MUSICA 1 GYPSY: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 (Gypsy Airs), Pablo de Sarasate, 1878

Of all the great versions of Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, the one that resonates most profoundly for me is by Rusanda Panfili on violin and Donka Angatscheva on piano, recorded live at the Bank Austria Salon in Vienna, Austria. Of course the focused intensity of Panfili is supreme, but also the elegant Viennese Salon, the enigmatic grace of Donka Angatscheva, their beautiful attire, the sense of the intimate presence of the sound. There is a hot blooded vitality to the interiority of the Zigeunerweisen here, a throbbing Pulse.

I hasten to add that I am mostly musically illiterate and my impressions are extensions and extrapolations from my understandings of poetry. And while I have a layman's appreciation for the mathematical virtuosity of Bach's music, it sings to my head and not to my heart. Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, with its virtuosic  evocations of a romantic passion, sexually charged dances around a fiery ring, whether this be some Western fantasy of the Romani or a more occluded archetype of desire that throbs in the spine, this music spins up the valence of the mind to the utmost limit of listening. At times (e.g. after the 2:00 mark, Lento), it feels as if the violin bow of time is being drawn over the taught strung and shivered nerves of the brain, lifting pleasure ever higher, higher and higher into the fractal flames of the infinite. The piece is a musical allegory of longing and desire, of ever reaching towards and never touching, even though the heat sears the flesh from your bones.




The rare recording of Sarasate himself performing the piece is wonderful, but it lacks, for better or worse, the chrome-like reflectivity of 21st century modernity. Sarasate's performance of his own piece registers on the ear as the flickering vignette of silent film works its nostalgic persistence upon the eye; whereas Panfili and Angatscheva's performance is in such a high definition that it seems supra-real, with diamond edges, whose notes pierce straight into the deep limbic areas of the brain, licking a forked tongue of fire over the core pleasure centers.




After Panfili, this particular performance by Sarah Chang works for me. Her haughty and icy demeanor combine with the rough whisky raspy tone in her violin to engage my fascination in the way a woman in an elegant gown and high-heels walking across a high-wire would. I was particularly moved by her performance of the third section, un poco più lento.




Anne Sophie Mutter's version is sublime, amazing in its precision. Of all the full symphonic versions, this has such an aching depth to it.




Itzhak Perlman's performance is stunning, endlessly listenable. But the recording itself, at least on my inferior equipment, seems muted, lacks intimacy. I feel the same way about the great Jascha Heifetz.







There's a magnetism to this intense performance by Bojidara Kouzmanova, the grin, smile and smirk of her mouth reflecting triumph and sorrow in the performance and the music. There are novels to be written on the facial expression of musicians as they perform difficult musical works.

***

There is a Kintsugi about the raw live performance of a piece of difficult music that spotlights a virtuoso musician. What flaws I notice only enhance the experience, imagining all the years of training, the hours and hours of practice of the piece, and the performance with it's inevitable human errors. There's a breathing being inside that performance, with sweat and tears and blood threading through the pristine perfections of the music like broken bands of gold.


From Wikipedia: Kintsugi:

"Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise." [...]

"Kintsugi can relate to the Japanese philosophy of "no mind", which encompasses the concepts of non-attachment, acceptance of change and fate as aspects of human life.

"Not only is there no attempt to hide the damage, but the repair is literally illuminated... a kind of physical expression of the spirit of mushin.... Mushin is often literally translated as "no mind," but carries connotations of fully existing within the moment, of non-attachment, of equanimity amid changing conditions. ...The vicissitudes of existence over time, to which all humans are susceptible, could not be clearer than in the breaks, the knocks, and the shattering to which ceramic ware too is subject. This poignancy or aesthetic of existence has been known in Japan as mono no aware, a compassionate sensitivity, or perhaps identification with, [things] outside oneself.” 

- Christy Bartlett, Flickwerk: The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics

Kintsugi - source

Wikipedia: Zigeunerweisen

Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), Op. 20, is a musical composition for violin and orchestra written in 1878 by the Spanish composer Pablo de Sarasate. It was premiered the same year in Leipzig, Germany. It is based on themes of the Roma people, and in the last section the rhythms of the csárdás; this section uses a theme previously used in Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13, composed in 1847.

Zigeunerweisen is in one movement but can be divided into four sections, the first three in the key of C minor and the last in A minor, based on the tempi: 

Moderato – An imposing, virtuosic introduction with slow majestic energy by the orchestra, then a little softer by the violin itself. 

