CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Emanuel Ax

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Emanuel Ax, Piano

CHOPIN Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61
CHOPIN Mazurka in C-sharp Minor, Op. 41, No. 1
CHOPIN Mazurka in C Major, Op. 24, No. 2
CHOPIN Mazurka in C Minor, Op. 56, No. 3
SCHUMANN Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17
SCHUMANN Fantasiestücke, Op. 12
THOMAS ADÈS Three Mazurkas, Op. 27 (World Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)
CHOPIN Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise, Op. 22

Encore:
CHOPIN Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2

Program is approximately 2 hours, including one intermission

Sponsored by DeWitt Stern Group, Inc.

Program Notes:

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810–1849)
Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat Major, Op. 61
Mazurka in C-sharp Minor, Op. 41, No. 1
Mazurka in C Major, Op. 24, No. 2
Mazurka in C Minor, Op. 56, No. 3
Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise, Op. 22

About the Composer

Frédéric Chopin was a child of material and cultural comforts, delicate constitution, and prodigious gifts. An exceptional pianist from a bourgeois family, he charmed the best of Polish society, yet longed to explore the world outside Warsaw. In November 1830, he left Poland for good, stopping first for an unhappy stay in Vienna before moving on the next September to Paris, where he joined a vibrant community of Polish émigrés. He quickly established himself as a performer, composer, and teacher, becoming close with fellow pianist-composer Franz Liszt and his mistress, Countess Marie d'Agoult. Through Liszt, Chopin met novelist Georges Sand (pen name of Amandine Dupin) in 1837; he was unimpressed by her at their first meeting, but a second encounter in April 1838 led to their becoming romantic partners. Much of his best music was composed during summers at her home in Nohant, some 300 kilometers south of Paris.


About the Works

Attempting to make a name for himself as a concert pianist, Chopin composed technically demanding, brilliant solo works for his own performance. The Grand Polonaise, Op. 22, dates to his time in Vienna; the Mazurkas, Op. 24 and Op. 56, as well as the Polonaise-fantaisie, to his years in Paris. The Grand Polonaise was originally composed for piano and orchestra; its preface, the Andante, was composed as an independent work and attached to the polonaise (rather arbitrarily, as musicologist Jim Samson points out).

Chopin composed the first of his Four Mazurkas, Op. 41, in November 1839, while in Palma, on the island of Majorca. The mazurkas in Op. 24, composed in 1833, draw openly on folk sources, whereas those in Op. 56 are further removed from the original Polish peasant dance. The Polonaise-fantaisie (more fantasy than polonaise, since the characteristic rhythm of the dance is quickly abandoned) was one of Chopin's very last extended works for solo piano.

Chopin would not have performed these pieces in major concerts before large audiences (Liszt's native habitat) but in intimate salons populated by devoted listeners and dear friends. Ironically for a composer whose pieces have always met with success on the grandest of stages, Chopin despised public performance. "The crowd intimidates me," he confessed to Liszt, "and I feel asphyxiated by its eager breath, paralyzed by its inquisitive stare, silenced by its alien faces." Such audacious works as the Polonaise-fantaisie thus display a bravura the composer did not himself possess.


A Closer Listen

The Polonaise-fantaisie is more fantasy than polonaise. Its large-scale A-B-A structure can be difficult to follow from moment to moment, but its broadest outlines are more apparent. The work begins with a slow introduction, and then moves into a first major section that showcases dance elements. These melodic ideas are developed. The contrasting middle section presents a languorous melody as a sort of slow movement. Themes from both main sections recur at the close as a climactic reprise.

The basic mazurka rhythm accents the weak beats of a bar in triple meter: Whereas a traditional waltz emphasizes the first of three beats (the oom in an oom-pah-pah pattern), the mazurka lands heavy on the pah. The Mazurka in C-sharp Minor is the boldest and most varied of the four in Op. 41: Its two main themes juxtapose two different genres, as scholar Jim Samson observes. The first is a kujawiak, a slow dance akin to a mazurka, but with longer phrases and greater embellishment; the second theme is a waltz. The first melodic idea in Op. 24, No. 2—a leap up and quick turn on the second beat—is modeled on a Polish folk song. Likewise, the oscillating chords at the opening originate from folk music; the empty fifths in the left hand (paired with thirds and sixths in the right) sound hollow, archaic, and prefatory, but also serve as an epilogue to close the short piece. The folk dance fades entirely in the longer, more discursive Op. 56, No. 3. Musical ideas are loosely strung together, and while the interest remains primarily in the melody (carried in the right hand), the accompaniment in the left is constantly varied. The initial gesture is almost a didactic exercise in contrary motion, with the hands moving in opposite directions. It repeats again and again until the music finally breaks away from the mirror, blossoming into a more typical mazurka pattern of melody plus accompaniment.

