JOSEPH HAYDN Sonata in E Minor, Hob. XVI:34
Although most concertgoers associate Haydn more readily with symphonies and
string quartets than with keyboard music, he wrote dozens of masterful sonatas
and other works for both harpsichord and piano. Many are well within the reach
of amateur players, but the spitfire passagework of this delightful sonata
suggests that it was written for a seasoned performer.
ROBERT SCHUMANN Carnaval,
Op. 9
Like most of Schumann’s solo piano works of the 1830s, Carnaval was in part a musical valentine to his future bride, Clara
Wieck. But it also memorializes his first love, a young pianist named Ernestine
von Fricken to whom he was briefly betrothed. The music contrasts the
personalities of Schumann’s fictitious alter egos, the stormy, impulsive
Florestan and the dreamy, ruminative Eusebius.
STEFAN WOLPE Passacaglia from 4 Studies on Basic Rows
Wolpe was a lifelong outsider. A committed socialist, he fled his native
Germany when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and emigrated to the United States
by way of Palestine. Here his independence expressed itself in music of
uncompromising integrity and stylistic individuality. His densely argued but
surprisingly sensuous Passacaglia is built on various permutations of a 12-tone
row.
GABRIEL FAURÉ Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 63
The spirits of Chopin and Liszt lurk behind this sinewy but rapturously
lyrical piece. One of Fauré’s most impressive and characteristic works, the
Nocturne illustrates his penchant for limpid melodies, strongly articulated
bass lines, elaborate pianistic figurations, and quick, fluid modulations.
FRANZ LISZT Réminiscences
de Norma
Liszt’s operatic “paraphrases” contain some of the most breathtakingly
virtuosic music ever conceived for the keyboard. This fantasia-like riff on
Bellini’s Norma displays his wizardry
as both composer and performer. The piano conjures a panoply of orchestral
sonorities, while emulating the vocal acrobatics of the great singers of the bel canto age.