adagios
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Category: recitals to ponder
March 21, 2019
but here’s Albinoni’s Adagio in G
March 18, 2019
a sonata / a suite of Robert Schumann
“Big Zoo, Triptych“ (1913)
August Macke
__________
if a sonata is a piece of music with
more than one segment, and a
suite is also a piece of music with
more than one segment, what’s
the difference, you’ll ask, not
unreasonably
a sonata speaks for itself, as itself,
is itself, whereas a suite, also in
several sections, describes
something else, something not
itself, but a place, or an action, it’s
a tale, not an autobiography
this has some implications, the
sonata will consequently be more
expansive, displaying not only
emotional impact, but also
technical wizardry, will beat its
chest, in other words, whether in
agony or in bombast, whereas a
suite, while not excluding
necessarily those aspects, will
usually be more demure, objective,
snap its suspenders less
a suite also has more movements
than the sonata’s usual three or
four, consider the difference
between, in art, a triptych, for
instance, and a collage, they’re
in either case artworks, but with
different intentions
does any of this matter, to the
aficionado it does, if you want to
buy a home, you could be looking
for a duplex instead of a condo, if
you’re listening to music, you
might prefer chamber pieces to
large orchestras, suites to sonatas
Robert Scumann’s “Kinderszenen“,
or “Scenes from Childhood“,
though not yet identified, in 1838,
as a suite, since the term hadn’t
been used that way yet, is
nevertheless not any different
in kind from Debussy’s later
“Children’s Corner“, 1908, so
that the label fits, however
retroactively
you could say the same of Beethoven’s
“Pastorale” Symphony, for instance,
it’s also, however retroactively, a suite
but here’s Schumann’s Second Piano
Sonata, to compare with his
“Kinderszenen“, to get back to my
original subject, the difference
between a suite an a sonata
listen
R ! chard
March 3, 2019
“Années de pèlerinage”, 3rd Year – Liszt
Villa d’Este
______
for my friend, Elizabeth, who just
recently passed away, may her
own pilgrimage be blessed
here’s Liszt’s “Années de pèlerinage”, 3rd Year
1. Angélus! Prière aux anges gardiens
2. Aux cyprès de la Villa D’Este, Threnody (l)
3. Aux cyprès de la Villa D’Este, Threnody (ll) ((ll)
4. Les jeux de la Villa D’Este
5. Sunt Lacrymae rerum (en mode Hongrois)
These are tears for things (in Hungarian mode)
6. Marche funèbre (en mémoire de
Maximilien. Empereur de Mexique, 19 juin, 1867)
7. Sursum corda (Erhebet eure Herzen)
compare Liszt’s “Marche funèbre“, click
here or above, with Beethoven’s own
“Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe“
from his 12th Sonata, you’ll hear the
stirrings of Impressionism peeping out
from the roots of Romanticism,
Beethoven, in 1801, is firm, solid, direct,
poignant, while Liszt, 1877, is more
diffuse, improvisational, evocative, his
is an idiosyncratic marche funèbre
compare either two with Chopin’s
“Marche funèbre” from his Piano
Sonata no 2, 1840, as Romantic as
Beethoven’s still, and as implanted
in our collective consciousness,
where Liszt’s more esoteric
interpretation of such a march has
essentially been forgotten
should it be, what do you think, you
tell me
R ! chard
February 18, 2019
on a personal note
“Roses“ (c.1886)
John Singer Sargent
____________
on a personal note, since I prefer longer
pieces, something I can sink my teeth
into – I like them when they’re long, I
always say – which led me into spending
33 years with Proust, for instance, page
by page, so that I could breathe it in, him,
I tend to veer towards music with several
movements, be they serial, as in sonatas,
symphonies, concertos, Classically
speaking, of course, or haphazard, as
in the more loosely associated suites
rather than smelling merely the rose,
as in a simple waltz, nocturne, étude,
I want to revel in the aroma of an
entire garden
therefore the three hours of Liszt‘s
“Années de pèlerinage“, for example,
even Wagner‘s daunting five hour
operas, individual portions of his
towering, indeed epic, four-part
“Ring” cycle, enthral me
these are high masses, and if you
subscribe to the faith, the experience
they allow can be transformational,
however such may still be,
nevertheless, a mere rose, a mere,
but epiphanic, rose, as is, for
instance, the exquisite Opus 10, no 3
of Chopin, “Tristesse”, or “Sadness“,
inveterately, for me
a rose, a creation as unique as we
are, in our shared, however unevenly
apportioned, mortality, proud, sturdy,
protected by thorns, even, meanwhile,
as we are, in our own manner, against
our own existential vicissitudes
but vibrant, also, ever, drenched in
any of its several arresting colours,
fragrant, poised, full of perfect grace,
as we should be ourselves, I’ve told
myself, not only with regard to their
beauty, but to their inspiration,
whether a deity exists that we
might be beholden to, incidentally,
or not
Shostakovich has something poignant
to say about that, also Beethoven, but
that’s another story, for later, maybe,
however, either, powerfully
consequential
until then, l’important, as we sing in
French, c’est la rose
or heed, it says, in other, but
nevertheless ever instructive words,
the wisdom of very nature
I live by it
R ! chard
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
February 12, 2019
Années de pèlerinage, 1st Year – Liszt
“Sketch made from travels in Italy and Switzerland“ (1906)
Nicholas Roerich
__________
a suite by any other name is still
a suite, a piece of music with
several related parts, a collage,
in painterly parlance
one New Year’s Eve, rather than
going out to celebrate, I took a
hot bath, rose at midnight like
Venus from the cleansing waters,
sat with my teddy bear before a
bristling fireplace, and listened,
serene, to Liszt’s “Années de
Pèlerinage”, all three of his
magical compositions around
his time in Switzerland and Italy,
rendered as musical photographs,
they are of Liszt, I think, his
summit, his acme, the rest of his
stuff is mostly show business
here’s his “Première année:
Suisse“, to my mind, a marvel
l – Chapelle de Guillaume Tell
ll – Au lac de Wallenstadt
lll – Pastorale
lV – Au bord d’une source, or, By a Spring
V – Orage – Storm
Vl – Vallée d’Obermann
Vll – Églogue
Vlll – Le mal du pays (Heimweh) – Homesickness
lX – Les cloches de Genève (Nocturne) – The Bells of Geneva
R ! chard
January 24, 2019
the Nutcracker Suite – Tchaikovsky
original costume sketch for “The Nutcracker” (1892)
Ivan Vsevolozhsky
__________
it didn’t take me long, after wondering
about precedents for Debussy’s nursery
piece, Children’s Corner, to ferret out
Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, a work
with a similar theme, childhood
fantasies
but the Nutcracker Suite
l. Miniature Overture
ll. Danses caractéristiques
a. Marche
b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
c. Russian Dance
d. Arabian Dance
e. Chinese Dance
f. Reed Flutes
lll. Waltz of the Flowers
is not to be confused with the complete
ballet, from which it had been excerpted
to great acclaim before the ballet itself
was presented, but to much less
enthusiasm, until George Balanchine
revived it in the 1960s
note that Tchaikovsky’s Suite, in 1892,
contains still the traditional elements
of the suite – see above – a prelude, or
overture, followed by a series of
dances, only a few years before
Debussy’s Children’s Corner, 1908,
redefined the form, made the
movements indiscriminate, not
confined to dance rhythms
note also that Tchaikovsky sounds
a lot more like the Strausses, father
and son, Romantics both, than he
does like Debussy, an Impressionist,
a generation later only
here’s the orchestral Nutcracker Suite,
a suite, in other words, is not limited
to one instrument
here’s a riveting version of it for two
pianos, not to be missed
R ! chard
January 19, 2019
two suites – Debussy
“Clair de lune”
Jean Cocteau
__________
two suites
Debussy’s “Suite bergamasque“
his “Children’s Corner”
how are they similar
how are they different
you tell me
a couple o’ clues
“Suite bergamasque“
Prélude
Menuet
Clair de lune
Passepied
“Children’s Corner“
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
Jimbo’s Lullaby
Serenade for the Doll
The Snow is Dancing
The Little Shepherd
Golliwog’s Cakewalk
R ! chard
psst: if you said, there are no dance
pieces in “Children’s Corner“,
and only three of the four
movements in “Suite
bergamasque” are dances,
you’d be right, the others all
have evocative titles, nothing
to do with the cadence, the
step
but that begs the question,
what happened to the traditional
suite, a string of dances preceded
by a prelude
well, time, and the vagaries of
language, intentions, essentially,
Debussy did to the suite what
Chopin had done to the prelude,
changed its meaning, took away
its original purpose, for better or
for worse, a suite is now, in a
similar transformation, a piece
of music, merely, any kind of music,
with several segments, without
even, necessarily, gasp, a
prelude
you can never step into the same
river twice, in other words, the
current just keeps on inexorably
moving, even immutable,
apparently, concepts fall by the
wayside, see democracy, at
present, for instance
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 7, 2019
Preludes – Debussy / Gershwin
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