CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Piotr Anderszewski

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Piotr Anderszewski, Piano

BACH Partita No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 826
SCHUMANN Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26
JANÁČEK In the Mists
BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110

Encores:
BARTÓK Three Hungarian Folksongs from Csík, BB 45b
BACH Prelude from English Suite No. 6 in D Minor, BWV 811
MOZART Adagio from Sonata in C Minor, K.457

Program Notes:

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1770)
Partita No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 826

Bach’s Partita No. 2 was first performed at Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1929, with Walter Gieseking, piano.

The major works Bach produced in his late 30s and early 40s for domestic keyboard study and delight—first The Well-Tempered Clavier, then the six partitas—may have been intended partly for the training of his children. His two eldest sons, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, were 15 and 12, respectively, when, in 1726, he announced the publication of the partitas and Wilhelm, in particular, was promising to develop into a virtuoso. This music was meant to challenge him and, at the same time, provide both boys with examples of sound compositional craft they could feel under their fingers.

What was good enough for the young Bachs, though, could also serve others, and having the partitas printed—an expensive procedure, and one on which Bach ventured rarely—was a gesture of confidence that the music would have a wider appeal. The risk was more than justified. First issued singly, the partitas sold well and were reprinted in 1731 in a single volume, which was itself later reprinted, even though people at the time remarked how hard the music was to play.

The term “partita,” in Bach’s time, was an alternative to “suite,” indicating a set of dances, generally introduced by a prelude. Nearly all Bach’s solo works of this sort—those for violin and cello, as well as for keyboard—include the sequence Allemande-Courante-Sarabande near the start, and most end with a gigue, the liveliest dance form available. The C-Minor keyboard partita is unusual in replacing this with a capriccio.

The work opens with a Sinfonia containing three sections of increasing speed and contrapuntal complexity. Part of the essence of a partita or suite is variety—that is, in the different rhythms and speeds of the various dances. At the same time, certainly in Bach’s examples, there is unity, and one may note here how, for example, the Courante runs over ground that has been affectingly laid out in the Allemande. The Sarabande is the slowest movement, and perhaps the expressive heart. Next comes the leaping Rondeaux, in which Bach looks in the direction of his French contemporary Couperin, before the Capriccio concludes with hints of a fugue gone wild.

—Paul Griffiths


ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856)
Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26

Faschingsschwank aus Wien received its Carnegie Hall premiere on March 30, 1912, with Katharine Goodson, piano.

In fall 1838 Schumann traveled to Vienna to inquire about the possibility of transferring the music journal he both founded and edited, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, from Leipzig to the new Austrian capital, where he vainly hoped he might make a better living and also hasten his marriage to his beloved Clara. While in Vienna, he was amused to learn that “La Marseillaise” was banned in the city for political reasons, and he determined to insert it surreptitiously in a work of his own. This may explain the choice of a masquerade-like title, Faschingsschwank aus Wien (Carnival Prank from Vienna), that Schumann gave the resulting work, which he described in a letter to a friend as a “grand romantic sonata.” It is interesting to note that, with the exception of a few minor pieces, the Faschingsschwank aus Wien is the culmination of Schumann’s major works for solo piano, which up to that point include the Davidsbündlertänze, Carnaval, Kreisleriana, the Symphonic Etudes, and the C-Major Fantasy. Begun in 1839 and completed the following year, Faschingsschwank aus Wien represents Schumann at his jestful best. The music is ripe with the fresh exuberance of youth, unconquerable and unbounded enthusiasm, and the newly kindled flame of ripening genius.

The spirited opening Allegro, cast in rondo form, is full of fire and sharp accentuations of rhythms and contrasts. It is in the fourth contrasting episode, where the key changes from B-flat to F-sharp major, that Schumann inserts a reference to the “Marseillaise” melody. The Romanze in G minor is a simple but eloquently plaintive work in ternary form, perhaps displaying his longing for the absent Clara. The third movement, marked Scherzino, returns to the tonic key of B-flat and is light and lively in character with much iteration of a single, lilting rhythmic pattern. The fourth movement, Intermezzo, in the rather remote key of E-flat minor, is a most vehement expression of romantic ardor. The Finale was added to the work in 1840 after Schumann’s return to Leipzig. It is in the tonic key and cast in sonata-allegro form, full of rapid movement with a brilliant display of technique.

—Ileen Zovluck


LEOŠ JANÁÈEK (1854–1928)
In the Mists

Composed in 1912, In the Mists was first performed on December 7, 1913, by Marie Dvoøáková; it received its Carnegie Hall premiere in Carnegie Recital Hall (now Weill Recital Hall) on March 15, 1978, with Fritz Jahoda.

