressive in his diverse concerto repertoire, Joseph has previously performed at the Helsinki Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia at the Munich Gasteig, Saarlandisches Staatsorchester, Poznan Philharmonic and Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux in Paris, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Berlin Konzerthaus, Dortmund Konzerthaus, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Munich Gasteig, Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg, Stuttgart Liederhalle, Mariinsky Theater Auditorium and Mikhailovsky Palace in St. Petersburg, De Doelen in Rotterdam, Auditorium della Conciliazione in Rome, Royal Albert Hall in London

“... a treasure hunter with supernatural technical abilities...”

RADIO BREMEN

and at international festivals such as La Roque d’Antéron and the Ruhr Klavierfestival.

A personal highlight for Joseph was his performance of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with the Bochumer Symphoniker at the Dortmund Konzerthaus as part of the Ruhr Klavierfestival 2015, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death.

Renowned conductors whom Joseph has had the privilege of working with include Thomas Sønderg˚a rd, Andrey Boreyko, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Juanjo Mena, Christian Vásquez, Christoph Poppen, Pablo Gonzalez, Ari Rasilainen, Marcus Bosch, Toshiyuki Kamioka, John Axelrod, Fabrice Bollon, Theodor Guschlbauer, Petr Altrichter, Patrick Lange, Othmar Mága, Philippe Entremont, Markus Poschner and Michael Sanderling.

Moog has received numerous awards for his recordings as well as outstanding critiques from the international press. His latest CD featuring Chopin’s complete piano sonatas was released in autumn/winter 2016. His Grieg & Moszkowski Piano Concertos CD, released in 2015 by Onyx Classics, has breathed new life into Moszkowski’s neglected concerto as well as exciting critics with his fresh take on the perennially popular Grieg. Yet again Joseph showed his ability to present repertoire in an intelligent and interesting way, as he did on his recital CD with Tchaikovsky’s Grande Sonate in G, Op. 37 cunningly paired with Scharwenka’s Sonata No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 36.

A 2015 Gramophone Award winner, Moog has twice won at the International Classical Music Awards, receiving the Award for Young Artist of the Year in 2012, and the Award for Solo Instrumentalist of the Year in 2014, awarded jointly with the celebrated pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja. Further distinctions such as Musikpreis der Deutsche Konzertdirektion, four SuperSonic Awards, Advancement Award of the Rhineland Palatinate and SchleswigHolstein Festivals, the Pianist’s Choice, Prix Groupe de Rothschild (Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad) and the Rhine-Mosel Musikpreis document the professional path of this young pianist, who was named a Young Steinway Artist in 2009.

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1 June JOSEPH MOOG JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) Fantasy in C major, Hob. XVII:4 Tonight’s programme consists of four very different masterworks and it will begin with Haydn’s incredible Fantasia in C. Although this work is in C major, it is in fact an expedition in search of a key. Haydn obviously enjoyed playing games with the audiences of the time and his music still has its impact today. He starts this colourful work with a seemingly simple melody including a few characteristic repetitions, reminding us of a cuckoo’s call and to me this already gives the first hint of his intention.

While many historians see Haydn’s humour as some form of making fun of the less intellectual, I strongly believe he simply enjoyed the moment of surprise.

His ability to lead you in the wrong direction and then introduce something completely unexpected has become one of his trademarks and paved the way for many great composers of the following centuries, especially Beethoven.

Joseph Moog 8

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–1849) Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 1.

2.

3.

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Grave – Doppio movimento Scherzo Marche funèbre. Lento – attacca: Finale. Presto

Considering that it is one of Chopin’s boldest, most extraordinary works – not to mention, one of his most enduringly popular – it is a bit surprising that even his admirers found little to like (or, should one say, much to loathe) in his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35. Robert Schumann was one of Chopin’s most eminent and vocal supporters, famously declaring in his review of the Variations on “La ci darem la mano”, Op. 2 in 1831, “Hats off, gentlemen! A genius.” Yet, just over a decade later, he did not hold back discussing his utter disdain for Chopin’s latest contribution to the sonata genre. “He alone begins and ends a work like this: with dissonances, through dissonances, and in dissonances,” said Schumann, criticising the four movements as being “four of [Chopin’s] most bizarre creations”. According to some other sources, Schumann is quoted as calling them “four reckless children”!

There is certainly nothing reckless about the first movement, in which an embarrassing wealth of musical ideas is creatively and rationally developed in a sonata form. It opens in grand fashion, its galloping first subject feverishly agitated, contrasting nicely with a radiant

second subject, presented first in simple homophony and later with more harmonically complex and increasingly energetic, even brutally assaulting accompaniment, until, as if infected by the shorter units of the first subject, its lyrical nature is entirely lost.

There is nothing particularly playful about the second movement scherzo. Instead, Chopin offers aggressive, terse, rapid-fire chords which kick-box their way into one’s consciousness with machine-gun precision. This ruggedness contrasts starkly with the dazed lyricism of the trio.

More contrasts are offered in the famous third movement, a funeral march which Chopin wrote on the island of Majorca well before he started on the other three movements which were written at the country home of his lover George Sand (pseudonym of French novelist Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin) in Nohant, near Paris. If the brooding, desolate, dirge-like nature of the slow, deathly march sounds uncomfortably apocalyptic – likened by some to be a reference to the falling of the composer’s beloved home-country, Poland – Chopin offers sweet, contrasting relief with an achingly beautiful, dream-like melody, fragments of which actually, on closer analysis, form the basis of most of the other themes throughout the sonata.

The finale, marked Presto, is admittedly rather bizarre, especially when compared to the preceding movements of considerably more thematic and dramatic substance. Written entirely in a whirlwind triplet figuration with both hands in sotto voce and legato unison in octaves and within a very narrow dynamic range – its unearthly, shuddering whispers likened by Anton Rubinstein to “night winds over the churchyard graves” – it lasts well under two minutes and has no discernible melody of any kind. If Schumann’s reaction to the earlier funeral march, which he thought “repulsive”, is arguably unjustified, one can perhaps sympathise with him here, even today.

