Preludes and Fugues, Op.87 – Shostakovich
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Category: Johann Sebastian Bach
May 30, 2020
“Apollo e Dafne” – George Frideric Handel
“George Frideric Handel” (1726 – 1728)
Balthasar Denner
__________
supposing that there would probably
be a musical interpretation of the
myth of Apollo and Daphne, I wasn’t
surprised to discover that Handel
had written one, in 1709 – 10, cantatas
on mythic subjects was the type of
thing he did, don’t forget the
Renaissance, the renewed, and
probing fascination, starting more
or less in the 14th Century, with
Classical Greece and Rome, affecting
everything, even as late, 1685 to 1759,
as the 18th Century for this composer
I must admit that I’m not particularly
partial to Handel, his rhythms are
way too elementary for my taste,
plus he never achieves the depth
of emotion Bach, his contemporary,
does, 1685 – 1750, so that I’ve put
him aside pretty well completely
but here’s an Apollo e Dafne that
I found compelling from beginning
to end
Apollo e Dafne is not an opera, but
a cantata, which means a piece
for voice and orchestra, but with
several movements, like tunes in
a Broadway show
this production, however, has
incorporated a scenario with
singers in costume acting
out a plot
it has no subtitles though, but
you can read the translation
here, should you need to
Handel’s libretto, note, is a
reworking of Ovid’s text, therefore
not an exact reproduction of the
version I’ve been highlighting,
Dryden’s translation of 1717,
written a few years, you’ll want to
consider, after Handel’s own
composition, but the essential
story is there, she eventually
turns into a tree, no surprise,
you knew that already from Ovid’s
very title, The Transformation of
Daphne into a Lawrel, as
inscribed, however archaically
now, by Dryden
I’ll just point out that Cupid’s in
red, doesn’t sing, just delivers
atmospheric context, and you
might find some later scenes
quite, even shockingly, I did,
explicit, be advised
otherwise, enjoy, be delighted
R ! chard
August 3, 2019
a degustation
“Lemons“ (1929)
___________
watching one of my cooking competition
shows on television the other day, the
twelve contestants were called upon in
pairs to create, each couple, one of the
six elements in a degustation menu
a degustation menu – I raised an eyebrow
at that one – is the same as a tasting menu,
but at a finer, it is implied, restaurant
the theme was citrus fruit, each service
had to highlight one of them, a mandarin,
a lemon, an orange, a lime, a tangelo,
a grapefruit, in that order
my goodness, I thought, a set of
variations on edibles, I was delighted,
not to mention synesthetically
titillated, all my senses were alive
the first course was a mandarin-cured
prawn ceviche, with pesto, something
to tease one’s palate, leaving plenty of
room, however, for what was to follow,
the second course, an equally light
lemon-cured salmon with smoked
crème fraîche and decorative
translucent radish slices, in again but
polite allotments
the third service introduces the protein,
duck with the nearly ever requisite
orange, but with beets, in this instance,
on an underlying sheen of all their
accumulated and colourful juices,
bread, I would imagine, would’ve been
gluttonously required
beef then followed, to fill the second
of the more substantial and filling
elements of the meal, with a lime
reduction and beets
for dessert, the fifth service presented
a tangelo cup with a surprise chocolate
truffle meant to burst in one’s mouth
with iced tangelo flavour, refreshing
and unexpectedly delightful, followed
by a grapefruit sorbet with chocolate
ganache and meringue shards as a
finale
not all contestants reached the heights
wished for, but some were memorable,
much as in any set of, even noteworthy,
variations
here’s Glenn Gould playing Beethoven’s
Six Variations in F major, Opus 34, each
variation is comparable to a culinary
experience, but for piano
listen, compare
these are preceded here by a late, and
haunting, Beethoven bagatelle, his
Opus 126, however, after which the
variations themselves are conveniently
spliced in the editing process to help
distinguish each movement from the
other
Glenn Gould doesn’t hit a note wrong,
but I think Beethoven’s introductory
aria, upon which the variations are
built, and which is repeated at the end
after a coda, or final interpolated wave,
is slow, a more engaging opening
would’ve been, to my mind, more
effective
I also would’ve, however peripherally,
degusted especially the lime beef
R ! chard
psst: incidentally, all Bach’s Cello Suites
are in six segments, their common
theme is dance, each one is a
scintillating Baroque example
July 20, 2019
Concerto for Keyboard / Violin, BWV 1052 – Bach
