Louis Schwizgebel-Wang
Programme Notes
The adult Mozart found himself unable to secure a position to fulfill the promise of his childhood fame. During his many attempts to establish himself in important European capitals, Mozart longed for an opportunity to succeed in Vienna. First, however, he had to contend with the unhappy position of working for the Archbishop of Salzburg, but an almost comic turn of events brought Mozart to Vienna before he even had a chance to plot his escape. A commission to write an opera in 1780 (Idomeneo) took Mozart temporarily to Munich. The opera received its premiere in January of 1781; in March, Mozart was summoned from Munich by the Archbishop, temporarily in residence in Vienna for the ascension of Emperor Joseph II. Their already dysfunctional relationship went from bad to worse; the success of Idomeneo went to Mozart's head and he could no longer bear the Archbishop's restrictions. By May, the situation had become untenable, and Mozart was dismissed (as he wrote in a letter) with a kick on my arse.
Thus Vienna acquired another illustrious musical son. Mozart quickly established himself as the premier pianist and composer of the younger generation of Viennese composers (much as Beethoven would a decade later). A year after his arrival he was married; ten months later he became a father. Mozart's own father seems to have been less than impressed with his son's apparently sudden shift of priorities. To heal the rift, Mozart and his new wife Constanze travelled to Salzburg in the summer of 1823, leaving their new-born son behind. The trip lasted about three months. On the return journey, the couple stopped in Linz, where Mozart composed Symphony No. 36 and, it seems likely, the Sonata in B-flat major K. 333, which opens this recital. Tragically, Wolfgang and Constanze arrived back in Vienna to discover that their young son had died during the summer, at less than two months of age. (Mozart himself had only eight years to live.)
Frédéric Chopin arrived in Paris in 1831, three years after the death of Schubert in Vienna. At 21 years of age Chopin was already a fully-formed musician—the foundation of his phenomenal piano technique and his compositional style was complete. The mystery, of course, remains how such a talent came from Warsaw, not one of the great musical capitals.
Chopin was born near the Polish capital, in Zelazola Wola. His father was a French émigré, his mother was Polish. By five, he was playing the piano well; at eight his first composition was printed, a polonaise. Warsaw was by no means a backwater—many of the greatest performers passed through on concert tours—but it was not exactly a hotbed of pedagogical activity. Chopin's teacher, Joseph Elsner, was strictly a classicist, but he had the wisdom to allow Chopin's unique talent to take its own path.
Chopin's playing was distinctly different from the prevailing virtuoso style of the day. Other pianists, chief among them Liszt, dazzled audiences with cascading scales and thundering chords. Perhaps due to his diminutive size (he weighed 100 pounds at most), Chopin played entirely differently, using shades of pianissimo seemingly unknown and unavailable to the rest. In his hands the piano became a singing instrument, full of colour and subtlety. His pianism established a style of playing that endured throughout the second half of the 19th century. Surprisingly, his reputation as a pianist rests only on about thirty public concerts; after that he restricted his playing strictly to the salons of upper-crust Paris.
Most of Chopin's pieces are single-movement, contained works, such as the many Mazurkas and Polonaises. His own playing of such pieces was known for its extreme rubato—so much so that other musicians maintained that the time-signature was altered. (The composer Meyerbeer greatly offended Chopin by maintaining that his playing of the Mazurka in C, Op.33, no.3 was in 2/4, and not the indicated 3/4).
Chopin's deep affection for his homeland is reflected in the fact that he wrote more Mazurkas than any other form; 51, to be exact. The three Mazurkas of Op.63 were the last to be published during his lifetime (and the third, fourth, and fifth last of his Mazurkas). These works were written in 1846, and display a simpler, cleaner style than many of his earlier works, eschewing pianistic display for the sake of a more direct expression.
The three waltzes of Op.34 were composed between 1834 and 1838. Chopin wrote his first waltz at the age of 15, long before he ever visited Vienna. Although the Op.34, no.2 waltz was composed in Vienna, it has very little in common with the Viennese waltz. More dance poems than dances, Chopin's waltzes evoke the atmosphere of the grand ballroom, but as Schumann pointed out, if they were to be played at a ball, at least half of the dancers would have to be princesses.
Perhaps no other composer in the Western canon was as peculiarly gifted as Franz Schubert. Schubert was neither a child prodigy nor a virtuoso; indeed, he hardly made any mark at all outside a small circle of enthusiasts. He was not a professional musician, either as a composer or player, and he did not occupy a place of social privilege such as Mendelssohn enjoyed. His gifts had two focal points: a sense of melody unmatched by any other composer, and an amazing capacity to produce volumes upon volumes of first-rate music.
Schubert did learn both the violin and the piano as a child, then reluctantly followed his father's footsteps to become a schoolteacher. He composed unceasingly in his spare time, and soon stopped teaching altogether, relying mostly upon the good graces of friends for the necessities of life. At the end of 31 years, Schubert left enough music to fill two or three lifetimes of any other composer: over 600 songs, 400 incidental piano pieces, several piano sonatas, symphonies, string quartets, piano trios, sacred music—the list goes on. The symphonies and songs are well known, as is most of the chamber music. The piano works, however, have suffered from an odd neglect, appearing only sporadically on the concert platform. Happily, this state of affairs appears to be changing for the better.
Works for the piano mark both the beginning and the end of Schubert's working life. His first surviving work is a fantasy for piano duo, dating from 1810, his 13th year. In the last weeks of his life Schubert wrote three incomparable sonatas that have overshadowed much of what came in between. Of the 20 piano sonatas Schubert began, only 11 saw completion, a pattern that improved considerably in the last half-decade of his life.
By his mid-twenties, Schubert began to show the signs of the syphilis that would eventually claim his life. Several bouts of chronic fever confined him to his home or a hospital bed. His symptoms subsided dramatically during 1825 and 1826, leading him to imagine a spontaneous cure. The summer of 1825 was spent in an extended visit to the lakeside town of Gmunden. The beauty of the surrounding area inspired the great Symphony in C major. Schubert was for a brief moment on top of the world: his health seemed good, he enjoyed the patronage of important people, and his compositional skills had peaked. The symphony was followed by the String Quartet in G major, a work of striking originality. Schubert's confidence as a composer was so high that a request by the Swiss publisher Nägeli to include a piano sonata in an anthology was rejected due to a dispute over fees.
Perhaps the sonata in question is the one we shall hear on this program. Just before his summer trip to Gmunden, Schubert worked on two ambitious piano sonatas. One remained incomplete; the other is the Sonata in A minor, D.845 which closes this recital. This is a work of almost Beethovenian scope, containing a greater dramatic range than any of Schubert's previous piano sonatas. The painter Wilhelm August Rieder had befriended Schubert, who lived nearby, and gave the young composer access to his fine piano. Perhaps the friendship and the instrument inspired the composition of this work. For his part, Rieder painted a three-quarter length portrait of Schubert that friends considered an extremely good likeness; this portrait is among the best-known images of the composer.
©2009 by Brian Mix, a Vancouver cellist and writer
Thus Vienna acquired another illustrious musical son. Mozart quickly established himself as the premier pianist and composer of the younger generation of Viennese composers (much as Beethoven would a decade later). A year after his arrival he was married; ten months later he became a father. Mozart's own father seems to have been less than impressed with his son's apparently sudden shift of priorities. To heal the rift, Mozart and his new wife Constanze travelled to Salzburg in the summer of 1823, leaving their new-born son behind. The trip lasted about three months. On the return journey, the couple stopped in Linz, where Mozart composed Symphony No. 36 and, it seems likely, the Sonata in B-flat major K. 333, which opens this recital. Tragically, Wolfgang and Constanze arrived back in Vienna to discover that their young son had died during the summer, at less than two months of age. (Mozart himself had only eight years to live.)
Frédéric Chopin arrived in Paris in 1831, three years after the death of Schubert in Vienna. At 21 years of age Chopin was already a fully-formed musician—the foundation of his phenomenal piano technique and his compositional style was complete. The mystery, of course, remains how such a talent came from Warsaw, not one of the great musical capitals.
Chopin was born near the Polish capital, in Zelazola Wola. His father was a French émigré, his mother was Polish. By five, he was playing the piano well; at eight his first composition was printed, a polonaise. Warsaw was by no means a backwater—many of the greatest performers passed through on concert tours—but it was not exactly a hotbed of pedagogical activity. Chopin's teacher, Joseph Elsner, was strictly a classicist, but he had the wisdom to allow Chopin's unique talent to take its own path.
Chopin's playing was distinctly different from the prevailing virtuoso style of the day. Other pianists, chief among them Liszt, dazzled audiences with cascading scales and thundering chords. Perhaps due to his diminutive size (he weighed 100 pounds at most), Chopin played entirely differently, using shades of pianissimo seemingly unknown and unavailable to the rest. In his hands the piano became a singing instrument, full of colour and subtlety. His pianism established a style of playing that endured throughout the second half of the 19th century. Surprisingly, his reputation as a pianist rests only on about thirty public concerts; after that he restricted his playing strictly to the salons of upper-crust Paris.
Most of Chopin's pieces are single-movement, contained works, such as the many Mazurkas and Polonaises. His own playing of such pieces was known for its extreme rubato—so much so that other musicians maintained that the time-signature was altered. (The composer Meyerbeer greatly offended Chopin by maintaining that his playing of the Mazurka in C, Op.33, no.3 was in 2/4, and not the indicated 3/4).
Chopin's deep affection for his homeland is reflected in the fact that he wrote more Mazurkas than any other form; 51, to be exact. The three Mazurkas of Op.63 were the last to be published during his lifetime (and the third, fourth, and fifth last of his Mazurkas). These works were written in 1846, and display a simpler, cleaner style than many of his earlier works, eschewing pianistic display for the sake of a more direct expression.
The three waltzes of Op.34 were composed between 1834 and 1838. Chopin wrote his first waltz at the age of 15, long before he ever visited Vienna. Although the Op.34, no.2 waltz was composed in Vienna, it has very little in common with the Viennese waltz. More dance poems than dances, Chopin's waltzes evoke the atmosphere of the grand ballroom, but as Schumann pointed out, if they were to be played at a ball, at least half of the dancers would have to be princesses.
Perhaps no other composer in the Western canon was as peculiarly gifted as Franz Schubert. Schubert was neither a child prodigy nor a virtuoso; indeed, he hardly made any mark at all outside a small circle of enthusiasts. He was not a professional musician, either as a composer or player, and he did not occupy a place of social privilege such as Mendelssohn enjoyed. His gifts had two focal points: a sense of melody unmatched by any other composer, and an amazing capacity to produce volumes upon volumes of first-rate music.
Schubert did learn both the violin and the piano as a child, then reluctantly followed his father's footsteps to become a schoolteacher. He composed unceasingly in his spare time, and soon stopped teaching altogether, relying mostly upon the good graces of friends for the necessities of life. At the end of 31 years, Schubert left enough music to fill two or three lifetimes of any other composer: over 600 songs, 400 incidental piano pieces, several piano sonatas, symphonies, string quartets, piano trios, sacred music—the list goes on. The symphonies and songs are well known, as is most of the chamber music. The piano works, however, have suffered from an odd neglect, appearing only sporadically on the concert platform. Happily, this state of affairs appears to be changing for the better.
Works for the piano mark both the beginning and the end of Schubert's working life. His first surviving work is a fantasy for piano duo, dating from 1810, his 13th year. In the last weeks of his life Schubert wrote three incomparable sonatas that have overshadowed much of what came in between. Of the 20 piano sonatas Schubert began, only 11 saw completion, a pattern that improved considerably in the last half-decade of his life.
By his mid-twenties, Schubert began to show the signs of the syphilis that would eventually claim his life. Several bouts of chronic fever confined him to his home or a hospital bed. His symptoms subsided dramatically during 1825 and 1826, leading him to imagine a spontaneous cure. The summer of 1825 was spent in an extended visit to the lakeside town of Gmunden. The beauty of the surrounding area inspired the great Symphony in C major. Schubert was for a brief moment on top of the world: his health seemed good, he enjoyed the patronage of important people, and his compositional skills had peaked. The symphony was followed by the String Quartet in G major, a work of striking originality. Schubert's confidence as a composer was so high that a request by the Swiss publisher Nägeli to include a piano sonata in an anthology was rejected due to a dispute over fees.
Perhaps the sonata in question is the one we shall hear on this program. Just before his summer trip to Gmunden, Schubert worked on two ambitious piano sonatas. One remained incomplete; the other is the Sonata in A minor, D.845 which closes this recital. This is a work of almost Beethovenian scope, containing a greater dramatic range than any of Schubert's previous piano sonatas. The painter Wilhelm August Rieder had befriended Schubert, who lived nearby, and gave the young composer access to his fine piano. Perhaps the friendship and the instrument inspired the composition of this work. For his part, Rieder painted a three-quarter length portrait of Schubert that friends considered an extremely good likeness; this portrait is among the best-known images of the composer.
©2009 by Brian Mix, a Vancouver cellist and writer