Lionel Choi

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) 12 Etudes, L. 136: Livre I 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Pour Pour Pour Pour Pour Pour

les les les les les les

"cinq doigts" d'après Monsieur Czerny tierces quartes sixtes octaves huit doigts

Debussy’s Twelve Etudes for piano solo belong to the most advanced and progressive works amongst his oeuvre. Within this cycle, he explored new ways to write for piano and he faced the challenge of composing music based on certain restrictions; for example in the use of certain intervals, techniques or historical styles as references.

His approach to the classical form of the etude is unusual, transforming the “study” into a progressive concert piece and thereby paving the way for some of the most famous modern etudes such as those by Stravinsky, Ligeti or Dutilleux.

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Debussy’s contribution to the genre is so typical of piano music. It literally expanded the range of trademarks and opportunities when writing an etude. Apart from form, he also tried out new, more abstract harmonics and melodic systems, often generating a highly fascinating and unconventional texture.

For me as a performer as well as for the listeners, this cycle becomes a breath-taking journey into early modernism, without losing the well-established magic and beauty of Debussy’s impressionism.

Joseph Moog

FRANZ LISZT (1811–1886) Arr. JOSEPH MOOG Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor Franz Liszt was born in Raiding, which is Austria today. However, until 1920/1921 it used to be part of Hungary and was known by the name “Dobornya”.

Liszt was very proud of his Hungarian roots and composed a large number of works referencing folkloric music from the country of his birth. Most prominently, he has written 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies and a few of these are his best-known compositions.

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His 12th Hungarian Rhapsody is less-known, but it is a typical and brilliant example of the genre. Like Haydn (who also had some roots in Hungary) in his Fantasia, Liszt wrote a fiery fantasy consisting of several episodes very different in character, making it a “Rhapsody”.

One can easily imagine the little bells, the virtuosic violinists and the tambourines from Gypsy music in this piece. The musical mastermind of Liszt forms and shapes, sometimes even combines, the various musical elements and themes.

Towards the end of the work, he imitates the stylistic Gypsy element of acceleration from a slow tempo right through to the last chord of the work, losing nothing of its power and impact.

Joseph Moog

WONG CHIYAN

Wong Chiyan has been astonishing audiences with the sincerity and sheer authority of his playing. He is a broad and thoughtful musician with a special interest in the music of Franz Liszt and Ferruccio Busoni. He has studied improvisation with the French-Lebanese organist Naji Hakim in Paris and is an honours graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Christopher Elton. In April 2016 Wong made his debut with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. He released his debut recording in 2017 on Linn Records which feature Franz Liszt’s operatic transcriptions completed and edited by himself.

In 2010 Wong made his Asian debut at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and at the International Music Festival in Dinard, France at the invitation of Kun-Woo Paik. In 2011 Wong was invited to return to Hong Kong for a Liszt live broadcast recital (part of the city’s celebration of the composer’s bicentenary) sponsored by the Radio Television Hong Kong Corporation.

Debuts in 2012 include Wigmore Hall, where he performed an all-Liszt recital, the 19th Singapore International Piano Festival, and Sacile, Italy.

Wong has enjoyed working with conductors such as Edward Gardner and Okko Kamu. Other European performances have included concerts for the Liszt Society, an extensive recital tour in Germany, and the Bad Bocklet Spring Music Festival. Upcoming performances include recitals in the United Kingdom, Germany and Hong Kong.

Wong was the sole recipient of the Bernard van Zuiden Music Fund of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (2007) and won First Prize at the Jaques Samuel Pianos Intercollegiate Piano Competition (2011). In addition, he has been awarded prizes by the Hattori Foundation in London, the International Piano Competition in memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Ukraine and the Premio Liszt in Parma. He is a recipient of the Postgraduate Performance Award by the Musicians Benevolent Fund and the ABRSM Macklin Bursary.

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“Chiyan Wong is an exciting, original and thoughtful pianist. Nothing sounds ‘bought in’; everything sounds freshly but not self-consciously conceived.”

STEPHEN HOUGH

Wong Chiyan was born in Hong Kong, where he began his piano studies at the age of six with Grace Man. He moved to England at the age of 12 to pursue his studies at the Chethams School of Music and Royal Northern College of Music under Norma Fisher.

He is currently pursuing further music studies as a Lee Hysan Foundation Scholar. He is grateful to the support of Lady Valerie Solti, Lionel Choi and John Burgess. Wong Chiyan is represented worldwide by Percius.

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2 June WONG CHIYAN WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) Fantasy in C minor, K.475 Mozart’s Fantasy, K.475 is a work which begins and concludes in the key of C minor (sharing the same tonality as that of the Chorus of the Two Armoured Men from Die Zauberflöte, K.620, The Great Mass, K.427, the Masonic Funeral Music, K.477, the Piano Sonata K.457 and the Piano Concerto No. 24, K.491. It is in this key that we find Mozart in his darkest, not to be confused perhaps with his D minor tonality, associated more with death), setting the scene for a volatile interchange of keys and textures. There is the sparse, cryptic opening (derived from a chromatically descending line, that Bachian symbol of grief) that gives way to an extemporisation of the opening motif in different harmonies. Then comes a chaste cantilena in D major, followed by a stormy passage, leading to an outpouring stream of an aria in full flow.

A section then begins after a meandering through different harmonic possibilities that suggests a woodwind ensemble in B-flat major. An even more volatile “storm” section appears, even more abrasive and bewitching. These dissonances are worked into an abyss of silence before the motif from the opening returns; it is a play on time itself. In some ways, the return can sound post-modern. The work is Palladian on the surface, but within it are the most intricate, subtle patterns that would not be out of place in the Chartres Cathedral.

Wong Chiyan

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–1849) Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 1.

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Allegro maestoso Scherzo. Molto vivace Largo Finale. Presto, ma non tanto

If Chopin’s miniatures, comprising volumes of mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes and so on, left him with a reputation of being feminine and more of a salon composer, and as critics gawked at how his big-form sonatas and concertos could possibly measure up against those of the more “masculine” Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, all these hardly represented the true picture. In reality, Chopin was no stranger to creating large forms. Each of the Ballades and Scherzos, as well as the F minor Fantasy, the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the F-sharp minor Polonaise, is as long as or longer than an average movement of a Beethoven sonata. The fact is that only those whose notion of the sonata was based strictly on formal, rigid Viennese models or stereotypes failed to recognise in the piano sonatas of Chopin’s mature years two of the most finished and coherent contributions to the reformation of the genre.

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The Sonata No. 3 in B minor of 1844, composed on the summer estate in central France the composer shared with the novelist George Sand, is an epic work, stretching to nearly half an hour. The first movement, a marvel of rational development involving a great wealth of ideas in a loose sonata form, opens in grand fashion, its first subject full of restless mobility. A transitional passage, which is itself rich in new and significant material, links to the gorgeous second subject in D major, marked sostenuto. The contrasting majestic and gentle elements fuel the dramatic tensions and the rambling fantasy of the development section. The movement dispenses with a complete recapitulation, closing with only a restatement of the second subject.

The brief second movement Molto vivace is an airborne scherzo with the music flickering and flashing across the keyboard, its right-hand part particularly demanding. A quiet legato middle section offers a moment of repose before the return of the opening, light-footed rush.

Chopin launches the lengthy third movement Largo with curt octaves in sharply-dotted rhythms which pervade, and over which the main theme – itself dotted and marked cantabile – rises quietly and gracefully, slow and dreamlike. This movement is also in ternary form, with a flowing middle section in E major.

The finale leaps to life with a powerful eight-bar introduction built on mighty upward octave swoops, before the main theme, unmistakably agitato, launches this rondo in B minor. Of unsurpassed difficulty, this final movement – one of the greatest in the Chopin sonatas and representing the composer at his most incandescent, hardly feminine – brings the work to an exultant, brilliant close.

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Lionel Choi

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866–1924) 5 Kurze Stücke, BV 296: No. 5 Nach Mozart. Adagio An die Jugend, BV 254: No. 3 Giga, Bolero e Variazione Sonatina Seconda, BV 259 Busoni’s Klavierübung is a gift to the inquisitive student of the piano, although from the outset, it harbours no intention to be a complete catalogue of technical exercises. In its second edition, which consisted of ten books, six are devoted to particular textures; scales and its forms, chords and its related combinations, three-hand textures, trills and most extensively, staccato playing, which was characteristic of his later style. Whilst all the six books include arranged excerpts from existing music such as Beethoven’s Sonatas and Liszt’s Studies, and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, the last four books are even more extensive reworking of pre-existing material. There are the eight Cramer studies which are reworked, and he revises his earlier Chopin Variations by distilling its form, and concludes the set with the Paganini-Liszt studies, which are also provided with alternative passages, variants and solutions. The penultimate book concerns itself with cultivating an ability to handle polyphonic textures.

In his Nach Mozart: Adagio, Busoni extracts the chorus of the two armoured men from the finale of Act 2 of Die Zauberflöte. He produces a relatively straight transcription of the chorus itself (at the words “Wenn er des Todes Schrecken…”, the chorale line is taken up an octave), and breaks off just before Tamino’s interjection. Busoni’s admiration for this

particular scene from Die Zauberflöte can be seen from his writings; he singles them out for praise when he speaks of examples of Mozart’s “wonderful network of harmonic delicacy, contrapuntal facility, and melodic structure where you will find yourself transposed into a mood which holds you mid-way between crying and laughing, owing to the way in which it moves and exhilarates you at the same time”. 1 Yet his respect is such that this sudden change in texture produces an awkward break after a continued flow of the narrative.

Instead of Tamino’s answer to the C major chords, Busoni hollows out the remaining bar with silence, and re-iterates the opening solemn introduction of the chorus. He rhythmically transforms the figures of the quavers in the beginning to appoggiatura figures, thereby alluding to yet another section of Die Zauberflöte; the terzetto of the three child-spirits in Act 2, “Seid uns zum zweiten mal wilkommen, ihr Männer in Sarastros Reich!” – perhaps finding significance in the words themselves; the combination of the meter of the terzet and the chorus of the two armoured men create tense textures in the closing section of Busoni’s reworking.

Busoni’s An die Jugend, BV 254: No. 3 Giga, Bolero e Variazione (nach Mozart) is a by-product of a unique creative mind which seeks no categorisation of paraphrases, original works, nor transcriptions or quotations. Ferruccio Busoni’s reworking of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Gigue, K.574 is interpolated with the fandango from La Nozze di Figaro, K. 492, which he obscures by calling the fandango a bolero, which is a French relative of the Iberian dance. The Gigue returns in a varied form.

Ferruccio Busoni once declared that “the problem of the Liszt Sonata is solved”, writing that it was possible to hear “good” performances of the piece everywhere in Berlin, where he resided. Indeed, there was a time when the recognition of Liszt’s B-minor Sonata was not certain. In our time, Busoni’s Sonatina Seconda, BV 259 is still as elusive as it has been for the 105 years that have passed since its conception. The “problem of the Sonatina Seconda” still remains a mystery.

The Sonatina Seconda is a torrential stream of visions. Dispensing with the conventional system of barlines and accidentals, the work’s premiere predated the notorious introduction of The Rite of Spring by a year, in Milan, 1912. It caused a sensational furore.

The piece begins with the marking: “Il tutto vivace, fantastico, con energia, capriccio e sentimento” In the work, our senses will be provoked by the world of automatons, night visions, transient states between life and death, death and the afterlife, the exceptional and the supernatural, in a world of limitless possibilities. There is within it as well, Busoni’s admiration for the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Music is the most mysterious of the arts. Around it should float something solemn and festival-like. The entrance to it should be through ceremony and mystery as to a Freemasons’ Lodge...

That is why I love The Magic Flute, because it unites enigma with drama.”

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Busoni, Ferruccio. “The Essence of Music and other papers” Translated from the German by Rosamond Ley. Rockliff Publishing Company, 1957 (Page 111)

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Busoni was 45 at the time of the Sonatina’s conception (in 1911), and had begun thinking about a work that would eventually become his opera, Doktor Faust, which he would work at until his dying days in 1923 – and it was incomplete. Various motifs from the Sonatina would eventually find their way into the Doktor Faust opera. Most significantly it would be that of the three students from Kraków, which very likely could have been derived from the three child-spirits from Die Zauberflöte. Do these two motifs just bear an uncanny resemblance, or is that really Busoni’s rhythm of thought? “Music is sonic air,” Busoni would say. The motif for the magic book, Clavis Astartis Magica is derived from the same chromatically descending line, which also serves as the building blocks for the opening of Mozart’s aforementioned Fantasy in C minor, K.475.

Often described as Busoni’s most forward-thinking work, this work is an alchemist’s experiment to finding the philosophers’ stone; that ideal that he derived from thinking about, listening to, playing Mozart’s music. Did Busoni attain that Mozartean ideal? In his libretto for Doktor Faust, the protagonist beholds an image of “the ideal”, which is a vision of Helen of Troy. He tried to reach out to it, but realises that it is an illusion conjured up

by Mephistopheles. Busoni left this scene without music, for he died before he was able to complete it. Perhaps that is what makes it so powerful about Busoni and his music, that he became a hero who was forever in pursuit of that ideal, for what he called The Essence of Music. He set himself to be the ultimate example, and in so doing, was also the sacrifice.

The Sonatina Seconda begins with a motif in the guise of a solo cello line, recalling the motif in the opening Easter Vespers of Doktor Faust, unfolding a magical, mysterious, musical incantation.

“A history of man and his desire This night to sound of music has been told, The tragedy of Faustus did inspire The tale of doom before your eyes unroll’d.

So many metals cast into the fire, Does my alloy contain sufficient gold?

If so, then seek it out for your own hoard; The poet’s travail is his sole reward.

Still unexhausted all the symbols wait That in this work are hidden and conceal’d: Their germs a later school shall procreate Whose fruits to those unborn shall be reveal’d.

Let each take what he finds appropriate; The seed is sown; others may reap the field.

So, rising on the shoulders of the past, The soul of man shall reach his heaven at last.”

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Epilogue to Doktor Faust Ferruccio Busoni 23 July 1922 (Translated by Edward J. Dent)

Wong Chiyan

FRANZ LISZT (1811–1886) FERRUCCIO BUSONI (1866–1924) Réminiscences de Don Juan, S.418 Liszt, in the opening “evocation” of his Réminiscences du Don Juan, S.418, recasts one of the emblematic D minor moments in Mozart’s music – that of the Commendatore from the opera, Don Giovanni, K.527. This extemporisation of Mozart’s opera begins with the doom-laden music both from Act 2, where the Commendatore warns Don Giovanni and eventually condemns him to Hell. The middle section of the work concerns itself with Don Giovanni’s love duet with Zerlina, La ci darem la mano. The work concludes with the socalled “Champagne aria” – Fin ch’an dal vino. Like an Aesop’s Fable, the Commendatore’s admonition is recalled briefly before the work is brought to a close.

Wong Chiyan

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HüSEYIN SERMET

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Turkish pianist and composer Hüseyin Sermet’s thirty-year career reflects his wide-ranging musical interests and intensely personal vision, encompassing a large and eclectic repertoire and pianistic versatility. He has performed all over the world with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Semyon Bychkov, David Robertson, Lawrence Foster, Pablo Heras-Casado, Jonathan Nott, James Gaffigan and Hans Graf, and instrumentalists Maria João Pires, Gautier and Renaud Capuçon. He has worked with orchestras including the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Bamberger Symphoniker, and NHK, Shanghai, Tokyo and Detroit symphony orchestras, amongst many others.

Recent performances have included concerts with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Peter Inkinen), Trondheim Symfoniorkester and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (both under Krzysztof Urba ń ski), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Sir Roger Norrington), Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Michel Plasson), Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia (Sir Neville Marriner) and Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai (Tito Ceccherini).

Sermet has given solo recitals at major series and venues worldwide, including London’s International Piano Series, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Paris’ Cité de la Musique, Munich’s Cuvilliés-Theater, Lisbon’s Dias da Musica, Copenhagen’s Tivoli and the Oxford and Lille Piano festivals. Last season he made his recital debut at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Equally active as a composer, Sermet’s first major composition Réminiscènce I was premiered at the Empéri Festival in 1997 and broadcast live by France Musique. A commission from Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Dream and Nightmare, was premiered in 2004, and in 2006 there followed Sculptures 1, commissioned byʼI’ ş Bank. Most recently, Réminiscènces II received its premiere in Istanbul in May 2012.

“Most impressive was Sermet’s delicacy and his remarkable ability to terrace his tone to elucidate textures… A remarkable, memorable recital.”

INTERNATIONAL PIANO

A devoted mentor of young talent and highly regarded for his many appearances in Japan, Sermet was filmed by NHK TV for a series of 15 televised masterclasses with young pianists broadcast throughout Japan.

Many of Hüseyin Sermet’s numerous recordings for Naïve, Harmonia Mundi and Erato have won major international prizes, including his disc of Ravel’s solo piano works, three discs devoted to Alkan (all winning a Diapason d’Or de l'Année), a selection of Schubert’s works for four hands with Maria João Pires and a recording of Liszt’s Piano Sonata and late works.

Hüseyin Sermet was born in Istanbul in 1955 and began his education at the Ankara State Conservatoire. He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and later at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot with Thierry de Brunhoff, Nadia Boulanger and Maria Curcio. He also studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and received the Lili Boulanger Award for his early string quartet.

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3 June HüSEYIN SERMET FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847) Fantasy in F-sharp minor, Op. 28 “Sonate écossaise” 1. Con moto agitato - Andante - Con moto agitato 2. Allegro con moto 3. Presto Scottish history, culture and folk music were a source of inspiration for many 19th-century German musicians, including Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. Mendelssohn was no exception, however unlike the others, he actually visited Scotland. After garnering acclaim for leading the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion since Bach’s death, Mendelssohn was invited to conduct the London Philharmonic Society in the summer of 1829. He then continued on to Scotland, where his visit to Edinburgh inspired his Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”, which would take him ten years to complete, and his foray into the Scottish Highlands was immortalized in the Hebrides Overture, also known as “Fingal’s Cave”.

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Mendelssohn had begun the “Sonate écossaise” (“Scottish” in French) some months before his travels to the British Isles, but would not return to it until 1833. At that time it still bore the original title, but it was published as the “Fantasy in F-sharp minor” the following year. He gave no reason for the change of title, and the original one has gained currency in recent times. Scottish flavour is evident in Mendelssohn’s use of the harp and drone-like passages, while the war-like finale is a precursor to the rousing conclusion of the Scottish Symphony. His other inspiration was Beethoven’s Sonata quasi una fantasia, commonly known as the Moonlight Sonata, in which the composer blurred the distinction between the sonata and fantasy. The Fantasy shares the same structure as Beethoven’s work, with each movement being progressive faster than the preceding one.

Mendelssohn does not fit the stereotype of the struggling Romantic artist, as he was born into a prosperous, intellectual Jewish family, although his parents did convert to Christianity. He was precocious, composing the Overture to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream when he was only 17 years old. He did however, share the fate of many of his contemporaries, dying at the age of 37 from a combination of overwork, despair over the death of his beloved sister, Fanny, and the debilitating hereditary high-blood pressure from which he suffered.

Rick Perdian

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 “Waldstein” 1. Allegro con brio 2. Introduzione: Adagio molto 3. Rondo. Allegretto moderato – Prestissimo Count Ferdinand Ernst von Waldstein may not have “discovered” Beethoven, but he was among the first to grasp the young man’s genius and was instrumental in furthering his career. The Viennese nobleman encountered Beethoven sometime in the 1780s in Bonn, when the young musician’s keenest desire was to study with Mozart, whose early death in 1791 precluded that possibility. With a letter of introduction and financial support from Waldstein, Beethoven went to Vienna the following year to study with Haydn. Waldstein bid him farewell with the words, “May you receive the spirit of Mozart through the hands of Haydn.” Equally important was the Count’s letter of introduction to Prince Karl Lichnowsky, who not only provided Beethoven with housing, but would become one of his most important patrons.

Waldstein vehemently opposed the imperial ambitions of Napoleon. His warmongering in Vienna resulted in his banishment from the Imperial Court. Undeterred, he raised and funded a private army, bankrupting himself in the process. He returned to Vienna in 1805 (in disguise to evade his creditors), ultimately ending up living in a poorhouse. Beethoven, certainly aware of Waldstein’s change of fortune, dedicated this piano sonata to him, though there was little contact between them after the Count’s ignominious return to Vienna. On the day of Waldstein’s death in 1823, he received news that his older brother had died and that he was now the heir to the family fortune.

The Waldstein is one of the most important works from Beethoven’s Middle or “Heroic” period. Composed during the summer of 1804, immediately after the Third Symphony “Eroica”, it is characterised by the technical brilliance and bold themes that dominate Beethoven’s output from that time. In France, the sonata is known as “L’Aurore” (“Dawn”), as the three movements appear to reflect the transition from one day to the break of the following morning. The first movement begins softly with repeated chords, but quickly becomes more agitated. A sense of tranquility pervades the slow second movement.

Beethoven dispensed with tradition in the final Rondo, creating a virtuosic showpiece that ends on triumphal note.

Rick Perdian

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MODEST MUSSORGSKY (1839–1881) Pictures at an Exhibition Promenade Gnomus Promenade 2. Il vecchio castello Promenade 3. Les Tuileries 4. Byd ło Promenade 5. Ballet des poussins dans leur coque 6. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle Promenade 7. Limoges – le marché 8. Catacombae: Sepulcrum romanum; con mortuis in lingua morta 9. La Cabane sur des pattes de poule 10. La Porte des Bohatyrs de Kiev (La Grande Porte de Kiev) 1.

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Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition of 1874 – an enormous musical elegy to the composer’s friend, the artist Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann who had died in the summer of the previous year – provoked a massive outcry, the real reasons for which are not particularly clear. Some commentators have suggested that the likes of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were shocked by the underlying ruggedness of the writing, mistaking the vigorous audacities for cheap, vile parody, so much so that the latter and many others later strove to “revise” the work in different ways, their aim (among other things) to iron out Mussorgsky’s original rough-hewn liberties. But then again, had they not been already exposed to the celebrity of Liszt, whose similarly raw, pungent harmonies in works like the Totentanz had already taken the world by storm at least a decade earlier? A better explanation might perhaps be that Mussorgsky’s uncompromising originality – not just in terms of the work’s broad conception but also in the vividness and intensity of his writing that, to some, far outshone Hartmann’s modest talents – flew in the face of his compatriots’ own styles at that time. And at least among pianists and pianophiles today, it is felt that the vigour of Mussorgsky’s original text, with its unorthodox pianism and all, hardly needs to be smoothened out; if anything, it is not only the most authentic but also the most convincing.

The work essentially depicts the many feelings and emotions of the composer strolling round a Hartmann exhibition, his amble subtly changing in mood at different times and captured by a deceptively simple, folk-inspired pentatonic Promenade theme which recurs between tableaus, of which Mussorgsky selected ten: Gnomus (The Gnome) – a dwarf of the nightmarish, malignant and grotesque variety, its random, disjointed scampering and darting movements musically depicted with the sharpest differentiation in note figurations, tempo and dynamics.

Il vecchio castello (The old castle) – a medieval structure of melancholic beauty, finding eloquent expression in a troubadour’s nostalgic lament, tellingly marked con dolore, of “old, unhappy, far-off things/And battles long ago”.

Les Tuileries (In the Tuileries Gardens) – the mischievous taunts of children playing in the gardens of Paris.

Bydł o – a passing heavy Polish ox-drawn cart, its puffing and panting movement steady and lumbering.

Ballet des poussins dans leur coque (Ballet of the unhatched chicks) – the comical wriggling of chickens in their shells to the tune of a frisky, brilliantly rhythmic scherzo.

Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle – Two Polish Jews, one of whom is rich and pompous, the other poor and wheedling, their contrasting states of mind played out as if they were in one and the same person.

Limoges - le marché – the cackling chatter of gossiping women in the marketplace at Limoges.

Catacombae: Sepulcrum romanum; con mortuis in lingua morta (Catacombs: Roman Sepulchre; With the Dead in a Dead Language) – an oasis of pulsating and shimmering sepulchral calm, the Promenade theme is stealthily reworked to portray rows of skulls in a dimly-lit tomb, followed by a hallucinatory episode as the spirit of the dead artist addresses its dead audience “in the language of the dead”.

La Cabane sur des pattes de poule (The Hut on fowl’s legs) – a vivid portrayal of BabaYaga, the fiercest witch in Russian folklore, in frenzied flight across the sky, accompanied by shrieking owls.

La Grande Porte de Kiev (The Great Gate of Kiev) – a final, majestic procession through the magnificent Bogatyrs’ Gate at Kiev, concluding terrifically with a final reappearance of the Promenade theme, garbed in all the grandiose splendour of ceremony, complete with distinctively Russian sounds of tolling and pealing bells.

Such imaginative cunning and resource, along with Mussorgsky’s uncanny sense of disenchantment and overall obsession with death and all things dark, are fodder for the virtuoso performer to produce his most inspired and unique work. There is plenty of room for him to appropriately challenge received wisdom at every level. After all, among other things, Mussorgsky’s manuscript has no metronome marks, and few composers would ever insist on blind fidelity to dynamic markings above tasteful imaginative re-creation.

Lionel Choi

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STEPHEN KOVACEVICH

Stephen Kovacevich is one of the most searching interpreters, never afraid to take both technical and musical risks in order to achieve maximum expressive impact. As a pianist he has won unsurpassed admiration for his playing, none more than from Leopold Stokowski who wrote: “You do with your feet what I try to do with my Philadelphia Orchestra”.

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Born in Los Angeles, Stephen Kovacevich laid the foundation for his career as concert pianist at the age of eleven. After moving to England to study with Dame Myra Hess, Stephen made his European debut at Wigmore Hall in 1961. Since then he has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors including Hans Graf, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle, Georg Solti and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In addition, he has forged many long-standing professional relationships, most notably with Colin Davis with whom he made numerous outstanding recordings, including the legendary Bartók Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Recent and upcoming recital highlights include a duo performance with Martha Argerich at the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles and the Philharmonie de Paris, and recitals at the Mariinsky International Piano Festival (by invitation of Valery Gergiev), the prestigious Phillips Collection in Washington (with immediate reinvitation for 2018), the Flagey “Piano Days” Festival in Brussels, the Singapore International Piano Festival, the renowned Pyeong Chang “Great Mountains” Festival in South Korea (with Kyung-Wha Chung), the Beijing National Centre for Performing Arts, an extensive tour of the Far East, recitals in Paris, Berlin, Boston, Zagreb, Dublin and Cardiff, alongside two live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts from St George’s Hall, Bristol and Wigmore Hall.

His recent and upcoming concerto highlights include performances with the Los Angeles .

Philharmonic (Mirga Grazinyt e-Tyla) and the Orquestra Camera Musicae, Barcelona in 2017, a triumphant return to Montreal Symphony Orchestra (David Zinman), Yomiuri

“Stephen Kovacevich is a master to be admired; faithful to the spirit of the music yet always individual, his pianistic artistry reside in his sculpted sound, risk-taking, utmost focus and uniquely attractive, variegated touch” INTERNATIONAL PIANO

Nippon Symphony Orchestra (Sylvain Cambreling), Malaysian Philharmonic (Jacek Kaspszyk), Orchestre de chambre de Paris (John Nelson) and Sydney Symphony Orchestra (Vladimir Ashkenazy). Stephen recently performed to a sell-out audience for his recital at the International Piano Series at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London. In addition, Stephen is a regular soloist at the Verbier and Lugano festivals. He appeared at the 2016 Buxton International Festival, the Settimane Musicali Festival in Ascona (for a solo and chamber performance with Alina Ibragimova and Francesco Piemontesi) and made a welcome return to the 2016 Le Domaine Forget Festival in Quebec.

Stephen is a committed chamber musician who has collaborated with Jacqueline du Pré, Martha Agerich, Steven Isserlis, Nicola Benedetti, Nigel Kennedy, Lynn Harrell, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Kyung-Wha Chung, Truls Mørk, Emmanuel Pahud, Anna Larsson, Alina Ibragimova, Philippe Graffin, Joseph Suk and the Amadeus, Belcea andCleveland Quartets.

Stephen Kovacevich has enjoyed an illustrious long-term relationship with recording companies Philips and EMI. To celebrate his 75th birthday, Decca has released a Limited Edition 25 CD Box Set of his entire recorded legacy for Philips. In 2008 Stephen Kovacevich recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations exactly 40 years after his first recording of the work. This Onyx recording won him the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award and the ‘Top Choice’ by Gramophone Magazine in September 2015, to quote: “his seasoned yet fearless mastery reveals something new with each hearing”.

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4 June STEPHEN KOVACEVICH JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750) Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828 1.

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Ouvertüre Allemande Courante Aria Sarabande Menuet Gigue

The type of music Bach composed was to a significant degree dictated by the nature of his employment. During the first part of his career, which spanned the years 1703 to 1717, he served as a church organist in a succession of ever more prestigious posts. His major works for the organ date from these years. Bach’s next position was in Köthen, where the austere Calvinist or Reformed services required only the simplest of religious music.

His compositions from this time were mostly instrumental, including the Brandenburg Concertos. In 1723 Bach moved to Leipzig, where he remained for the rest of his life.

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In Leipzig, Bach was the Kantor at the Thomaskirche and the city’s director of music. During his first years there, he composed his many sacred cantatas and magnificent passions, which left him scant time for anything else. In 1726, however, he returned to secular music, composing six partitas, which he first published individually and then collectively as his Op. 1 in 1731 under the title Clavier-Übung (“Keyboard Practice”). He intended them to be more than just tutorial exercises, however, as their title might imply, hoping instead that they would prove popular with accomplished amateur and professional musicians alike and sell well, thus providing him with some much needed additional income.

