Thursday 27 December 2012

Granados: Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor/The Maiden and the Nightingale (from the piano suite Goyescas)



Enric Granados Campiña (Lérida, 1867- English Channel 1916) was a late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Catalan Spanish composer, piano virtuoso and acknowledged piano teacher. A contemporary of composers Albéniz, Malats and Saint-Saëns and cello virtuoso Pablo Casals -  and born about ten years earlier than De Falla – opinion is divided between deeming him as a late-Romantic or a neo-Romantic composer, once he was the creator of a very personal Romantic style. One way or another, Granados - considered by Aaron Clark the ‘poet of the piano’[1] -  is renowned as an expoent of Spanish nationalism – along with Albéniz and De Falla.

Having spent his first years in Lérida,  Granados moved to Barcelona in 1874, where he enrolled in piano classes with  Francesc Xavier Jurnet at the Escolonía de La Mercé and in composition classes with Pedrell, soon becoming a prodigy. Later, he would take classes with Joan Baptista Pujol -  who had studied with Mallorcan pianist Pere Tintorer (former student of Lizst) and was considered the greatest piano instructor in Barcelona – at the Pujol Academy. The Academy was renowned as the forge of Catalan pianists, where Albéniz and  Malats (teacher of Mompou) were also students.

In 1887 Granados moved to Paris, and during two very influencial years he took classes with famous Parisian pianist and teacher Charles de Bériot. Those were years of  direct contact with the main French composers of the time – Ravel, Debussy, Fauré, d’Indy and Dukas – and in which the composer established a close relationship with Camille Saint-Saëns.

Back in Barcelona in 1890, Granados would spend the next ten years focused on building a solid career as pianist and composer. During this period  he formed a very successful trio with the young Casals and famous Belgian violinist Crickboom.  In 1898 he produced his first opera, Maria del Carmen – which was very well received. Two more operas were composed in the following five years.  It was also during those years that Granados wrote the Serenade for Two Violins, the Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, the Carta D’Amor (dedicated to his wife Empar),  the suite Poetic Waltzes (which he dedicated to Malats) and maybe his most famous work for piano, the suite Goyescas (inspired by the paintings of Goya). In the face of  Goyescas’s  universal success, Granados’ friend Ernest Schelling suggested he should compose an operatic version of the work – which he would complete only in 1913.  

In 1900 Granados founded the Society of Classical Concerts (Sociedad de Conciertos Clásicos) which soon gave him confidence to establish his own piano school (the Granados Academy, or Academia Granados), to which he would dedicate substantial part of his time until his death. With the Academy, Granados became renowned – together with Albéniz – as the founder of the Catalan school of piano. After 1916 the Academy would be headed by the composer’s son Eduard, followed by Granados’ pupil Franck Marshall (when it became known as the Marshall Academy).

In 1914 the outbreak of the First World War (1914-1918) hampered the plans for the Parisian première of the Goyescas. A deal was closed, then, with the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, for the opera to première in 1916. On Granados’ journey back  to Europe in 1916, the vessel in which he and Empar travelled – the Sussex – was torpedoed by a German U-boat crossing the English channel.

The composer is best remembered for his expressive solo piano works. His main pieces for piano include the  12 danzas españolas (1890), the Escenas románticas (1903), the Goyescas suíte (1911), the Valses Poéticos and the 6 Estudios expresivos.

As seen above, not only did Granados write for piano solo but he also composed chamber music, an orchestral tone poem based on Dante’s Divine Comedy and songs for piano and voice – apart from his operistic works, which were an important contribution to the Spanish zarzuela[2].

Granados compositional style finds its centre on the Romantic influence of Chopin, Schumann, Lizst and Schubert. On a typically Romantic structure, Granados then grafted a Spanish folk idiom.

In Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor (from the Goyescas) notice the  hues of the Romantic era and  the sentimental character of the piece – made more intense by the Spanish folk music tinge.

To perform Granados, no one better than Alicia de Larrocha – an authority in the composer, having herself been a student at the Marshall Academy.

Enjoy!

References:

1.Books:
Enrique Granados, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.

2.Websites:
Enrique Granados – Albums, Pictures – Naxos Classical Music http://www.naxos.com/person/Enrique_Granados/26077.htm
Enrique Granados: Music Biography, Credits and Discography: AllMusic http://www.allmusic.com/artist/enriqu%C3%A9-granados-mn0000189898
Gaudi and Art Nouveau in Catalonia



[1] CLARK, Walter Aaron. Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano.  Oxford University Press, 2005.

