Popular Piano Pieces, Volume 1
By the time of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756
-1791), whose D major Rondo opens the present collection, the pianoforte, or
fortepiano as it was then known, had begun to win enormous popularity. There
was a growing market for piano music and for piano lessons, both of which
Mozart was able to supply during his last ten years of uneasy independence in
Vienna.
Of the great classical composers identified with Vienna,
Franz Schubert (1799 - 1828) was the only native of the city. The son of a
schoolmaster, trained to follow his father's trade, for which he showed no
ability, he lived his short life in the company of friends, whom he entertained
with his songs and compositions, never occupying any official position in the
musical establishment. The G flat major Impromptu, published some thirty years
after Schubert's death, is the third of a group of four, its title probably the
choice of the publisher, who facilitated its performance by transposing it into
G major, thus avoiding the black notes that terrify the timid amateur.
Carl Maria von Weber (1786 - 1826), the
honorific "von" apparently the invention of his father, was the
cousin of Mozart's wife Constanze and was brought up by his father, a
dilettante who for some years ran a travelling theatre-company, to emulate his
distinguished relation by marriage. Weber was a very good pianist, but was to
win still further renown as the creator of the first German Romantic opera,
"Der Freischuetz", and as an adept in the new art of orchestral
conducting. Invitation to the Dance is a programme piece, depicting the
approach of the dancer, the lady's initial hesitation, the man's insistence,
their dancing, his thanks, her reply and their parting.
In Paris Chopin came to know the Hungarian-born
pianist Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886), although at first he disapproved heartily of
the latter's Bohemian behaviour. Liszt, much more of a showman than Chopin ever
could be, was to win a reputation as the greatest pianist of his day, a
reputation he retained after his virtual retirement from the concert platform
to direct music in Weimar, and later to divide his time between Rome, Weimar
and Budapest, where he was regarded as a national Hungarian hero. The third
Liebestraum is a transcription for piano of a song by Liszt, a setting of a
poem by the radical German banker-poet Ferdinand Freiligrath, "O lieb
solang du lieben kannst", advice that Liszt was to follow until the day of
his death.
Anton Rubinstein (1829 -1894) had hoped for
practical support from Liszt, but was never to receive it. He was to rival
Liszt as a pianist and to win a position for himself in Russia, where he was
encouraged to set up the first Conservatory of Music, in St. Petersburg.
Prolific as a composer, writing, in the words of his brother Nikolay, enough
music for the two of them, Rubinstein is all too well remembered by the Melody
in F.
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) was
among the younger generation of Russian composers to benefit from Rubinstein's
Conservatory. Trained in law, he was among the first students, and on
completing his studies joined the staff of the Moscow Conservatory, under
Rubinstein's brother Nikolay. Tchaikovsky may be bet1er known for his
remarkable and colourful writing for the orchestra. Nevertheless he wrote a
number of piano pieces, including a musical calendar, The Seasons, twelve
pieces, one for each month of the year. The Barcarolle takes the listener
boating in June.
Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904), no great pianist
himself, is better known for his achievements in larger forms. The most
important of Bohemian nationalist composers in the later nineteenth century, he
was to spend a few years in the United States as Director of the National
Conservatory in New York. It was in America that he sketched the famous
Humoresque, later written up in the tranquillity of his native Bohemia in 1894.
Zdenek Fibich (1850 - 1900) has travelled less
well, although his name may be joined to those of Smetana and Dvorak, leaders
of Bohemian nationalism in music. His Poem is taken from a set of Moods,
Impressions and Reminiscences, published in 1894.
In Norway it was Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907) who
was a pioneer of nationalism, although his early outlook was influenced by the
predominantly Danish culture of his class and by his training in Leipzig. He
was an able pianist himself and, as a composer, a master of colourful
harmonies, shown admirably in the two Lyric Pieces here included, from ten such
sets published throughout his life.
Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) represents another
form of musical nationalism. Born in Hungary, he had his schooling in
Bratislava and his musical training at the Conservatory in Budapest, and showed
immense interest in the scientific collection of folk music, which he carried
out in Hungary and in neighbouring regions and countries. The Romanian
Folk-Dances of 1915 demonstrate the astringency with which Bartok was able to
treat the material he collected, his piquant harmonies setting off the melodies
in a new light.
George Gershwin (1898 - 1937) may seem an odd
man out in such a European collection of composers, in spite of the
Russian-Jewish origins of his immigrant parents. He wrote popular songs, stage
musicals and made occasional excursions into music that attempted a synthesis
of the popular and the classical. The Three Preludes, written in 1936, the year
before his death, offer such a compromise, as thoroughly American as can be
imagined.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847),
privileged in his upbringing as the son of a banker, and grandson of the Jewish
philosopher and pioneer of toleration, Moses Mendelssohn, won enormous
popularity as a composer and distinction as a conductor. His Songs Without
Words, of which he published various collections throughout his life, are short
character-pieces, sometimes taking the place of an autograph album entry or a
compliment to an admiring hostess. The Hunting Song was written in 1829 and
published in London the following year.
Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856), whose love affair
and subsequent marriage to the pianist Clara Wieck, daughter of his piano
teacher, had about it all the romantic interest that parental disapproval and
prolonged litigation can produce, began with ambitions as a writer, proceeded
as a pianist until injury stopped play, and ended his career in an asylum,
after a short period as director of music in Duesseldorf. The set of nine
pieces that make up Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) was writ- ten in 1848 and 1849,
at a time when depression threatened yet again and political circumstances in
Dresden, where he was living, were very uncertain. Clara Schumann found one of
the pieces far too morbid for inclusion in her concert performances, but had no
objection to The Prophet Bird.
Schumann, as a young critic, had been among the
first to recognize the ability of the Polish pianist and composer Fryderyk
Chopin (1810 - 1849), greeting his performance with the words "Hats off,
gentlemen! A genius!" He later went on to parody Chopin's style in his
pianistic parade, Carnaval, something that Chopin never forgave. Of paternal
French origin, Chopin was Polish by birth and by persuasion, keenly involved in
the sufferings of his country under Russian domination. He was to spend most of
his career in Paris, where he wrote the Fantasie-Impromptu in 1835, the first
of four such compositions.
Balazs Szokolay
The Hungarian pianist Balazs Szokolay was born
in Budapest in 1961, the son of a composer and professor at the Ferenc Uszt
Academy of Music and of a mother who is also a pianist. After study in Budapest
he took up a West German Government scholarship in Munich, where he spent
eighteen months, before becoming a soloist with the Hungarian State Orchestra.
Szokolay has given concerts throughout Western
and Eastern Europe since his first appearance at Interforum in 1978 and his
1979 debut at the Salzburg Festival. He has won a number of important prizes in
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Germany.