If this work was prompted by the composer’s recent exposure to Debussy’s music, as John Tyrrell indicates in his recent biography, the connection was limited to matters of texture and perhaps some harmonic detail. Janáèek’s ideas are as pungently expressive and individual as ever, his forms as dramatic, based on the adventures those ideas undergo. The “mists” are surely not so much meteorological as mental: mists of memory that cover potent experiences, though not so completely that the original pain or joy cannot break out. Each movement is based on a short, songlike theme, heard first with a glow of nostalgia, then pressed harder, or pressing harder, before subsiding back.

—Paul Griffiths


LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827)
Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110

Composed in 1821, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 received its Carnegie Hall premiere on March 25, 1893, in a performance by Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

In the summer of 1819, Beethoven came to an agreement with Moritz Schlesinger, scion of a Berlin music publisher, to supply the firm with three new piano sonatas. Composition proceeded slowly, for the composer was working at the same time on his Missa solemnis. The first of the three sonatas was completed in 1820; the second, Op.110, in December of the following year; and the final sonata, Op. 111, the year after that. Sketches for the mass are intermixed with those for the sonatas, and certain features are common to both projects—notably fugue, and surprising harmonic shifts that might be explained by the composer’s thinking in terms of the old church modes. Also in the background to the three sonatas of 1820–22 is their great predecessor, the “Hammerklavier,” of 1817–18. The last three sonatas are all much shorter and leaner; it is as if the exertion of the “Hammerklavier” has brought Beethoven onto a new plane, which he can now explore more calmly.

The Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 110, opens with an unhurried movement, much of which has both hands in the treble register. Weightlessness of sound, coupled with simplicity in the basic idea, might convey a sense of distance or contingency in the musical narrative. This is how things were, or might have been.

Very short, the second movement is a duple-time scherzo in the relative minor (F minor), with a trio in D-flat major. It might be a gate from the past to the present, or from gentleness, musing, and irony to a more fully engaged kind of expression.

The finale, site of this presence and passion, occupies more than half the sonata’s length. Its poignant beginning leads into a recitative and arioso, which gives way to a three-part fugue. The movement continues as a dialogue between opera house and church. The fugue subject, traceable to the first movement’s introduction, has something of the sturdiness of a chorale; there are connections, too, with fugues in the Missa solemnis. An interrupted cadence provides the opportunity for the arioso to return, as Beethoven marks it, ermattet (“exhausted”). Then the fugue comes back, its subject inverted. Beethoven adds the marking wieder auflebend (“reviving once more”), which is what happens. The fugue theme is restored to its upward motion, and the harmony comes swinging back to A-flat major for a coda.

—Paul Griffiths

Paul Griffiths is the author of numerous books on music, including The New Penguin Dictionary of Music and, most recently, A Concise History of Western Music (Cambridge University Press).

© 2008 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Piotr Anderszewski, Piano
Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski is widely regarded as one of the most exciting pianists of his generation. Since first coming to public attention at the 1990 Leeds Piano Competition, he has become a familiar figure on the international concert platform, recognized for the intensity and originality of his interpretations.

Mr. Anderszewski’s engagements in the 2007–2008 season included an appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a tour of the US with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and recital tours of the US, Japan, and Europe, the latter which included appearances at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the Wiener Konzerthaus.

In 2006, in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, Mr. Anderszewski directed the composer’s concertos from the keyboard with ensembles including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and soloists from the Berliner Philharmoniker. Most notable has been his collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with which he has performed extensively and recorded a disc featuring the G-Major and D-Minor concertos. This partnership continues into the current season.

Mr. Anderszewski has made a number of highly praised recordings since becoming an exclusive artist with Virgin Classics in 2000. His first release for Virgin was Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations, a disc which received exceptional critical acclaim, including a Diapason d’or and a Choc du Monde de la Musique in France. The recording was also the subject of a film by Bruno Monsaingeon, the creator of documentaries on Sviatoslav Richter, Yehudi Menuhin, and Glenn Gould. Other notable releases have included Grammy-nominated CDs of Bach’s Partitas Nos. 1, 3, and 6 and a selection of solo pieces by Mr. Anderszewski’s compatriot Karol Szymanowski, which received a Classic FM Gramophone Award in 2006 for best instrumental disc.

Piotr Anderszewski has received several high-profile awards, including the Szymanowski Prize in 1999 for his interpretations of the composer’s music and, in 2001, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2000 Best Instrumentalist award. In April 2002 he was named Gilmore Artist, succeeding the previous winner, Leif Ove Andsnes.

In the 2008–2009 season, Mr. Anderszewski gives recitals at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Royal Festival Hall in London, among others. He will also make his debut with the San Francisco Symphony and perform a series of recitals in Europe with German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann.