Earl Wild 20th & 21st Century Piano Sonatas

Transcription

1 85th Birthday Tribute Earl Wild 20th & 21st Century Piano Sonatas Barber Sonata, Op.26 (1949) kk Hindemith Sonata No.3 (1936) Stravinsky Sonata (1924) kk Wild Sonata (2000) World Premiere

2 Earl Wild: Four 20th and 21st Century Sonatas Samuel Barber ( ): Sonata, Opus 26 (1949) 1 I. Allegro energico 2 II. Allegro vivace e leggiero 3 III. Adagio mesto 4 IV. Fuga: Allegro con spirito Samuel Barber was born on March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. His father was a physician and his mother a sister of the famous American contralto, Louise Homer. From the time he was six years old, Barber s musical gifts were apparent, and at the age of 13 he was accepted as one of the first students to attend the newly established Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. There he studied with Rosario Scalero (composition), Isabelle Vengerova (piano), and Emilio de Gogorza (voice). Although he began composing at the age of seven, he undertook it seriously at 18. Recognition of his gifts as a composer came quickly. In 1933 the Philadelphia Orchestra played his Overture to The School for Scandal and in 1935 the New York Philharmonic presented his Music for a Scene from Shelley. Both early compositions won considerable acclaim. Between 1935 and 1937 Barber was awarded the Prix de Rome and the Pulitzer Prize. He achieved overnight fame on November 5, 1938 when Arturo Toscanini conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Barber s Essay for Orchestra No.1 and Adagio for Strings. The Adagio became one of the most popular American works of serious music, and through some lurid aberration of circumstance, it also became a favorite selection at state funerals and as background for death scenes in movies. During World War II, Barber served in the Army Air Corps. He composed his Second Symphony on a commission from the Air Force. The Adagio for Strings was obviously not the only work Barber composed. He wrote three operas (Vanessa, received the 1958 Pulitzer Prize), two ballets (Medea and Souvenirs ), three Essays for orchestra, two symphonies, concertos for violin, piano and cello, many vocal works, chamber, piano and chorus music. 2

3 His music has been called romantic, however his technical idiom is decidedly modern. His melodies are broadly songful; his harmonies are opulent; his orchestration is resplendent with color. David Ewen stated, As Barber s talent ripened, he added poetic feeling to his lyricism. And, towards the end of his life there was a growing intensity and strength of idiom in his writing. But his lyricism always remained on a high plane of eloquence; and the emotional factor never was sacrificed. Samuel Osmond Barber II died on 23 January 1981 in New York after a series of sporadic hospitalizations and a stroke. Writing the obituary for the New York Times, Donald Henahan stated: Throughout his career, Samuel Barber was hounded by success. Probably no other American composer enjoyed such early, 3

4 persistent and such long lasting acclaim... One reason for the acceptance won by Mr. Barber s music apart from its undeniable craft and thorough professionalism was its deep-seated conservatism, which audiences could find congenial even at first hearing. Although he often dealt in pungent dissonances and complex rhythms, like most of his 20th-century contemporaries, there was a lyrical quality even to his strictly instrumental pieces that from the first established him as a neo-romantic... Barber s solo instrumental compositions include works for piano, two-pianos, carillon and organ. Of these, twenty-nine works have yet to be published. The remaining eleven works comprise one suite for carillon, one set of variations for organ, and nine compositions for piano. One of the great landmarks of American piano music is Barber s monumental Sonata for Piano, Opus 26. It was commissioned in the fall of 1947 by Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers. Although Barber found it relatively easy to begin composing the work, it took him nearly two years to complete it. The holograph score at the Library of Congress shows the completion date of June Its premiere in New York on 23 January 1950 in the hands of Vladimir Horowitz turned the musical world on its ears. Vladimir Horowitz, who was undoubtedly intrigued by its ferocious technical demands, quickly became Barber s most vocal supporter, claiming the Sonata was the first truly great native work in the form. The technically demanding work frightened a lot of professional pianists away for a while, however, no serious musician could ignore the work for long. It soon became the most played American piano composition and a required work at just about every piano competition in the world. Despite Horowitz s close association with the Sonata, the work was actually not written with him in mind. In an interview on WQXR with Robert Sherman, Barber stated that he had no particular pianists in mind when he began writing the work: I just started to write a sonata. Regardless, the support and numerous performances by Horowitz only strengthened the work s impact and eventual place in music s hall of fame. Olin Downes, writing in the New York Times, said: We consider it the first sonata really to come of age by an American composer of this 4

5 period. It has intense feeling as well as constructive power and intellectual maturity. It is stated naturally and convincingly in the language of modern music. The Sonata is cast in four movements. The first movement begins with a steel-fingered chromaticism, through which flickers a poignant, lyric theme. It is answered by a brusque fragment built up from dissonant intervals. At the movement s conclusion the left hand ends in an angry grumble, while the right evaporates in a mist of feathery, upward strokes. The second movement is a sort of super-scherzo. According to musicologist Charles Briefer, The germinal element is akin to feathery strokes that ended the first movement, though here they are inverted into a downward loop. The same feathers form themselves into helpless bird cries at the outset of the third movement, while a theme tries to assert itself in the left hand. A treble melody appears which seems related to the lyric theme that opened the first movement. Suddenly there is a distinct shift in mood and character. The pervading chromaticism is gone, leaving behind a quiet, almost Hindemithian aura of neo-classicism to fade away to nothing. The fourth and final movement, a fugue, takes off like a canon (no pun intended). Like the first movement it is quick and agitated, full of fugal entries, inversions, strettos and what-have-you. It is by far the most dazzling and concise of the four movements: with immense energy it hurtles to its violent and cataclysmic end. When Francis Poulenc heard Barber s Sonata in 1950, he remarked: The Sonata pleases me without reserve. It is a remarkable work from both the musical and instrumental point of view. In turn, tragical, joyous and songful, it ends up with a fantastically difficult to play fugue. Bursting with energy, this finale knocks you out in (something less than) five minutes! 5

6 Igor Stravinsky ( ): Sonata (1924) 5 I. = II. Adagietto 7 III. = 112 From the moment of the first performance of his music for the ballet Firebird on June 25, 1910, when he was just 28, Igor Stravinsky has never been out of the public ear as one of the great, original creative geniuses in the entire history of music. During the intervening sixty years, his music reshaped the music that followed it. In an unprecedented achievement, almost every note of music, starting from his Opus 1, which was his first symphony, to his last completed compositions, dated 1967, Stravinsky has recorded as conductor or was directly in charge of the recording sessions. Born in the heyday of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor Stravinsky was quickly plunged into working association with Serge Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Fokine, Pavlova and Karsavina in the dazzling world of Russian ballet. The century s great artistic names Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Chirico, Rodin, Cocteau, Gide were among his intimates. And the world of musicians held no man in higher respect. Stravinsky enjoyed the warm friendship and unfettered admiration of conductors Koussevitsky, Reiner, Klemperer and Stokowski, and of such renowned composers as Chavez, Sessions and Prokofiev. He was a guest of honor at a White House dinner during the Kennedy administration. As an author, Stravinsky, was one of very few composers to ever commit to print as many of his ideas on art and esthetics, religion, philosophy, and changing customs. Today we remember Igor Stravinsky for his masterpieces Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring, The Soldier s Tale, Pulcinella, Oedipus Rex, Symphony in C, and many other works. But his piano compositions are not often performed. Although originally trained as a pianist, Stravinsky wrote relatively little for the piano. In all, there are about a dozen compositions and transcriptions. The best known (and most often performed) are the three pieces from Petrouchka. The Sonata for piano was composed at Biarritz and Nice in 1924 and dedicated to 6

7 Princess Edmond de Polignac. In his Chronicle Stravinsky writes: I gave it that title without, however, wishing to give it the classical form that we find in Clementi, Haydn and Mozart, and which (as is generally known) is conditioned by the use of the so-called Sonata Allegro. I used the term sonata in its original meaning, as being derived from sonare, in contrast to cantare and its derivation cantata. Consequently I did not feel myself restricted to the form that has become customary since the end of the eighteenth century. Additionally he stated that at this time he wished to examine more closely the sonatas of the classical masters in order to trace the direction and development of their thought in solving problems of form. Stravinsky studied the Beethoven sonatas, replaying many of them in 7

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9 order to renew his acquaintance with a composer he said must be recognized as one of the world s greatest musical geniuses. The evocation of Beethoven s spirit is most strongly evident in the middle Adagietto. In the opening movement the right hand melody and left hand accompaniment are often independent and frequently do not coincide resulting in a curiously blurred registration. The finale resembles a bustling two-part invention. The first performance of the Piano Sonata was given by the composer at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice on September 8, Earl Wild (b.1915): Sonata (2000) I. Allegro (March) II. Adagio III. Toccata (a la Ricky Martin) Earl Wild writes: I m happy to say that I had a friendship with all four of the composers represented on this disc although one of the relationships has been a little more intimate. I have performed both the Hindemith 3rd and the Stravinsky Sonatas in public many times since the 1940 s. The Barber Sonata however, is a first performance for me. I have the greatest admiration for this wonderful piece. It was a pleasure for me to prepare it for this recording. I completed work on my Sonata only days before entering the recording studio. I ve written it in the traditional three-movement style. My exasperation with the twelve-tone movement has led me to think in a more popular vein. My Sonata is neither pretentious nor overly intellectual. It s purely an expression of a few moments in my long life. The first movement has a very bluesy element throughout along with an intriguing melody that I remembered my grandmother sang to me from her civil war past. The second movement is very melancholy with occasional references to popular music of the 1920 s. As I began work on the third movement, it immediately took on a Latin American rhythm, which then led me to the Toccata form. The melody in the middle 9

