Four Centuries of Great Music April 9, 2023 Recently Released Chamber Music

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music I continue with some more chamber music, some from composers you are familar with and some from unfamiliar composers.   Today all works have been recently released since the first of the year.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH:  Partita No. 1
Original version for harpsichord in B flat major arranged for guitar by Gerhard Reichenbach in D major / E flat major BWV 825

1. Praeludium
2. Allemande
3. Corrente
4. Sarabande
5. Menuet I
6. Menuet II
7. Giga


First volume of the Clavier Übung, consisting of the six Partitas, was designated by the composer as his Opus 1 and published at his own expense in 1731.  He was 46 at the time of the publication of this work.  This was certainly not the first of his compositions but the first published.

Clavier referred to any keyboard instrument, with the harpsichord and clavichord being the instruments of Bach’s day.  The harpsichord is a plucked instrument while the clavichord is a hammered instrument but very different from the piano in its mechanism.  Both are quiet delicate sounds and can be mimicked by the guitar

The second word of the title, Übung, can be translated as practice or exercise. In English these words have a connotation of repetition and rote, something even strenuous – not at all the composer’s intention. Bach’s exercise suggests more of an experience through doing; learning while playing; activity rather than duty.

The Partita follow the basic form of the Baroque dance suite. An elaborate opening movement Praeludium is followed by four stylized dances: the Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue, with one or more extra dances interpolated before the Gigue. In the case of the First Partita, we have a pair of minuets prior to the gigue. The Allemande movement is moderately paced in 4/4 time. The Courante also tends toward a moderate pace in triple meter, although in the First Partita Bach titles this movement Corrente, opting for the somewhat faster pulse of the Italian rather than the French version of the dance. The Sarabande was originally a wild and lascivious dance inherited from Mexico, through Spain, but by Bach’s day it had been completely re-imagined as a slow stately dance in triple meter.   It was here that Bach confided his deepest reflections. Then as are the menuets are also stately dances.  The Gigue retains the energetic character of its Irish and English heritage.


Franz Schubert – Fantasie in C Major, D. 934
I. Andante molto
II. Allegretto
III. Andantino
IV. Allegro vivace

In her liner notes on this album, Stella Chen comments that Schubert’s Fantasie in C Major is “Fiendishly difficult for both performers, both technically and musically, a magical performance of the Fantasie, D.934 is a cathartic experience for the performers and the audience alike, leaving all exhausted, transfigured, fulfilled, and yet hungry for more.”

When it premiered in 1828 it was met by very disparaged comments from most critics - such comments as:

“One of the composer’s least important compositions, if not positively objectionable...”

“Positively miscomposed... a new fantasia... made no appeal of any sort... the popular composer has frankly gone off the rail here.”

And perhaps most revealing: “[The Fantasie] occupies rather too much of the time that the Viennese are prepared to devote to their aesthetic pleasures. The hall gradually emptied and your correspondent admits that he, too, is unable to say how this piece of music ended.”

Stella Chen did her dissertation on this work and so she writes: “There are many pieces of the puzzle that could have contributed to this highly unfortunate premiere. 1828’s Vienna was being swept up in a fascination with Paganini and the explosion of virtuosity in his wake.

The piece’s title likely instilled in the audience a false hope for a virtuosic showpiece, whereas Schubert’s Fantasie, which nevertheless demands much of its performers’ technique and musicality, is not explicitly showy.

Ironically, the work proved too difficult without sounding difficult enough to pull off successfully for such an event. The premiere was unfortunately not an aberration; for well over a century, the Fantasie was shunned and largely ignored by performers and scholars alike.

The piece is unlike any other: a fantasie by name, but leagues more expansive and infinitely deeper, richer than other works of that genre that come to mind. Despite its nominal division into movements, the work is one entity, transitioning between sections in a way that looks shocking on paper but feels inevitable during the emotional journey. At first, the monumental work materializes out of nothing: a quivering tremolo in the piano, naked harmonic color before the shadow of a melody emanates
from the violin. A wild rondo breaks the spell, featuring devilishly difficult acrobatics for both violinist and pianist. The rondo trails off and we’re left holding our breath until the beautiful song of the theme and variations begins. The Fantasie then closes with an abbreviated memory of the opening that explodes into the final Allegro vivace celebration
in C major.

Schubert demands much of the listener, too, there is no respite: once the Fantasie begins, neither the performers nor the listeners are let go until the very last note.  


Sergei Rachmaninoff: Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor, Op. 19

At the turn of the 20th century, Rachmaninoff went through a severe confidence crisis due to the disastrous premiere of his Symphony No.1 in 1897, which was the subject of heavy criticism. Rachmaninoff underwent a writing block hiatus for three years after his symphony’s premiere which prevented him from writing almost anything due to severe depression. It is said that the composer went through several daily hypnotherapy sessions which eventually helped him to overcome this block, thus giving birth to his Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor.

A long-running joke between pianists and cellists is that Rachmaninoff was very precise about the title of his sonata: “Sonata for Piano and Cello;” not the other way around. All jokes aside, the sonata was written before his acclaimed Second Piano Concerto, and some pianists may equally regard this work as being technically demanding as his concerto. Likewise, Rachmaninoff intended for the piano to carry an equal role to the cello instead of accompaniment.

The sonata was dedicated to his family friend Anatoliy Brandukov, the great Russian cellist and educator that also premiered many pieces by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Although 14 years apart, Brandukov had a long-lasting friendship with Rachmaninoff, becoming the best man at the composer’s wedding and performing many pieces together. Moreover, Rachmaninoff and Brandukov premiered the sonata together in Moscow, one month after the premiere of the Second Piano Concerto.

Written in four movements, the sonata is stylistically Romantic in quality as it explores the musical expressivity and intensity of both instruments with the use of a two-note main theme. The first movement “Lento – Allegro Moderato” introduces the main theme with the cello, which the composer expands throughout the entirety of the movement and composition. The second movement “Allegro Scherzando” explores the rhythmic and rhapsodic duality of the main theme while the third movement “Andante” is the most passionate of the piece; arguably regarded as one of the most beautiful movements in the entire cello and piano repertoire. The piece concludes with a triumphant fourth movement, “Allegro Mosso,” as the composer reminds the listener of the two-note motive towards the end of the movement; this time in the key of G Major.

18 years after composing the Cello Sonata, the Russian Revolution — which began during the first World War — forced Rachmaninoff and his family to leave his Russian hometown and settle in New York City. Eventually, Rachmaninoff would relocate one more time to Beverly Hills CA where he spent the last year of his life.   

SHOSTAKOVICH & RACHMANINOFF: SONATAS FOR CELLO & PIANO        Navona Records
Carmine Miranda cello & Robert Marler piano

Auguste-Joseph Franchomme: Air Russe varie for cello and string quartet Op. 32
1. Poco lento
2. Andante sostenuto
3. Allegro moderato
4. Lento
5. Allegro moderato

Auguste-Joseph Franchomme was a French cellist and composer who was born in Lille, Franchomme studied at the local conservatoire and then moved to the Conservatoire de Paris, where he won his first prize only after one year.

Franchomme began his career playing with various orchestras and chamber music establishing a string quartet, the first composed of all professional musicians. Franchomme forged close friendships with Felix Mendelssohn, when the latter visited Paris in 1831, and with Frédéric Chopin. In 1833, Chopin and Franchomme collaborated to write a Grand Duo concertant for piano and cello, based on themes from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable. Franchomme also rewrote the cello parts for Chopin's Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3, and was the dedicatee of Chopin's Cello Sonata, Op. 65.
With the exception of a trip to England in 1856, Franchomme hardly left Paris, where he became a central figure of the city's musical life.

He died in his sleep of heart attack on 21 January 1884 at the age of 75, four days after he received the Légion d’honneur, The highest civilian award in France


Jean-Philippe Rameau:  L’entretien des Muses from his Pièces de clavecin Arranged for guitar by Michel Grizard