“The Nightwatch“ (1642)
Rembrandt
_____
for Barbara, who dutifully
kicked me in the psyche
there is apparent discussion about whether
the BWV 1052 of Bach was first a keyboard
or a violin, concerto, I’ve only known it as a
keyboard concerto till now, when looking
for it for a friend, I happened upon this
recently published rendering of an event
that took place at the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam in front of the very
“Nightwatch” of Rembrandt, historical
epochs coming iconically together
which is why, incidentally, I love Europe,
Disneyland for adults, where epochal
periods come together like fantasies,
tossing back at us their manifest, their
multifarious, and mythic glories
what do you think, which came first, the
chicken or the egg, the keyboard or the
violin
I think, however prejudicially, the
keyboard, but what do I know
enjoy either, they’re both riveting
R ! chard
psst: note how the painted faces and the real
faces in the violin version look alike,
Rembrandt‘s genius
February 15, 2019
“Années de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year – Liszt
“Petrarch“ (c.1450)
Andrea del Castagno
___________
for John, who would’ve
been 60 today
though the suite might’ve started with
Bach’s string of dance pieces in the
early 18th Century, it becomes evident
during the 19th Century, after a lapse
of nearly 100 years, while it fell into
disfavour, that its resurrection as a
valid musical form might’ve kept the
original structure, which is to say its
several separate parts to make up a
whole, its movements, but that it
now was serving a different purpose
where music had, through to the early
Romantic Period, followed dance
rhythms, or variations of tempo,
adagio, andante, allegro, and the like,
it now presented itself as a background
for settings, be it ballets, as in
Tchaikovsky’s, plays, as in Edvard
Grieg’s celebrated , “Peer Gynt Suite“,
after Ibsen‘s eponymous play,
specific locations, as in Debussy’s
“Children’s Corner“, or more
expansively, both geographically
and in its compositional length,
these very “Années de pèlerinage”
of Liszt
this is in keeping with the exploration
of consciousness of that era, which
would lead to not only Impressionism,
but to Freud, and the others, and the
development of psychoanalysis
you’ll note that music seems much
more improvisational in Liszt than in
Chopin, or Beethoven, prefiguring
already even jazz, more evocative,
less emotional, more personal, not
generalized, idiosyncratic, a direct
development of the newly acquired
concept of democracy, one man, at
the time, one vote, one, indeed,
voice, however individual, however
even controversial
listen, for instance, to Liszt’s “Années
de pèlerinage”, 2nd Year, Italy
1. Sposalizio
2. Il penseroso
3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa
4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca
5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca
7. Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata
today you can listen to suites
from famous films, for instance
“Blade Runner“, the beat, in
other words, goes on
but note the renovations, find them,
I dare you, you’ll be surprised at
your unsuspected perspicacity
listen
R ! chard
January 11, 2019
two suites – Debussy / Ravel
“Minuet“ (1756)
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo
_________
two pieces
one by Debussy, his “Pour le piano“
or, in English, “For the Piano“
a second, by Ravel, his “Le tombeau
de Couperin“, or “Couperin’s Coffin“
how are they similar
how are they different
you tell me
a couple o’ clues
“Pour le piano“
Prélude
Sarabande
Toccata
“Le tombeau de Couperin“
Prélude
Fugue
Forlane
Rigaudon
Menuet
Toccata
R ! chard
psst: both these works are suites, in
the manner of Bach, compositions
with more than one segment, the
first a prelude, followed by, at
least, two dance pieces
the form had remained fallow for
nearly two hundred years until it
was revived, atavistically, during
the Impressionist Period
if you can’t tell your sarabande
from your rigaudon, your forlane
from your toccata, don’t fret, they
are now defunct dances, not to
mention that they’ve always been
stylized, these suites, in other
words, weren’t made for dancing,
as the saying goes, but for
performance, listening
January 4, 2019
Chopin / Debussy – Preludes
“Prelude“ (1909)
Willard Metcalf
_________
what’s a prelude
something that, by definition,
precedes something else
which it had been, formally,
before Chopin made it stand
alone as a musical form,
much, incidentally, as he
later did the scherzo
a prelude, earlier, had preceded
several other dance pieces in
suites, Bach’s Cello Suites, for
example, all start with a
prelude
or fronted fugues, in, again,
notably, Bach’s celebrated