10 contains 100 consecutive B s in the left hand. Being familiar with the huge success of the Puerto Rican singer, Ricky Martin, whom I have seen perform on TV and in numerous interviews, I decided to tailor the movement toward his style. My admiration for his political stance is augmented by the total ease and charm with which he carries himself (both on and off stage). Paul Hindemith ( ): Sonata No.3 (1936) I. Ruhig bewegt II. Sehr lebhaft III. Mäßig schnell IV. Fuge: Lebhaft In 1922, when he was twenty-seven years old, Paul Hindemith wrote the following autobiography: I was born in Hanau in Music study from age of twelve. As violinist, violist, pianist, or percussionist I have made a thorough survey of the following musical territories: chamber music of all kinds, cinema, café, dance music, operetta, jazz and, military music. I have been leader of the Frankfurt Orchestra since As composer, I have chiefly written pieces I don t like anymore: chamber music for the most diverse ensembles, songs and piano. Also three one-act operas, which will probably remain the only ones since as a result of rising prices on the manuscript market only small scores can now be written. This passage speaks much of his personality: unpretentious, straightforward, downto-earth, ironic and, as the reference to inflation indicates, politically aware. The horizon of a creative musician cannot be stretched far enough. His desire to acquire knowledge and understanding has to permeate every phrase of his creativity. Hindemith wrote this, his musical creed, in A Composer s World (1952). In his search for knowledge, he acquired a remarkable degree of craftsmanship in composition. His orchestral experiences enabled him to gain a phenomenal knowledge of the sonorities and capabilities of all instruments. Though many of his early works were regarded as 10

11 revolutionary, he differed in one important aspect from the avant-garde composers of the period: while the Viennese School (Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, etc.) emphasized the equality of all twelve notes in a scale, Hindemith stressed their relative values and referred them to a free but well-defined, easily recognizable tonality. Although originally a string player, Hindemith, as a composer, devoted almost equal attention to the piano. While still a student at the conservatory he composed piano pieces. The piano also was an indispensible partnering instrument for his countless songs and sonatas with other instruments. An accomplished pianist as well, Hindemith recorded his own Sonata for Piano Four Hands (1938) with Jesus Maria Sanromá. In his numerous 11

12 piano works, Hindemith discovered new tone colors of the piano, especially in the extreme treble range, and developed his own pianistic style far removed from the virtuoso tradition of Liszt, Busoni or Scriabin or Debussy and Ravel. He viewed the piano as a toy with tones, as an interesting type of percussion instrument, and later on as a neutral sound enabling a single player to play polyphonically. It was this neutrality which he so loved about the piano. He once stated that he wished neither orgies of sound nor the voluptuous expression of a cantilena in his piano music. Between 1935 and 1943 Hindemith wrote a series of Sonatas, one or more for almost every instrument. The Violin Sonata in E was the first in the series, followed immediately by the three Piano Sonatas of Each of the three piano sonatas are distinctly different the First is richly charged and full of tension, the Second is outwardly simple, cleverly hiding its artful and detailed workmanship, and the Third Sonata is songful, polyphonic and grandiose. The noted German musicologist H.H. Stuckenschmidt wrote after the prèmiere: There is no doubt that Hindemith has made a harmonic simplification in this music which must be taken as a reaction against the dissonance technic of modern music. Harmonically, he works a great deal with triad effects... But he does not surrender the freedom of modulation known to modern music. There are polyphonic passages, sharply dissonant groupings, and decidedly heterophonic parts; single themes almost seem to conform to the twelve-tone principle... A song-like element predominates the first movement. Jolly and witty, the second movement could have been called a scherzo. The slow movement is a polyphonic march leading up to a grandiose double fuguein the finale, in the style of Max Reger rather than J.S. Bach. Notes by Marina and Victor Ledin, Copyright

