Andre-Michel Schub, piano ... Tuesday, October 25, 1983
Abstract
"The well-known doggerel verse associated with a theme from the Surprise Symphony--"Papa Haydn's dead and gone, but his memory lingers on"--holds more wisdom than many might realize. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was indeed the towering figure of the second half of eighteenth-century music. The leadership he provided over a long career influenced the course of instrumental music until the modern era. Although his compositions for keyboard constitute a relatively minor part of his total output, several of his forty-seven sonatas for solo keyboard--especially late ones written specifically for the pianoforte--are comparable in scope and substance to his most important string quartets and symphonies. Sonata in E Flat Major (1794), his most popular sonata with modern pianists, is one of these exceptions. The Classic Era sonata was not typically intended as a show piece for composer or performer, but was conceived as a source of modest diversion for amateurs or as a pedagogical study for a composer's students. The E-Flat Sonata is clearly neither modest nor pedagogical. The technical demands on the performer are formidable; the overall effect of the music is brilliant. The piece was written for an Englishwoman, Therese Jansen, who must have been a rather remarkable musician. Haydn exhibits an uncanny resourcefulness in exploring the potential of the newly popular piano. This demonstration of the instrument's power, range, and capacity for sheer sound would not have been lost on the musicians and music lovers of his time, as it might be on listeners today. It must be remembered, however, that Haydn's pianoforte was a much more delicate instrument than the modern piano. With the benefit of hindsight, many features found in the late compositions of Haydn and Mozart are now understood as preludes to Romantic practice, and many of the exceptional aspects of this work can be appreciated accordingly. The harmonic surprises, the tendency toward Romantic lyricism, the greater range of expression achieved in various ways, and the virtuosic element itself all point to the future."--Program Notes.
Table of Contents
Program: Sonata in E Flat Major, H. XVI/52 / Franz Joseph Haydn -- Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57 ("Appassionata") / Ludwig van Beethoven -- Four Preludes from Book II / Claude Debussy -- Carnaval, Op. 9 / Robert Schumann Includes: Andre-Michel Schub, Biography ; Program Notes by Michael Budds ; Upcoming Events