Lento – The violin plays in lugubrious lento 4/4. This section has an improvisational quality; the melody, which essentially consists of pairs of 4-bar phrases, is punctuated with difficult runs and other technically demanding figures, including flying spiccato and ricochet bowings. 

Un poco più lento – The muted soloist plays a melancholic melody with the so-called reverse-applied dotted note (1/16 + dotted 1/8 rhythm: sixteenth noteeighth note.), akin to the "Mannheim sigh" of the classical era; in 2/4 time. 

Allegro molto vivace – At this point, the piece becomes extremely rapid. The challenging solo part consists mainly of long spiccato runs, along with double stops, artificial harmonics and left-hand pizzicato; in 2/4 time. 

MUSIC 6 AIRPLANE: Poème, Op. 25 by Ernest Chausson, 1896

Wikipedia: Poème (Chausson)

Poème, Op. 25, is a work for violin and orchestra written by Ernest Chausson in 1896. It is a staple of the violinist's repertoire, has very often been recorded and performed, and is generally considered Chausson's best-known and most-loved composition. 

Background 

Poème was written in response to a request from Eugène Ysaÿe for a violin concerto. Chausson felt unequal to the task of a concerto, writing to Ysaÿe: I hardly know where to begin with a concerto, which is a huge undertaking, the devil's own task. But I can cope with a shorter work. It will be in very free form with several passages in which the violin plays alone. 

It was commenced in April 1896 and finished on 29 June, and was written while Chausson was holidaying in Florence, Italy. 

He wrote three different versions of Poème: with orchestra; with piano accompaniment (later rewritten by other hands); and a recently discovered version for violin, string quartet and piano, a companion to his Concert in D for piano, violin and string quartet, Op. 21 (1892). The solo violin parts of these versions are identical except for one minor detail. The work is notionally in the key of E-flat, and lasts about 16 minutes. It was dedicated to Ysaÿe, who gave its early performances.

Genesis of the title 

Chausson initially called it Le Chant de l'amour triomphant, then changed it to Poème symphonique, and finally to simply Poème. The first two rejected titles are crossed out on the extant manuscripts. 

The original title came from the 1881 romantic novella The Song of Love Triumphant (Le Chant de l'amour triomphant; Песнь торжествующей любви) by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, who lived on the estate of the famed mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot and her husband near Paris; all three were acquaintances of Chausson's. The Viardots' daughter Marianne was engaged for some time to Gabriel Fauré, but broke it off and instead married Alphonse Duvernoy. Turgenev's novella seems to mirror this set of relationships, and it may be that Chausson initially attempted to portray it in music. However, it is clear his final intention was to create a work without extra-musical associations. 

Early performances 

In the autumn of 1896, Eugène Ysaÿe, Ernest Chausson and their wives were holidaying at Sitges on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. At a party hosted by the Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol, Ysaÿe and Chausson's wife on piano gave an impromptu sight-read performance of Poème; local townspeople who overheard it demanded it be encored three times. Present at the party were Enrique Granados and possibly Isaac Albéniz.
Poème's formal premiere was at the Nancy Conservatoire on 27 December 1896,[3][4] conducted by Guy Ropartz, with Ysaÿe as soloist. But it was not really noticed until Ysaÿe gave the Paris premiere, at a Colonne Concert on 4 April 1897. Chausson was overcome by the sustained applause, something he had not experienced in his career to that point.
Ysaÿe also gave the first London performance of Poème, a week after Chausson's untimely death in 1899. 

Publication 

Poème was published in May 1897, but not at Chausson's own instigation. His friend Isaac Albéniz submitted the score to Breitkopf & Härtel while he was in Leipzig on a concert tour. They were reluctant to publish the work, considering it "vague and bizarre" and of "extraordinary difficulty", and consequently would have "few adherents" (letter to Albéniz of 27 April 1897). They agreed to publish only when Albéniz undertook to pay for the costs of publication himself. He also gave Breitkopf 300 marks, which they were to send Chausson under the pretence of a royalty. Chausson never knew of Albéniz’s role in this episode, which was done solely to boost his confidence in his compositional skills (he did not need the money, as he had financial security through wealth inherited from his father). It was also a way for Albéniz to repay Chausson's support and encouragement of him when he was a struggling student in Paris. 

Orchestration 

The orchestration of Poème is solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, harp and strings. 

