Contemporary Classics November 6, 2018 - Contemporary Solo Piano

As always the opening theme is from Nocturne by Kirsten Volness.  Tonight’s show focuses on the solo piano and is centered on two major works Gyorgy Ligeti’s Etudes and George Crumb’s Makrokosmos.

Luciano Berio  6 Encores: No. 3, Wasserklavier                  

Luciano Berio’s Six Encores (written between 1965-1990) for piano solo a wide spectrum of compositional techniques and styles of 20th-century musical thought. Four of the encores are dedicated to the four elements of nature – Water, Earth, Air and Fire, named in German as Wasserklavier, Erdenklavier Luftklavier and Feuerklavier; the other two, Brin and Leaf, are the epigraphic miniatures which symbolize the passage of an ephemeral entity.  Here in performance by Hélène Grimaud is the first of these works “Wasserklavier” although it comes third when all are played following Brin and Leaf which were the last ones written.  In the words of Hélène Grimaud “Berio’s Wasserklavier, reflecting with sweet sadness on the impermanence of the human condition as incarnated by water.”

Gyorgy Ligeti composed a cycle of 18 études for solo piano between 1985 and 2001.  Originally patterned on the 12 Debussy etudes, Ligeti’s plan was to compose two books of 6 each.  However he was so enjoying the composition process that he did 8 etudes for the second book and completed a third book of 4. Book 3 is in fact unfinished, in that Ligeti certainly intended to add more, but was unable to do so in his last years, when his productivity was much reduced owing to illness.

 Gyorgy Ligeti   etudes Book 1.   6 etudes in book 1 all composed in 1985

Etude 1: Disorder - A study in fast polyrhythms moving up and down the keyboard. The right hand plays only white keys while the left hand is restricted to the black keys. This separates the hands into two pitch-class fields; the right hand music is diatonic, the left hand music is pentatonic.

Etude 2: Open Strings -  Simple, almost Satie-esque chords become increasingly complex. These chords are built primarily from fifths, reminiscent of open strings, hence the title.

Etude 3: Blocked Keys - Two different rhythmic patterns interlock. One hand plays rapid, even melodic patterns while the other hand 'blocks' some of the keys by silently depressing them.

Etude 4: Fanfares - Melody and accompaniment frequently exchange roles in this polyrhythmic study which features  Turkish aksak-influenced rhythms and an ostinato in 8

Etude 5: Rainbow. The music rises and falls in arcs that seem to evoke a rainbow.

Etude 6: Autumn in Warsaw -  Its title, Autumn in Warsaw, refers to the Warsaw Autumn, an annual festival of contemporary music. Ligeti referred to this étude as a "tempo fugue"[7]. A study in polytempo, it consists of a continuous transformation of a descending figure – the "lamento motif" as Ligeti called it.

And now Book 2 of Etudes by Gyorgy Ligeti composed between 1988-1994

Etude 7: Melancholic pigeon -Galamb Borong  title sounds Javanese, reflecting the piece's inspiration in gamelan music, but in fact both words are actually Hungarian.  As in the first etude, the two hands play complementary scales; in this case, they each play one of the two whole tone scales.

Etude 8: Metal Fém - Based on chords of the open fifth, with short, irregular, asymmetrically grouped melodic fragments playing off one another.

Etude 9: Vertigo - Widely-separated hands use chromatic scales to create the effect of endless, falling movement.

Ligeti did not complete another étude for three years after finishing Vertigo

Etude 10: The Sorcerer's Apprentice - A dancing melodic line is kept in perpetual motion by irregularly dispersed staccato accents.

Etude 11: Outstanding - Six beats per bar in the right hand, four in the left hand, irregular phrase-lengths and accents in both, weave an ethereal and rather jazz-like web of harmony.

Etude 12: Tracery- openings in stone architecture  - Criss-crossing rhythmic patterns, increasing in dynamics as they traverse the keyboard from left to right, creating up to seven different metrical layers.

Etude 13: The Devil's Staircase - A hard-driving toccata that moves polymetrically up and down the keyboard and then turns into an impression of bells ringing in different registers and times.

Etude 14:  Infinite Column - The étude is named for Constantin Brâncuși's sculpture of the same name, a repetitive series of expanding and contracting pyramidal shapes, and features loud, ascending chord-sequences that overlap giving the impression of constant upward motion.

Gyorgy Ligeti’s Etudes with Book 3

Etude 15: White on White - A white-key study except for the very end, beginning with a serene canon and with a whirling fast middle section.

Etude 16: For Irina - Another étude with a gentle beginning, becoming more and more frenetic due to the introduction of progressively shorter note-values and additional pitches. The étude is named for and dedicated to pianist Irina Kataeva.

Etude 17: Out of Breath - A manic two-part canon that abruptly ends with slow pianissimo chords.

Etude 18: Canon - A short canon between the hands, played once vivace and then a second time presto impossibile, with a slow quiet chordal canon to finish with.

Makrokosmos is a series of four volumes of pieces for piano by American composer George Crumb. The name alludes to Mikrokosmos, a set of piano pieces by Béla Bartók, one of Crumb's favorite 20th-century composers. The second volume of Makrokosmos was completed in 1973. It largely follows the organizational scheme of the first volume, bears the same subtitle (i.e. Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac) and is also scored for amplified piano. Crumb has stated that the two volumes form a sequence of 24 fantasy-pieces. Volume II comprises the following works:

 

Part 1:  Morning Music (Genesis II) (Cancer); The Mystic Chord (Sagittarius);  Rain-Death Variations (Pisces);   Twin Suns (Gemini)

Part 2: Ghost-Nocturne: for the Druids of Stonehenge  (Virgo); Gargoyles (Taurus);  Tora! Tora! Tora! -Cadenza Apocalittica (Scorpio) ;      A Prophecy of Nostradamus (Aries)

Part 3:   Cosmic wind (Libra);   Voices from "Corona Borealis" (Aquarius); Litany of the Galactic Bells (Leo);  Agnus Dei (Capricorn) 

This set was premiered by Robert Miller at the Alice Tully Hall, New York City, on 12 November 1974.  

 

Toru Takemitsu   Rain Tree Sketch II         

Takemitsu composed several pieces based on Kenzaburo Oe's short stories about the rain tree, whose many small curved leaves trap the rainfall then release the water to the ground over time long after the rain has ceased.   Rain Tree Sketch II was written as a memorial piece for Olivier Messiaen, the French composer who was a strong influence on Takemitsu. The work is French in sound, somewhere between Messiaen and Debussy in harmonic language. It is one of the most joyful and accessible pieces Takemitsu wrote. It was also his last piano piece. It is in a clear ABA form. The opening section is rhythmic, and is called "Celestially Light." Two chords and an upward three-note arpeggio are the main material. The center section is marked "Joyful, " and is melodic, in a Debussian mood. The pair of chords from the first section also interrupts it. Then material from the opening section is repeated in shortened form.  In the words of Hélène Grimaud “Water and wind blend in Takemitsu’s Rain Tree Sketch, a light breeze blowing through the leaves, like the whisper of a prayer, part interrogation to the sky, part invocation.”

We have just enough time for one more tune.  This is John Cage’s Sonata I for Prepared Piano