Preludes and Fugues sets,
more of which, for their
complexity, later
here’s Chopin, however, with
his array of 24, his Opus 28,
one for each key, incidentally,
much in the manner of Bach’s
template pieces, the Preludes
and Fugues
here’s Debussy’s Book 1,
picking it up for the 20th
Century, with his tonally
indiscriminate 12
what’s the difference
you tell me
R ! chard
psst: apples and oranges, I think,
depends on my mood that
particular night, whether
meditative or melancholy
October 7, 2018
Piano Concertos 2, 3, 4 – Beethoven
“Liberty Leading the People“ (1830)
_________
for everyone, with great gratitude,
who reads me, I mean only to
bring poetry, which is to say,
light
though I’d considered leaving the
Romantic Piano Concertos behind
to explore other areas of the period
in this survey, it seemed unfair,
indeed remiss of me, not to include
the three among my top ten that I
haven’t yet highlighted, Beethoven’s
2nd, 3rd, and 4th Piano Concertos,
Opuses 19, 37, and 58 respectively,
after all, these are where the spirit
of the age, the Zeitgeist, was
constructed, like a building, with
walls, windows, a hearth, all of
which would become a church,
then a Church, and by the time of
Brahms, a very Romantic Cathedral
the foundation had already been laid
by Mozart with his 27, but music had
not yet become anything other than
an entertainment by then, or
alternatively, an accessory to
ceremonial pomp and circumstance,
see Handel and England for this, or
liturgical stuff, see, among many
others here, Bach
but with the turn towards
independence of thought as the
Enlightenment progressed, cultural
power devolved from the prelates,
and their reverent representations,
to the nobles, who wanted their own
art, music, which is to say, something
secular, therefore the Classical
Period, 1750 – 1800, in round figures
then in the middle of all that, 1789,
the French Revolution happened,
and the field was ripe for prophets,
anyone with a message of hope,
and a metaphysical direction, midst
all the existential disarray – the Age
of Reason had set the way,
theoretically, for the possibility of a
world without God, something, or
Something, was needed to replace
the The Trinity, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, Who had been
seeing Their supremacy contested
since already the Reformation
Beethoven turned out to be just
our man, don’t take my, but history‘s
authentification of it, see the very
Romantic Period for corroboration
in a word, Beethoven established a
Faith, a Vision, not to mention the
appropriate tools to instal this new
perspective, a sound, however
inherited, musical structure – his
Piano Concertos Two, Three, and
Four, for instance, are paramount
amongst a host of others of his
transcendental revelations
briefly, the initial voice, I am here, in
the first movement, is declamatory,
even imperious, but ever
compositionally solid, and proven,
tempo, tonality, recapitulation, the
materials haven’t changed from the
earlier Classical epoch, just the
design, the interior, the
metaphysical conception
his construction is masterfully
direct, the line of music is
throughout ever clear and concise,
despite flights of, often, ethereal,
even magical, speculation, you
don’t feel the music in your body
as you would in a dance, as in the
earlier era, of minuets, but follow
it, rather, with your intellect, you,
nearly irresistibly, read it
but the adagio, the slow movement,
the middle one Classically, is always,
for me, the clincher, the movement
that delivers the incontrovertible
humanity that gave power to the
Romantic poet, who touched you
where you live
Beethoven says life is difficult, and
eventually, at the end of his Early,
Middle and Late Periods, life may
even have no meaning
but should there be someone, he
says, who is listening, Someone –
though implicit is that one may be
speaking to merely the wind – this
is what I can do, this is who I am
and while I am here, however
briefly, I am not insignificant, I
can be worthy, even glorious,
even beautiful, I am no less
consequential, thus, nor
precious, than a flower
for better, of course, or for worse
R ! chard
September 2, 2018
Piano Sonata in C# minor, opus 80 – Tchaikovsky
___________
for Sarah and Rachel, the daughters
of the son of a dear cousin, after a
belated lunch recently, two young
girls, 14, 16, in bloom, as Proust
would say, who speak not only
music, but French and English,
fluently, I checked – perhaps
even German, their Oma
lives with them – they also
play the flute, the piano,
and sing, what could be
I ask you, more beautiful,
two young girls in bloom,
indeed in very blossom
or am I being too French
the form of the sonata had been established
decisively during the Classical Period, out
