MUSIC FOR THE PIANO SESSION FOUR: THE PIANO IN VICTORIAN SOCIETY,

Transcription

1 MUSIC FOR THE PIANO SESSION FOUR: THE PIANO IN VICTORIAN SOCIETY, As mentioned last week, today s class is the second of two on piano music written by the generation of composers after Beethoven. Last week s session was called, The Piano s Golden Age, and featured music by three composers who tried to carry on Beethoven s legacy, but with a fuller, more romantic sound: Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann. This week s session features music by composers who departed more noticeably from Beethoven s legacy. The cover illustration for our fourth session is a 19 th century cartoon caricature of Franz Liszt at the piano. During his early life as a traveling piano virtuoso, List s virtuosity and flamboyant personality led audiences to believe that he possessed superhuman qualities. By 1842, "Lisztomania" had swept across Europe. The reception that Liszt enjoyed as a result can be described only as hysterical. Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. This atmosphere was fuelled in great part by the artist's mesmeric personality and stage presence. Many witnesses later testified that Liszt's playing raised the mood of audiences to a level of mystical ecstasy. People spoke of him as being possessed by demons. In addition to this popular notoriety, Liszt was prolific composer of piano music, much of it of unequalled technical difficulty. NINETEENTH CENTURY PIANOS By 1840 pianos were commonly found in middle-class and upper class households throughout Europe and America. The piano had become not only a widely used musical instrument but also a symbol of middle class social and economic status. As the market for pianos in homes expanded, the design of pianos began to conform to 19 th century styles of furniture. Here are some interesting examples. SLIDE SHOW THE PIANO IN VICTORIAN SOCIETY The output of piano music continued to grow as well, and in some new and perhaps surprising directions. It was a period in which almost all major composers wrote a lot of music for piano solos, duets, chamber works, and concertos, while one composer, Chopin, wrote exclusively for the piano. So today we are looking at the same 30-year period as last week, at some of the newer genres and new influences on piano music in this extraordinarily productive period. Here are some of the questions we will explore today:

2 Why was so much music written for the piano? How did music for the piano change during this period? What new kinds of piano music were created between 1830 and 1860? What does it sound like? EXPANDING AUDIENCES How were audiences changing during this period? 1. First, audiences continued to grow larger, due to the growth of the middle class and the advent of subscription concerts 2. Second, because there were new, larger concert venues to accommodate them, 3. Third, because more and more people who attended concerts owned pianos themselves and were learning to play them. Not only did these new amateur pianists wanted to play piano music they heard at concerts; they also wanted to play their favorite orchestral pieces and operatic arias. To satisfy these interests, composers often arranged previously published music for different instruments or combinations of instruments. Sometimes they arranged piano solos for some combination instruments. And sometimes they arranged or transcribed popular orchestral pieces or operatic arias for piano solo. PREVIEW: WAGNER OVERTURE TO TANNHÄUSER, 1845 A famous example of this is Franz Liszt s transcription of the Overture to Wagner s opera Tannhäuser. Here the original orchestral piece is unchanged nothing has been added or deleted. The extreme technical difficulty of this work meant that only the most advanced pianists could play it. But there were literally thousands of transcriptions of orchestral and operatic music published during this period, which range in difficulty from very easy to very difficult. Here s Wagner s original overture, in a performance by Sir George Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. *PREVIEW: LISZT: TRANSCRIPTION OF WAGNER S OVERTURE TO TANNHÄUSER, 1849 Here is Franz Liszt s transcription, published four years later, and still performed throughout the world today by many leading concert pianists.

3 In the hands of a master composer and master pianist like Liszt, the piece is more than a mere arrangement and becomes a wonderful piece of piano music. This is a performance by the great Russian pianist, Yulianna Adveeva. COMPOSERS Today s session focuses on the following composers: The young Johannes Brahms, a conservative composer from the north German city of Hamburg, who had the great good fortune to be discovered and championed by the influential composer and music critic, Robert Schumann. And the even greater good fortune or was it just pure genius? - to become one of the two or three most enduring composers of his era. Mikhail Glinka, the first Russian composer to be known throughout Europe. His energetic musical style was strongly influenced by the robust, passionate style of Beethoven. Louis Moreau Gottschalk, a young American virtuoso pianist, composer and showman, who toured the US and Latin America and composed music with a distinctly American sound. The Hungarian wizard Franz Liszt, not only an influential composer for the piano but a renowned piano virtuoso known throughout Europe for his unsurpassed virtuosity and showmanship at the keyboard, as well as for his influential compositions. Later in his long and eventful life, Liszt would renounce public life, take religious orders, and compose some forward-looking pieces for the piano that sound more like music of the 20 th century music than that of the 19 th. Anton Rubinstein, founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, another Russian piano virtuoso who toured throughout Europe and the United States, a leading conductor of the day, and a composer of 20 operas, six piano concertos, and a large number of piano solos and chamber works, none of it very well known today. GENRES OF SOLO PIANO MUSIC Character Pieces (short pieces of a single mood) Program Works (composites of several short character pieces) Sonatas Variations Dances: Mazurkas, Waltzes, Nocturnes, etc. Arrangements and Transcriptions

4 MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO, *GOTTSCHALK: VARIATIONS ON THE CARNIVAL OF VENICE, 1850 Louis Moreau Gottschalk is the first American composer to appear in these sessions. He was born in New Orleans of a Creole (mixed-race Afro-Cuban- European) Mother and a Jewish Father. When it became obvious that Gottschalk had an extraordinary talent for playing the piano, his Father took him to France for a musical education. As an adult Gottschalk toured the world as a concert virtuoso, and lived most of his adult life in South America, where his racial makeup was not a problem. He played both the standard piano repertoire of the day and a large number of his own compositions, which reflected the musical styles of the 1830s that he absorbed growing up in New Orleans. Many of his piano compositions are extremely difficult technically, and most reflect the popular and folk idioms of the early 19 th century, which made them seem dated and out of the mainstream when they were written, but fresh and interesting today. The Variations on The Carnival of Venice shows Gottschalk s talent and pianistic virtuosity for which he was famous, applied here to a popular tune of the day. CHAMBER MUSIC WITH PIANO, *BRAHMS: PIANO TRIO NO. 1, 1854 This piece illustrates the introspective, romantic qualities of the young Brahms, long, dramatic melodies, rich-sounding harmonies, and virtuosic writing for all three instruments. CONCERTED MUSIC WITH PIANO, *LISZT: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2, Liszt wrote his second piano concerto to show off his almost super-human virtuosity, and toured Europe with it as the backbone of his repertoire. Like his first piano concerto, it deviates from the sonata form based on contrasting melodies. It also deviates from the conventional three-movement form, in that it has a single movement made up of six contrasting sections. Like Liszt s other music, it shows off every kind of extreme contrast in dynamics, tempo and texture, of which the piano is capable. To illustrate the changes in musical style in the generation after Beethoven, let s compare and contrast two typical American houses of the 19 th century,

5 CLASSICAL HOUSE If you were to describe the form of this classical-era house (let s call it a Mozart house) you would probably say that it is white, symmetrical, balanced, and in good proportions. The overall effect is serene all the features of this house blend together into a restful overall image. No single feature of the house stands out, or overpowers, or conflicts for your attention with other features. A place for everything, and everything in its place would be a good summary. ROMANTIC HOUSE If you were to describe the form of this romantic-era house (let s call it a Franz Liszt house) you would probably say that it is colorful, asymmetrical, dynamic, and full of interesting features that do not blend together but compete for your attention as your eyes move from one place to another. A wealth of colorful, inventive details would be a good summary. This performance is by the wonderful Russian pianist, Mikhail Pletnev, sadly not heard much in the United States.