Category: Program notes

  • Maurice Ravel: Menuet sur le dom d’Haydn; Menuet Antique; Pavane pour une infante défunte; Sonatine

    Ravel’s style — elegant, and refined — was highly influenced by eighteenth classicism (e.g., Mozart) and the early French keyboard composers (e.g., Couperin). Stravinsky once described Ravel as a “Swiss watchmaker”, due to Ravel’s attention to detail. Ravel wrote: “I never put down a work until I have made absolutely certain that there is nothing…

  • Franz Schubert: Six Moments Musicaux (Musical Moments), op.94

    (i) Moderato (C major) (ii) Andantino (A-flat major) (iii) Allegro moderato (f minor) (iv) Moderato (c-sharp minor)/ (v) Allegro vivace (f minor) (vi) Allegretto (A-flat major) In 1929, Oscar Bie reflected on Schubert: That face! . . . It is the face of a teacher, but not of a strict one. The hair curls about…

  • Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67

    I. Andante-Moderato II. Allegro non troppo III. Largo IV. Allegretto Having recently finished his Eighth Symphony, Shostakovich stated work on his second Piano Trio in late 1943: Chamber music demands of a composer the most impeccable technique and depth of thought. I don’t think I will be wrong if I say that composers sometimes hide…

  • Eugène Ysaÿe: Violin Sonata No. 4

    Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) was a Belgian violinist, conductor and composer. Carl Flesch described him has “the most outstanding and individual violinist I have ever heard in my life.” Franck’s Violin Sonata, Chausson’s Poem and violin concerto, and Debussy’s string quartets were all dedicated to Ysaÿe. Ysaÿe wrote six sonatas for solo violin, each dedicated to…

  • Claude Debussy: Rêverie

    Fromont published Rêverie years after Debussy had given it to them. By this time, Debussy’s opinion of it had changed: “I regret very much your decision to publish Rêverie… I wrote it in a hurry years ago, purely for material considerations. It is a work of no consequence and I frankly consider it no good.”…

  • Claude Debussy: Suite Bergamasque

    I. Prélude II. Menuet III. Claire de Lune IV. Passepied The term “bergamasque” refers to the ancient city of Bergame, located forty kilometres east of Milan. The character of its citizens (“rustic and clumsy”) was personified by a series of dances and the Italian comic character Harlequin (1572). This comic character is evident particularly in…

  • Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio (Hob. XV, No. 25) “Gypsy Trio”

    I. Andante II. Poco Adagio III Rondo all’Ongarese Chamber music in the eighteenth century was written for and performed for the aristocracy. Music was an aesthetic pleasure: thus an emphasis was placed on musical balance and clarity in the context of an expressive style: evident particularly in the first two movements of this trio, which…

  • Anton Arensky: Trio in D minor for violin, cello, and piano (op. 32)

    I. Allegro moderato II. Scherzo: Allegro molto-Meno Mosso-Allegro molto III. Elegia: Adagio IV: Finale: Allegro non troppo Accounts of Arensky are of a juxtaposed nature. On the personal level, he was described by Tchaikovsky as incredibly nervous, and he was never known to have a romantic attachment. He was considered “the most delicate person by…

  • Frédéric Chopin: Nocturnes

    Op. 9, no. 2 (Eb major)Op. 15, no. 3 (G minor)Op. 27, no. 1 (C-sharp minor)Op. 27, no. 2 (Db major) Chopin, while Polish by birth established his career in Paris, where his music was well received in intimate venues. In an article in Revue Musicale in 1832, François-Joseph Fétis wrote that Chopin “has found,…

  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata for violin and obbligato keyboard in A major (BWV 1015)

    I. Dolce II. Allegro assai III. Andante un poco IV. Presto Prior to J. S. Bach, the harpsichord in ensemble music was primarily a means of harmonic support. The harpsichordist would read from a figured bass—in other words, the part was rarely written out in full. Bach raised the level importance of the harpsichord to…

  • Jean Sibelius: Bagatelles (op. 97)

    (i) Humoresque I (ii) Song (iii) Little Waltz (iv) Humorous March (v) Impromptu “Never write an unnecessary note. Every note must live”.1 — Sibelius The miniature is the perfect genre to master this philosophy. Sibelius wrote the Opus 97 Bagatelles in 1920, in between his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. The quirky nature of these Bagatelles…