13 Earl Wild When Earl Wild performs, the Golden Age of the keyboard suddenly reappears. TIME Magazine (1995) l l l l l l l l Earl Wild is a pianist in the grand Romantic tradition. His legendary career, so distinguished and long, has continued for well over 70 years. Born in 1915, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Earl Wild s technical accomplishments are often likened to what those of Liszt himself must have had. Born with absolute pitch he started playing the piano at three. Having studied with great pianists such as Egon Petri, his lineage can be traced back to Scharwenka, Busoni, Ravel, d Albert and Liszt himself. Earl Wild s career is dotted with musical legends. As a young pianist he was soloist with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. Since then he has performed with virtually every major conductor and symphony orchestra in the world. Rachmaninov was an important idol in his life. It s been said of Earl Wild, He s the incarnation of Rachmaninov, Lhevinne and Rosenthal rolled into one! In 1986 after hearing him play three sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts, devoted to Liszt, honoring the centenary of that composer s death, one critic said, I find it impossible to believe that he played those millions of notes with 70-year-old fingers, so fresh-sounding and precise were they. Perhaps he has a worn-out set up in his attic, a la Oscar Wilde s Picture of Dorian Gray. He s one of the few American pianists to have achieved international as well as domestic celebrity. He has performed for six Presidents of the United States, beginning with Herbert Hoover, and in 1939, was the first classical pianist to give a recital on the new medium of Television. At fourteen he was performing in the Pittsburgh Symphony with Otto Klemperer as well as working at radio station KDKA, where he played many of his own compositions. As a virtuoso pianist, composer, transcriber, conductor, editor and teacher, Mr. Wild continues in the style of the legendary great artists of the past. 13

14 In addition to his distinguished concert career, which encompasses performances with conductors such as Stokowski, Reiner, Maazel, Solti and Mitropoulos, and artists like Callas, Tourel, Pons, Melchior, Peerce and Bumbry, Wild successfully shines as both a conductor and composer. His Easter oratorio, Revelations, was broadcast by the ABC network in 1962 and again in Wild s recent composition, Variations on a Theme of Stephen Foster for piano and orchestra ( Doo-Dah Variations), premiered with Wild as soloist with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra in Earl Wild has been called the finest transcriber of our time, and his many piano transcriptions are widely known and respected. This eminent pianist has built an extensive repertoire over the years, which includes both the standard and modern literature. He has become world renown in particular for his brilliant performances of the virtuoso Romantic works. Today at 85, Mr. Wild continues to record and perform concerts throughout the world. In 1997, he won a Grammy Award for his disc, The Romantic Master Virtuoso Piano Transcriptions. Praised by critics and music lovers around the world as a stunning document of musical sensitivity and virtuosity and a tribute to America s greatest pianistic treasure this CD is once again available in its original HDCD state-of-theart audiophile sound on Ivory Classics (70907). Along with the release of over 20 other CDs in the last 10 years, when he was 79, Earl Wild recorded a well received Beethoven disc which included the monumental Hammerklavier Sonata, as well as another disc composed of Rachmaninov s Preludes and the Second Piano Sonata. Earl Wild is an exclusive Ivory Classics artist. This 20th and 21st Century Piano Sonatas recording is being released in celebration of his 85th birthday. 14

15 Credits l l l l l l l l Recorded at Fernleaf Abbey, Columbus, Ohio, October 1999 and April 2000 Original 24-Bit Master Producer: Michael Rolland Davis Recording Engineer: Ed Thompson Piano Technician: Edd Kolakowski Generous assistance came from the Michael Palm Foundation and Ivory Classics Foundation Earl Wild s Sonata was commissioned by the JS Charitable Trust, Chicago, Illinois Liner Notes: Marina and Victor Ledin Design: Communication Graphics CD Cover: Tapestry by Carla Lavatalli (1975) Inside Tray Photo: Earl Wild (1994), Photo by Michael Rolland Davis Recorded direct to the Sadie Artemis 24-Bit High Resolution disk editor To place an order or to be included on mailing list: Ivory Classics P.O. Box Columbus, Ohio Phone: IVORY or Fax: @ivoryclassics.com Website: 15

16 Earl Wild 85th Birthday Tribute 20th & 21st Century Piano Sonatas Samuel Barber: Sonata, Opus 26 (1949) 18:03 1 I. Allegro energico 6:18 2 II. Allegro vivace e leggiero 2:00 3 III. Adagio mesto 5:06 4 IV. Fuga: Allegro con spirito 4:39 Igor Stravinsky: Sonata (1924) 9:46 5 I. =112 2:56 6 II. Adagietto 4:11 7 III. =112 2:39 Earl Wild: Sonata (2000) World Premiere 19:16 8 I. Allegro (March) 7:04 9 II. Adagio 7:00 10 III. Toccata (a la Ricky Martin) 5:07 Paul Hindemith: Sonata No.3 (1936) 15:31 11 I. Ruhig bewegt 4:13 12 II. Sehr lebhaft 2:50 13 III. Mäßig schnell 4:19 14 IV. Fuge: Lebhaft 4:09 Total Playing Time : 63:08 Producer: Michael Rolland Davis Engineer: Ed Thompson Original 24-Bit Master 2000 Ivory Classics All Rights Reserved STEREO Ivory Classics P.O. Box Columbus, Ohio U.S.A. Phone: IVORY or Fax: @ivoryclassics.com Website: