Page 191 - PDF Flip TR Program Demo

waiting for us he had seen it all in a dream, and
no longer distinguished the dream from reality,
he became calm and drowsy while playing the piano, persuaded that he was dead himself. He saw himself drowned in a lake. Heavy drops of icy water fell in a regular rhythm on his breast, and when I made him listen to the sound of the drops of water indeed falling in rhythm on the roof, he denied having heard it. He was even angry that I interpret this in terms of imitative sounds.
This is the Romantic image of Chopin, fashionably sick with tuberculosis, working in a narrow space between love and death. Of course, it is just that—an image—and one that undervalues many other aspects of his work and craftsman- ship. Still, it is enticing to enjoy the Preludes in this guise, as even today they remain laden with mystery and hints of transgression.
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN Three Mazurkas, Op. 59
A mazurka is a Polish dance named for the Mazovia region: in a triple meter, it moves the accent to the second or third beat, like a waltz with a hitch in the middle. This character- istic rhythm can be brought to nearly any tempo, resulting in a taxonomy of traditional mazurkas from the exhausting oberek to the slinky kujawiak.
On November 1, 1830, the young Chopin left Warsaw for a concert tour to Vienna and was abroad during the November Uprising against the Russian Empire. Months later, Chopin traveled to Stuttgart, where he was shocked to learn that the Polish rebellion had failed. He then made his way to Paris, joining thousands of Polish exiles, including many writers, artists, and musicians.
Chopin wrote all his mature mazurkas in exile, reinterpret- ing a Polish folkdance for performance in Parisian salons and publishing them in Western Europe. The three Op. 59 Mazurkas are relatively late works, written in 1845, fifteen years after he last stepped foot on Polish soil (to which he would never return).
The Mazurka in A Minor begins with a melody alone, then a halting accompaniment gradually insinuates itself. The Mazurka in A-flat Major begins with a firm pulse
and a simple tune, but grows more fanciful as the music unfolds. Chopin gave the manuscript for this mazurka to Felix Mendelssohn, who gifted it to his wife, Cécile. Mendelssohn had written to Chopin to ask, quite charm- ingly: “Would you out of friendship write a few bars of mu- sic, sign your name at the bottom to show you wrote them for my wife, and send them to me? . . . Her favorite works are those you have written.”
Finally, the Mazurka in F-sharp Minor is an example of a fast mazurka, whirling in its outer sections, but slowing and hesitating in the middle, like an ecstatic dancer distracted by contemplative thoughts.
FRITZ KREISLER (1875–1962) trans. SERGE RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943) Liebesfreud
This showpiece was originally for violin and piano, one of three Old Viennese Dances by the violinist Fritz Kreisler. The first two—Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow) and Liebesfreud (Love’s Joy)— were loosely transcribed for solo piano by Serge Rachmaninoff in the 1920s.
For Liebesfreud, Rachmaninoff added his own introduction, variations, and coda, resulting in a piece a bit heftier than Kreisler’s original.
2018 Summer Season 191