Structure 

The work starts Lento e misterioso. Subsequent tempo indications are Molto animato, Animato, Poco lento, Poco meno lento, Allegro, Tempo I and the work ends Tranquillo.
It does not follow any formal model but is rhapsodic and moody, with rising and falling tensions and an advanced harmonic style. It strongly reflects the melancholy and introspection with which Chausson was imbued from an early age. (He once wrote to his godmother about his childhood: "I was sad without knowing why, but firmly convinced that I had the best reason in the world for it".) 

Joseph Szigeti always believed "the typically Ysaÿean sinuous double-stop passages" in the exposition could not have been written without the inspiration - or, indeed, the direct involvement - of Ysaÿe himself. This was later confirmed by Ysaÿe, who acknowledged he wrote the double-stopping "over Chausson's framework".

MUSICA 5 SUNSET: The Trio in E-flat, Opus 100, D. 929 by Franz Schubert, 1827

From Wikipedia: Piano Trio No. 2 (Schubert)

The Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello, D. 929, was one of the last compositions completed by Franz Schubert, dated November 1827. It was published by Probst as opus 100 in late 1828, shortly before the composer's death and first performed at a private party in January 1828 to celebrate the engagement of Schubert's school-friend Josef von Spaun. The Trio was among the few of his late compositions Schubert heard performed before his death.[1] It was given its first private performance by Carl Maria von Bocklet on the piano, Ignaz Schuppanzigh playing the violin, and Josef Linke playing cello. 

Like Schubert's other piano trio, in B-flat major, this is a comparatively larger work than most piano trios of the time, taking almost 50 minutes to perform. The second theme of the first movement is based loosely on the opening theme of the Minuet and Trio of Schubert's G major sonata (D. 894). 

The main theme of the second movement was used as one of the central musical themes in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. It has also been used in a number of other films, including The Hunger, Crimson Tide, The Piano Teacher, L'Homme de sa vie, Land of the Blind, the HBO miniseries John Adams and The Mechanic. It is supposedly based on a Swedish folk song "se solen sjunker" ("See, the sun is sinking") by Berg.

Structure 

The piano trio contains four movements: 

1. Allegro 

The first movement is in sonata form. There is disagreement over the break-up of thematic material with one source claiming six separate units of thematic material while another source divides them into three themes each with two periods. There is to an extent extra thematic material during the recapitulation. At least one of the thematic units is based closely on a theme in an earlier piano sonata. The development section focuses mainly on the final theme of the exposition. 

2. Andante con moto 

The second movement takes the form of an asymetrical-double-ternary form. The opening theme has been used extensively in popular culture.

Principal theme in the second movement 

3. Scherzando. Allegro moderato 

The scherzo is an animated piece in standard double ternary form. 

4. Allegro moderato 

The finale is in an uncommon form where Schubert layers the sonata form with the outline of rondo form. Schubert also includes in two interludes the opening theme of the second movement in an altered version. 

MUSICA 4 STRIPPER: Air on the G String: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 BY Johann Sebastian Bach, 1723

Wikipedia: Air on the G String

Air on the G String is August Wilhelmj's arrangement of the second movement in Johann Sebastian Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068. 

History 

The original orchestral suite was written by Bach for his patron Prince Leopold of Anhalt some time between the years 1717 and 1723. 

The title comes from violinist August Wilhelmj's late 19th century arrangement of the piece for violin and piano. By transposing the key of the piece from its original D major to C major and transposing the melody down an octave, Wilhelm was able to play the piece on only one string of his violin, the G string. 

Later, a spurious story was put about that the melody was always intended to be played on the G string alone. 

Recording 

The Air on the G String was the first work by Bach ever to be recorded. This was by the Russian cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich and an unknown pianist, in 1902 (as the Air from the Overture No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068).  

Part of Air on the G String's melody was incorporated into Procol Harum's celebrated 1967 Worldwide hit, A Whiter Shade of Pale.

From Revision: J S Bach: Orchestral Suite in no.3 in d major, bwv 1068

The suite as a whole is perhaps most famous today for its second movement, the Air. In the 19th-century arrangement by August Wilhelmj in C major, it is widely known as the 'Air on the G-string' as the melody line can be played wholly on the lowest string of the violin, the G-string. This is often played in a highly Romantic style, with much vibrato. There have been other versions; French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier’s version was used in a cigar advert. 

Its lyrical melody acts as Baroque version of a wordless, instrumental aria, which unfolds slowly, almost infinitely so. The air’s long opening semibreve, as a rhythmic device, can give the impression of eternity. But it is the walking bass that provides the forward momentum; the C# and A in bar 1 act as passing notes in the bass. The incessant quaver movement acts to unify the piece as well as to provide momentum, giving great balance of mood throughout the piece. The texture is not nearly as dense as the preceding overture, but it retains much of its polyphonic texture; the second violin and viola both have melodic fragments that answer the phrases in the main melody, creating an effect of antiphony. 

The melodic construction makes great use of suspensions, which provide moments of harmonic tension within the air. The first one comes as bar 1 gives way to bar 2; the F# becomes dissonant with the changed harmony in bar 21, but is resolved by bar 23. However, in the intervening beat the melody is decorated by semiquavers on B, G, and an appoggiatura on F# just before the resolution of this 7-6 suspension to the E. There are many such highly decorated suspensions in the music – the viola has ones in bars 3 and 4; the second violin in bars 5 and 6. The decoration also extends into ornamentation, some of which Bach has written out and prescribed, but much of which can be added by the players in line with Baroque performance practice.

The air is structured within a binary movement framework: 

section A: bars 1-6
section B: bars 7-18
But its tonal plan allows it to maintain great interest:
bar 1 - D major
bar 2 - A major (hinted at via dominant; the E major chord acts more like the tonic’s secondary dominant, as the bass G# is quickly cancelled by G in bar 2)
bar 3 - E minor
bar 4 - D major (the chord of E minor acts a pivot chord to return to the tonic)
bar 5 - A major (establishing the binary form; the G before the repeat changes the A major to an A dominant 7th to lead back to the D major)
bar 7 - E minor
bar 9 - B minor (establishing the relative minor)
bar 11 - A major
bar 13 - G major (via the A dominant 7th chord acting as secondary dominant; starts sequence)
bar 13 - A major (sequence continues, increasing tension)
bar 14 - B minor (sequence continues, further tension)
bar 14 - E minor (final stop of the sequence)
bar 15 - G major (a typical move of Bach to refer to the subdominant before returning via the dominant chord to…)
bar 17 - D major 

The melodic sequence of bars 13-14 serves as a modulating sequence, and increases tension via its chromaticism, progressing from the dominant in first inversion to the tonic in each key. It also marks some contrast, as the sequence is ascending, whilst much of the rest of the piece uses descending melodies and bass lines. Again, the walking bass shares these features with the texture as a whole, acting as a microcosm; however, its constant quaver movement provides some continuity, despite the rate of harmonic change increasing from a steady 2-chords-per-bar to a 4-chords-per-bar in the sequence.

MUSICA 3 MOON: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight Sonata," by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1801

Wikipedia: Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, it is one of Beethoven's most popular compositions for the piano.

The name "Moonlight Sonata" has its origins in remarks by the German music critic and poet Ludwig Rellstab. In 1832, five years after Beethoven's death, Rellstab likened the effect of the first movement to that of moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne. Within ten years, the name "Moonlight Sonata" ("Mondscheinsonate" in German) was being used in German and English publications. Later in the nineteenth century, the sonata was universally known by that name. 

Many critics have objected to the subjective, Romantic nature of the title "Moonlight", which has at times been called "a misleading approach to a movement with almost the character of a funeral march" and "absurd". Other critics have approved of the sobriquet, finding it evocative or in line with their own associations with the work. Gramophone founder Compton Mackenzie found the title "harmless", remarking that "it is silly for austere critics to work themselves up into a state of almost hysterical rage with poor Rellstab", and adding, "what these austere critics fail to grasp is that unless the general public had responded to the suggestion of moonlight in this music Rellstab's remark would long ago have been forgotten."

Although no direct testimony exists as to the specific reasons why Beethoven decided to title both the Op. 27 works as Sonata quasi una fantasia, it may be significant that the layout of the present work does not follow the traditional movement arrangement in the Classical period of fast-slow-[fast]-fast. Instead, the sonata possesses an end-weighted trajectory, with the rapid music held off until the third movement. In his analysis, German critic Paul Bekker states that "The opening sonata-allegro movement gave the work a definite character from the beginning... which succeeding movements could supplement but not change. Beethoven rebelled against this determinative quality in the first movement. He wanted a prelude, an introduction, not a proposition.”

The sonata consists of three movements: 

Adagio sostenuto  

The first movement, in C♯ minor, is written in an approximate truncated sonata form. The movement opens with an octave in the left hand and a triplet figuration in the right. A melody that Hector Berlioz called a "lamentation", mostly by the right hand, is played against an accompanying ostinato triplet rhythm, simultaneously played by the right hand. The movement is played pianissimo or "very quietly", and the loudest it gets is mezzo forte or "moderately loud". The adagio sostenuto has made a powerful impression on many listeners; for instance, Berlioz said of it that it "is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify". Beethoven's student Carl Czerny called it "a nocturnal scene, in which a mournful ghostly voice sounds from the distance". The movement was very popular in Beethoven's day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself, who remarked to Czerny, "Surely I've written better things."