of the rudiments of Bach’s own such pieces,
Mozart and Haydn had given the concept its
final shape, its structure, three or four
contrasting movements, by definition all
entertainments
Beethoven kicked the entertainment part
right out of the ball park, made his show
into a veritable transcendental meditation,
rather than to merely applaud, audiences
gasped, were meant to be awed, as I still
ever am by his musical speculations
but by definition as well, a sonata is a
piece for a single instrument, therefore
inherently introspective, whether the
player has an audience or not, soloists,
note, play easily on their own
even an accompanied sonata, as violin
sonatas often are, for instance, or this
one for two pianos, would lose the
intimacy of a solo piece, for having
someone playing, however compatibly,
over one’s shoulder
in other words, a piano sonata is, by
definition, a monologue, a soliloquy,
where notes tell the story that words
would intimately, even confessionally,
in poetry, convey
the emotions that are elicited from
a piece are as real as they would
be from any literary alternative,
except that they’re quickened, like
aromas, through the senses, rather
than through divisive, by definition
confrontational, logic
rosemary reminds me always, for
instance, of one of my departed
aunts, like the taste of a madeleine
dipped in tea opened the door for
Proust to an entire earlier epoch,
the seed, the subject, of his
disquisition on Time, “À la
recherche du temps perdu“, “An
Exploration into Elapsed Time“,
my own translation, none of the
published proffered titles
having rendered the subtlety
of the shimmering original
rosemary, in other words, speaks,
if even only to me
listen to Tchaikovsky’s First Piano
Sonata, in C# minor, opus 80, one
of only two of his, what do you
hear, think, feel
R ! chard
August 11, 2018
String Quartet no 14 in C-sharp Minor, opus 131 – Beethoven
“Musician“
__
for Ian, who surely
benefitted from my
intransigeance
after watching performed the first movement
of Beethoven’s 14th String Quartet at home
with a friend, I interrupted the piece and
instead put on the one I’d found with
computer graphics
not from the beginning, he said
yes, from the beginning, I retorted, a mere
six or seven minutes which’ll be worth it, I
insisted, and they were
four lines of music, the top one yellow for
the first violin, red for the second, mauve
for the viola, and blue for the cello, which
individually advance according to the
length of each instrument’s notes, the
height, meanwhile, of the lines indicate
pitch, top ones high notes, bottom lines
low, it’s like watching a blueprint of
what’s happening, and mesmerizing, a
musical score in very motion, though
without, admittedly, the bar lines, nor
key and time signatures, clefs neither,
for that matter
the music meanwhile is transcendent
Beethoven here resolves all the issues
I brought up about his two early Late
Sonatas, grab bags of fine tunes but
without a centre, cuts on an album,
rather than the visionary
pronouncements of the prophet I’ve
come to expect from Beethoven
Beethoven pulls out all the stops
for his 14th, goes from a fugue in
the first movement, a form
reminiscent of Bach, who’d been
completely obliterated during the
Classical Period, masterful dance
rhythms then, peppered
throughout, referencing, indeed
honouring late 18th Century court
music, a set of variations in the
fourth movement, and other
classifications I won’t touch for
their being too technical, but
which all illustrate Beethoven’s
mastery of every musical
convention until his time, then
pushes all of it further still into
the future with this string quartet,
supreme among all string quartets,
his 14th
much later, Pink Floyd would pull
off a similar stunt, take its own
generation’s music to comparable
heights with an equally cultural,
which is to say historical, impact,
the comparison is, I think,
noteworthy and instructive
Pink Floyd, incidentally, was also
a quartet, for even more context
note that throughout, tonality, tempo,
and repetition have been strictly,
though, admittedly, often
eccentrically observed, the piece has
been arresting, even riveting, however,
for some, disconcertingly so, but
never not understood, never foreign,
the music isn’t at all alienating, as
could be, say, Chinese opera for most
of us, we’re still here in our corner of
the planet following faithfully in the
Western musical tradition as it thus
then evolved
I could say all of the above as well,
again, by the way, about Pink Floyd
in their own, ahem, Time
all of that said, this other version,
by the Alban Berg Quartet, is the
performance that you’ll remember,
it is still incomparable, the gold
standard
R ! chard
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