[2] The Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre  which consists of an alternation of spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular music. See also http://www.zarzuela.net/

Monday 17 December 2012

Esther Scliar: Piano Sonata - I Movement



Esther Scliar (1926-1978) was a modernist  Brazilian pianist, composer and conductor . She was born in the southern state of Porto Alegre. Her early years were spent in Uruguay, but due to her mother’s being  deported from the country for political reasons, the Scliars moved back to Brazil, in 1931. In the same year, her mother deserts the family – a loss from which the then five-year-old Esther would never recover, and which partially accounts for her melancholy mood throughout her life.  She and her sister were then given to their uncle to raise them. This was during a period of political upheaval in Brazil – i.e. under the dictatorial phase  (1937-1945) of President Getúlio Vargas tenure (1930-1945). The new household nurtured a very musical environment, and there Esther prematurely let show her musical traits. She started her piano classes in 1934, with Eva Kotlhar. In 1945, she graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts of Porto Alegre (Instituto de Belas Artes de Porto Alegre).

After graduating, Scliar taught piano and started studying composition. Later, she studied harmonics, counterpoint and composition in Rio de Janeiro with H.J. Koellreuter and in Venice with H.Scherchen.  In her trip to Italy, she meets a group of young Brazilian composers comprised by Eunice Katunda, Geny Marcondes and Sonia Born.  There, she starts conducting. In Milan, she attends a course in Dodecaphonic Composition[1].She also attended the Congress on Dodecaphonic Music in Switzerland.

Back in Brazil in 1949, she worked as a pianist and started a career as musical theory, harmony and composition teacher at the Villa-Lobos Instutute (Instituto Villa-Lobos). In 1950, she enters a state of emotional fragility and attempts suicide for the first time.  


Throughout her career as composer, Scliar writes music for choir, voice and piano, piano pieces, movie and theatre soundtracks, music on the works of many poets and some chamber music  (including the  Movimento de Quarteto for string quartet and the Imbricata for flute, oboe and piano). In 1978 she prematurely dies, committing suicide at the age of 51.


In the Piano Sonata (1977) - I Movement,  notice the influence of dodecaphonic serialism and Brazilian themes. 

Performed by Fanni Lowenkron. Enjoy!
HOLANDA, Joana Cunha de Holanda and GERLING, Cristina Capparelli. 'Eunice Katunda e Esther Scliar no contexto do Modernismo Musical Brasileiro'. Revista UFG, vol.6 no.2.  Goiânia, Editora Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2006.

2. Websites: Esther Scliar - Madrigal Nova Harmonia (http://www.madrigalnovaharmonia.com.br) 




[1] Dodecaphony (or twelve-tone technique, or twelve-tone serialism) is a compositional technique devised by composer Arnold Schoenberg. It is deemed as a type of serialism (see post of October 21, 2012) derived from integral serialism. In this method, all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another in a single work, through the use of tone rows (ordering of the 12 pitches). Therefore, the pieces are composed in a way that prevents them from being in a certain key. Dodecaphonism was an influencial trend followed by numerous composers in the XX century.  


Sunday 2 December 2012

Moszkowski: Étude Op.72 no.6 in F major



Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) was a Prussian-Jewish (was born in Breslau, Prussia - what is now Wroclaw, Poland) composer, pianist and devoted piano professor of the Romantic Era. He studied with great piano teacher  Theodor Kullak, and received education in composition from Friedrich Kiel. Later, Moszkovski would become professor at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst, founded by Kullak. He composed a piano quintet at the age of thirteen, and at nineteen played his début concert.

Moszkowski is best known for his piano works (he composed over two hundred piano pieces), but also composed large-scale works such as the Piano Concerto in E major, Op.59, three orchestral suites (Opp.39, 47 and 79), a symphonic poem (Jeanne d’Arc, Op.19) and an opera (Boabdil der letze Maurenkönig, Op.49).

He was quite prolific as far as his piano works are concerned. Among his main piano compositions are the world famous Serenade (Op. 15a Serenata, for piano duet - after Op. 15/1) , his set of Spanische Tänze (Spanish Dances) Op.12 [5] for piano duet,  and the Études de Virtuosité  Op.72 (comprising 15 studies), a rather showy collection of pieces written for virtuoso pianists. Other well known piano pieces are the brilliant Étincelles (Sparks).

Moszkowski’s compositional style finds its roots in the early Romanticism of Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann. His melodic shapes have gradually evolved into more imaginative, clearly-defined, striking and beautiful melodies. In his best piano works, his harmonic motion is controlled so as to place ‘harmonic surprises’ at melodic crisis spots – reason why his music is many times deemed ‘piquant’. He composed in a way that exploited the full possibilities of the piano keyboard – which suggests he was an outstanding improvisor.

His studies are not only designed to address especific technical problems; they are also designed to express a dramatic situation or a poetic sentiment, exploring the lyrical and singing qualities of the piano. Therefore, they are aimed at achieving the instrument’s  full expressive potential.

Other features of Moszkowski’s pianistic works are the use of diatonic/chromatic scale patterns, repeated notes, double notes, octaves and broken and arpeggiated chords.

In the Étude displayed below – the Op.72 no.6 in F major – Moszkowski graciously weaves both diatonic and chromatic scale patterns, whilst the piece sets off the singing qualities of the piano. Arpeggiated chords are also noticeable throughout the piece, played alternatively by left hand and right hand.

Performed by great Vladimir Horowitz. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K78vuNYXzS4