By Bach’s time, the partita had evolved into a suite or collection of highly stylised dances.

In the six keyboard partitas, he adhered to the traditional order — Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue – while inserting galanteries, which are additional movements lighter in character that provide variety and contrast to the dances. (In Partita No. 4, these are the Aria and the Menuet.) Bach also used the galanteries as a marketing device, displaying the term prominently on the title page of the published works, as the word was very much in vogue at the time. Partita No. 4 opens with a brilliant overture in the French style, which had first gained popularity at the court of Louis XIV. All seven movements are in D major, the key associated with joy and triumph.

Rick Perdian

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D.959 1.

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Allegro Andantino Scherzo: Allegro vivace – Trio Rondo. Allegretto

Schubert was a torch bearer at Beethoven’s funeral, held three days after his death on 26 March 1827 in Vienna. Over 30,000 people formed the funeral procession, prompting one of Beethoven’s friends to quip, “No Emperor of Austria ever had a funeral like that of Beethoven”. Schubert was in awe of Beethoven and although they both lived in the same city, it is uncertain whether they had more than a nodding acquaintance with one another. In the fiercely competitive musical environment that pervaded Vienna at that time, Beethoven was certainly aware of the younger composer’s work. In death however they were united, when both their graves were moved to the same cemetery, resting alongside other great musicians, including Brahms.

Composed in September 1828, Sonata No. 20 was one of three that Schubert composed after Beethoven’s death. It is the most overt in paying tribute to Beethoven, as the concluding Rondo is based on the finale of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 16 in G major. By that time, Schubert knew that he was dying, and had moved in with his brother, Ferdinand.

Unlike Beethoven, who met adversity head-on and triumphed over fate (at least musically), Schubert’s nature was to withdraw into a sense of solitude. Sonata No. 20, with its interplay between the lyrical and the dramatic, is one of his most profound works.

Schubert is generally regarded as the archetypical Romantic composer, who struggled to have his works published and performed, lived in near poverty, and dying at an all too early age. This was not exactly his fate. His talents were recognised early, with his teacher, Antonio Salieri pronouncing him a genius. He was tired of working as a school master, and became a full-time composer, a financially precarious livelihood in any era. In his brief life, he composed a remarkable amount of music – symphonies, chamber music, operas, piano music and over 600 songs. The sense of loss felt by many was expressed by the poet Franz Grillparzer in the epitaph that he penned for his friend: “The art of music here entombed a rich possession, but even fairer hopes”.

Rick Perdian

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JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Ballade in B major, Op. 10, No. 4 Capriccio in D minor, Op. 116, No. 7 Intermezzo in A minor, Op. 76, No. 7 Intermezzo in A-flat major, Op. 76, No. 3 Intermezzo in E-flat minor, Op. 118, No. 6 “Sitting at the piano, he proceeded to reveal to us wondrous regions. We were drawn into circles of ever deeper enchantment. His playing, too, was full of genius and transformed the piano into an orchestra of wailing and jubilant voices”. With these words, Robert Schumann introduced the 20-year-old Johannes Brahms to the musical world. Robert, who was already suffering from the mental disorder, which would soon have him confined to an insane asylum and lead to his early death, and his wife, Clara, mother to their children and a piano virtuoso, welcomed him into their home. A union of two kindred spirits was the result. Brahms’ romantic overtures towards Clara were gently rebuffed, but she remained his friend, confident, critic, and perhaps most importantly, his muse for the rest of his life.

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The Ballades, Op. 10 date from 1854 and are dedicated to Julius Otto Grimm, a composer, conductor and musician, who became one of Brahms’ closest friends. Their composition coincides with Robert’s confinement and Brahms’ growing affection for Clara. The 21-year old composer was coping with emotions and feelings that he had never experienced before, and the Ballades reveal this both in their range of emotion and their sense of intimacy.

“Ballade” suggests a literary connection, and although there is an explicit one for the first piece, to the extent that they exist for the other three, Brahms did not reveal them. The four ballades are arranged in two pairs in parallel keys. Ballade No. 4 in B major is the longest of the set. Its main theme is a mournful song, with its overall mood being pensive and subdued. Brahms would return to the genre almost 40 years later in the 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118.

The musical miniature had developed as a distinct form in the early 19th century, and arguably reached its zenith under Brahms, who continued in the tradition of Chopin, Schumann and Mendelssohn. The eight short piano pieces that make up Klavierstücke, Op. 76 were composed at various times in the 1870s, before Brahms prepared them for publication during the summer of 1878. (The first of the pieces, the Capriccio in F-sharp minor was a birthday present for Clara in 1871.) They were the first of the miniature masterpieces that would constitute Brahms’ remaining works for the piano, after he abandoned larger-scaled compositions for the instrument after 1863. Brahms was meticulous to a fault, and the haste in which his publisher rushed these pieces to press prompted him to complain that they were “thrust out into the world, unwashed and unbrushed”.

Op. 76 marks a departure from the “Sturm und Drang” style of Brahms’ youth, to a more introverted, contemplative one. Brahms conceived the Klavierstücke as balanced sets, each containing two capriccios and two intermezzos, in contrasting keys and moods, with the more extroverted and lively capriccios interspersed with the more subdued and introspective intermezzos. Intermezzo No. 3 in A-flat major, from the first set, contrasts with the preceding capriccio, which is infused by the gypsy spirit for which Brahms was famous. The intermezzo employs two contrasting themes – one legato with syncopated

chords against a gentle staccato accompaniment, the other a lyrical melody – played twice in succession. The melancholy Intermezzo No. 7 in A minor, with its plaintive melody over a flowing accompaniment, leads into the exhilarating Capriccio No. 8 in C major, which is one of Brahms’ most difficult short piano works. After completing the Klavierstücke, over ten years would pass before Brahms would again compose an intermezzo.

“My whole life I’ve been a hard worker; now for once I’m going to be good and lazy!”

By the summer of 1890, when Brahms wrote these words in a letter to a friend, he was considering giving up composing. He had always said that he wanted to stop when he was still at the height of his creative powers, and at this point he was beginning to age and growing ever more despondent over the loss of many who had been close to him.