Allegretto  

The second movement is a relatively conventional scherzo and trio, a moment of relative calm written in D-flat major, the more easily-notated enharmonic equivalent of C♯ major, the parallel major of the first movement's key, C♯ minor. Franz Liszt is said to have described the second movement as "a flower between two chasms".  The slight majority of the movement is in piano, but a handful of sforzandos and forte-pianos helps to maintain the movement's cheerful disposition.

Presto agitato 

The stormy final movement (C♯ minor), in sonata form, is the weightiest of the three, reflecting an experiment of Beethoven's (also carried out in the companion sonata, Opus 27, No. 1 and later on in Opus 101) placement of the most important movement of the sonata last. The writing has many fast arpeggios and strongly accented notes, and an effective performance demands lively and skillful playing.

It is written that the C-sharp minor sonata, particularly the third movement, was the inspiration for Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu, and that the Fantaisie-Impromptu was actually a tribute to Beethoven. It manifests the key relationships of the sonata's three movements, chord structures, and even shares some passages. Felix Salzer writes: "... With the aid of the Fantaisie-Impromptu we can at least recognize what particular features of the C♯ minor Sonata struck fire in Chopin. We can actually regard Chopin as our teacher as he points to the coda and says, 'Look here, this is great. Take heed of this example!' ... The Fantaisie-Impromptu is perhaps the only instance where one genius discloses to us — if only by means of a composition of his own — what he actually hears in the work of another genius."

Of the final movement, Charles Rosen has written "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing."

Beethoven's heavy use of sforzando notes, together with just a few strategically located fortissimo passages, creates the sense of a very powerful sound in spite of the predominance of piano markings throughout. Within this turbulent sonata-allegro, there are two main themes,[citation needed] with a variety of variation techniques utilized.

MUSICA 2 ELISE: Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, "Für Elise," Ludwig van Beethoven, 1810

Wikipedia: Für Elise

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59 and Bia 515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (German: [fyːʁ eːˈliːzə] ( listen), English: "For Elise"), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions.[1][2][3] It is usually classified as a bagatelle, but it is also sometimes referred to as an Albumblatt.

source

The piece is in A minor and is set in 3/8 time.  

It begins with an A minor theme marked Poco moto (little movement), with the left hand playing arpeggios alternating between A minor and E major. 

It then moves into a brief section based around C major and G major, before returning to the original theme. 

It then enters a lighter section in the subdominant key of the relative major of A minor (C major), F major. 

It consists of a similar texture to the A section, where the right hand plays a melody over left hand arpeggios. 

It then enters a 32nd note C major figure before returning to the A section. 

The piece then moves to an agitated theme in D minor with an A pedal point, as the right hand plays diminished chords. 

This section then concludes with an ascending A minor arpeggio before beginning a chromatic descent over two octaves, and then returning to the A section. 

The piece ends in its starting key of A minor with an authentic cadence. 

Despite being called a bagatelle, the piece is in rondo form. 

The structure is A–B–A–C–A. 

The first theme is not technically difficult and is often taught alone as it provides a good basic exercise for piano pedalling technique. 

However, much greater technique is required for the B section as well as the rapid rising A minor figure in the C section. 

Kopitz presents the finding by the German organ scholar Johannes Quack that the letters that spell Elise can be decoded as the first three notes of the piece. Because an E♭ is called an Es in German and is pronounced as "S", that makes E–(L)–(I)–S–E: E–(L)–(I)–E♭–E, which by enharmonic equivalents sounds the same as the written notes E–(L)–(I)–D♯–E.[10][13]

EMBLEMS: MUSICA

Vanitas - Pieter Coecke van Aelst - source

MUSICA

1. GYPSY: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 (Gypsy Airs), Pablo de Sarasate, 1878
2. ELISE: Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, "Für Elise," Ludwig van Beethoven, 1810
3. MOON: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, "Moonlight Sonata," by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1801
4. STRIPPER: Air on the G String: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, by Johann Sebastian Bach:  1723
5. SUNSET: The Trio in E-flat, Opus 100, D. 929 by Franz Schubert, 1827
6. AIRPLANE: Poème, Op. 25 by Ernest Chausson, 1896
7. DEATH: Piano Concerto No. 1 by Rachmaninov / Khatia Buniatishvili
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