“Liebestod” from Tristan & Isolde by Richard Wagner:
This performance.
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Music For The Day
A very different feel in today’s Music For The Day, quite a marked contrast from the frenetic and technically challenging piano music of the past few days. Today we feature the finale from Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”, incorporating the well-known Shaker melody “The Gift to be Simple”.
The close harmonies in both the strings and the woodwind are delightful, and of course are so much a part of Copland’s unique American sound.
This recording was performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, though my all-time favourite version remains the orchestrally slimmed-down original arrangement in the excellent recording by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer himself.
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Music For The Day
Continuing the theme from yesterday’s example of fiendishly difficult music to play on the piano, here is the third movement (marked ‘precipitato’) of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata no. 7, performed by the ever-popular (and indisputably gifted) Chinese pianist Lang Lang:
If yesterday’s Alkan “Allegro Barbaro” doesn’t finish a pianist off, this piece is quite likely to do the job. Here is a version with the score playing along in the YouTube video (performance this time by Maurizio Pollini), to really give a sense of the technical demands on the pianist:
I can also highly recommend Glenn Gould’s recording of the same work, if you are able to find it; Gou;d’s unique style lends itself quite well to Prokofiev.
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Music For The Day
The fearsomely difficult Etude No. 5 in F Major “Allegro Barbaro” by French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan (a much-neglected composer, in my opinion), performed here by the wonderful British pianist (and renowned George Gershwin interpreter) Jack Gibbons:
I wasn’t exaggerating when I used the adjective “fearsome” to describe this piece – just to glance at the sheet music for this work would be enough to induce a nervous breakdown in a lesser performer, and as you can see from the way in which Gibbons’ hands turn into a blur as he performs the piece, it demands extraordinary technical abilities and endurance from the performer, especially given the short nature of the piece.
Here is a version with accompanying score:
From Ronald Smith’s “Alkan, The Man, The Music”:
The arresting title Allegro barbaro can give little idea of the fierce impact, even on twentieth-century ears, of Alkan’s fifth study with its harsh textures, pounding rhythms and jagged outlines. Whether or not Bartok heard Busoni play this electrifying octave study in the early 1900s there can be little doubt which Allegro barbaro is, at once, the more barbaric or the more disciplined. Although written and sounding in F major Alkan cancels every B flat, the piece remaining stubbornly on the white keys, its rondo structure etched out in a series of contrasted modes. Phrygian, Aeolian, and Dorian episodes, in turn, confront the Lydian subject, rousing it to ever increasing ferocity until with a final stampede of semiquavers it explodes into numbed silence.
I have always counted the Jack Gibbons recital I attended at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London nearly a decade ago (in which he focused exclusively on the music of George Gershwin) as one of the most enjoyable, entertaining and intimate performances that I have ever attended. His superb recording of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto reveals a wonderful command of phrasing and dynamics which, for obvious reasons, the Alkan Etude has no need for.
If you are not familiar with this pianist, I heartily recommend a visit to his website here.
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Music For The Day
“Wedding Day At Troldhaugen”, from Lyric Pieces op. 65 by Edvard Grieg:
There is a wonderful contrast between the joyful, exuberant first theme and the tender, reflective middle passage.
The pianist is the excellent Leif Ove Andsnes, who I believe will shortly be in Los Angeles helping to commemorate the tenth anniversary of that city’s new Walt Disney Concert Hall.
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