Nonetheless, fresh inspiration came from various sources and he continued to compose.

Opuses 116-119, published during 1892-93, were his final works for the piano. The four sets, totally 20 pieces in all, were not intended to be cycles, with Brahms himself urging pianists to “ferret out their favourites”.

Given a nondescript title, 7 Fantasien, Op. 116 bridges the more exuberant style of Brahms’ youth, to the more introspective and meditative one of his final years. This change is also apparent in the gradual disappearance of the more light-hearted capriccios, which are equal in number to the intermezzos in Op. 76, still make an appearance in Op. 116, but are not to be found in the subsequent three sets. The Capriccio No. 7 in D minor which concludes Op. 116 is the last that Brahms ever composed. It ends with four D major chords that serves both as his farewell to the form, and an exultant conclusion to this collection of small works that contain “the essence of his musical and emotional thoughts”.

Brahms routinely destroyed earlier versions of his works and any documents that shed light on his creative process. The 6 Klavierstücke, Op. 118, consisting of a ballade, a romance and four intermezzos, is one of the rare exceptions where the manuscript survived. The Intermezzo No. 6 in E-flat minor that concludes the set has been described as the most poetic of Brahms’ late works; its depth and character caused Clara to mistake it for the opening of a sonata. The main theme is a four-bar melody that is repeated 17 times, creating a sad, almost tragic quality to this sombre piece. This mood is interrupted briefly by the more lively and dynamic second theme, before the opening theme reappears, ending with an arpeggio that gently fades away.

Brahms said that he intended these 20 pieces for the many fine women pianists in Bad Ischl, one of his favourite Austrian summer holiday spots, but as always Clara was the intended. She was particularly fond of Op. 118, selections of which she played for Brahms when they saw each other for the last time in September 1895. Clara died in on 20 May 1896, less than a year before Brahms’ own death from liver cancer on 3 April 1897. Upon first meeting the young Brahms, Clara had written in her diary that he “seemed as if sent straight from God”. The depth of Brahms’ feelings toward her can best be found in his piano music.

Rick Perdian

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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110 1. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo 2. Allegro molto 3. Adagio, ma non troppo – Fuga: Allegro, ma non troppo “Beethoven’s late style is perfectly congruous in its own terms; it is the distillation of a lifetime’s experience in music,” so wrote musicologist Piero Weiss. That lifetime of experience began with the influence of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, forefather of a style which came to be known as sturm und drang (storm and stress). His music represented a kind of powerful emotional outbreak of a romanticism waiting to be born. Haydn, Mozart and, most of all, Beethoven were deeply inspired by this, but it was Beethoven who had, by the time of the mid- to late-1800s, started to show signs of abandoning traditional form and associated correctness in favour of a musical language shaped more and more by the profundity of real-life experiences. A decade later, as his prolonged mental suffering and isolation brought about by, among other things, devastating deafness became more acute, he started to find a certain revelatory sense of peace and transcendence. By then, the compositions started to exhibit a mystical, even spiritual quality.

The Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110 of 1821 belongs to that latter period, by which time all the accepted norms of what constituted a sonata were more or less either forsaken or altered to a point that the form was not quite so recognisable anymore. While cast in the usual three movements, the last actually incorporates both slow movement and finale in alternation.

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The tempo marking of the first movement is Moderato cantabile molto espressivo (moderate tempo, in a singing style, very expressive), with the rather unusual description con amabilità (amiably) in the first bar. The beautiful opening theme is deceptively simple and forms the basis for much of the motivic working of the whole work. Through prolonged harmonic progressions, Beethoven blurs the line between sections of what is essentially a standard sonata form, and the result is seamless, peaceful and lyrical.

The brief, earthy and rustic second movement scherzo is full of good humour, at least from a harmonic perspective, where the composer offers plenty of surprises: the opening gesture, for example, consists of a statement in F minor, to which Beethoven provides a gruff response in a rather unrelated C major. The trio comprises a series of descending runs of slightly vague tonality – the keys of D-flat major and F minor seem to appear and disappear and re-appear again like an elusive mirage.

There is no precedent in Beethoven’s music for the unusual formal structure of the finale.

An introductory, deeply felt and sorrowful recitative (Adagio, ma non troppo) and a poignant singing Arioso dolente are followed without pause by a fugue (Allegro, ma non troppo). As the beautifully worked counterpoint of the fugue approaches its climax, the Arioso makes a surprising return, this time further embellished. A second fugal section is to return, its original theme now turned upside down, and “nach und nach sich neu belebend” (“gradually becoming more animated again”), as Beethoven indicates on the score. This time the fugue is allowed to run its full course, concluding in a short, triumphant coda.

Considering that this is one of Beethoven’s most complex and original works, both structurally and emotionally, it ought to be said that the sonata’s overall economy – standing at less than 20 minutes – is in itself something particularly noteworthy.

Lionel Choi

8 JULY 2017 |

SAT, 7.30PM VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

VCH PRESENTS GIL SHAHAM AND ADELE ANTHONY Gil Shaham, violin Adele Anthony, violin Begin your journey on the other side of the world, dancing to the rustic folk tunes of Eastern Europe, and arrive at postWorld War I America in the Jazz Age. Virtuoso couple Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony brings to life the intimate dialogues between two violins, presenting a refreshing repertoire for violin duo including selections from Béla Bartók’s 44 Duos for 2 Violins and an arrangement of jazz favourite Sweet Georgia Brown. Technical fireworks are abound as they tackle Wieniawski’s demanding selected Etudes-Caprices, Op. 18.

LECLAIR

Sonata in E minor, Op. 3 No. 5

BARTÓK

Selections from 44 Duos for 2 Violins, Sz.98

SPOHR

Duo Concertante in D major, Op. 67, No. 2

WIENIAWSKI

Selection from Etudes-Caprices, Op. 18

PROKOFIEV

Sonata for 2 Violins, Op. 56

MASSENET arr. MILONE

Meditation from “Thaïs”

BERNIE/ PINKARK arr. MILONE

“Sweet Georgia Brown”

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