Both the polonaise and the mazurka reflect the musical traditions of Chopin's Polish homeland. The French term polonaise (used even in Polish sources) reveals the upper-crust associations of the dance. Though Chopin was not the first to write such works for concert performance, he brought to the genre an even greater degree of technical brilliance. His Grand Polonaise was meant as a true showpiece: a flashy, brilliant display originally composed for piano and orchestra while Chopin was in Vienna. Later in Paris, the orchestral part was stripped away, and the gentle, delicate Andante spianato appended. The introductory Andante begins with a long-breathed melody above a gently rippling accompaniment; a contrasting middle section—in the strikingly irregular meter of 5/4—presents a new texture of block chords, and the final section returns to the sweeping figures of the opening. A fanfare introduces the polonaise proper, which features the characteristic polonaise
rhythm in the pianist's left hand.




ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810–1856)
Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17
Fantasiestücke, Op. 12

About the Composer

At 20 years old, Schumann decided that he would make his career as a pianist, and so set about composing: At the time, it was expected that concert artists would write music for their own performance. Yet like Chopin, Schumann did not make a name for himself as a public virtuoso; the former suffered nerves the latter didn't have the technique. Thus, Schumann devoted himself to composition. Throughout the 1830s, he wrote piano music almost exclusively, while also establishing himself as one of the leading music critics of the era, editing the Neue Leipziger Zeitschrift für Musik (New Leipzig Journal of Music) for a decade. His review in that journal of Chopin's Op. 2, a set of variations on Mozart's "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni, pronounced Chopin a genius; Schumann concluded, "I bow my head to such inspiration, such high endeavor, such mastery!" The two composers met in September 1835 (Felix Mendelssohn introduced them), and enjoyed a longer visit together in Leipzig the following year.


About the Works

Scholar John Daverio describes the Fantasiestücke as occupying "a pivotal position in Schumann's creative output during the second half of the 1830s," noting its "light-hearted spirit" and enthusiastic embrace of smaller forms. The eight character pieces alternate between two personae that Schumann acquired for himself, Eusebius and Florestan: the first has a retiring nature, the second is impulsive. Daverio links the moody, evocative little pieces to E. T. A. Hoffmann's similarly capricious essays, the Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier.

If Schumann's fantasies in Op. 12 were inspired by literature, his Op. 17 Fantasy—composed the same year—draws on musical and personal sources: Originally the work was to be titled "Sonata for Beethoven," intended to help raise funds for a monument to Beethoven in Bonn. It also owes to Schumann's longing for Clara, his eventual wife, from whom he was separated for much of 1836. "In order to understand the Fantasy," Schumann wrote to her, "you will have to transport yourself into the unhappy summer of 1836, when I renounced you." The first movement, he confessed, was "a deep lament for you." The score includes a quotation from a poem by Friedrich Schlegel that reads, "Through all the sounds in Earth's many colored dream, sounds one soft, long-drawn tone for whoever listens in secret."


A Closer Listen

Each movement in the Fantasiestücke has its own distinct character: "Des Abends" is Chopin-esque in its delicate decorations; "Aufschwung" alternates between brash and virtuosic passages (as at the opening) and a more plaintive, searching melody. As befits its title, "Warum?" ("Why?") is ever questioning and unsettled. Though the meter is duple, the accompaniment pattern in the pianist's left hand seems to fall in groups of three. Thus, melody and accompaniment feel a bit out of synch.

The Fantasy, Op. 17, falls in three separate movements, the first of which features two allusions that reveal the work's dual inspiration. An episode toward the end takes up a theme from one of Clara's own compositions, her Romance varié, and the coda alludes to Beethoven's song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved). The second movement adopts an assertive and joyous tone, taking the form of an A-B-A, march-trio-march. Surprisingly, the last movement is lyrical and meditative.



THOMAS ADÈS (b. 1971)
Three Mazurkas, Op. 27 (World Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

About the Composer

British composer Thomas Adès found early success as a pianist, winning second prize in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 1989. A decade later, he established himself as a leading composer, winning the prestigious Grawemeyer Award. Musical scholar Arnold Whittall likens Adès's music to Ives, Ligeti, and Janáèek in its many musical layers, romantic melodic richness, and intricate sound world. Adès maintains an active career as a concert pianist, appearing twice in recitals at Carnegie Hall next month, and links his composing with his playing. "When you come to see me play the piano," he explains, "you're seeing a composer who is a pianist."


About the Work

Each of the Three Mazurkas adapts traditional elements of the Polish folk dance, while also referencing aspects of Chopin's own music. Tempo rubato, dotted rhythms, and drone accompaniments knit together the 18th-century dance, 19th-century salon pieces, and a 21st-century homage.


A Closer Listen

The First Mazurka begins with the performance indication molto rubato. Rubato, which translates to mean "stolen time," defines a certain rhythmic flexibility—a stretching or shortening of time to shape a musical phrase. (Such fluidity is typical of Chopin's music.) The second section, marked giusto, denotes a return to strict, precise rhythms. This quicker, more exacting section features two characteristics of the traditional Polish mazurka:
a long-short rhythm in the right hand, and a repeated drone in the left.

The Second Mazurka moves at a fast clip, like the oberek—another type of dance in triple meter. The pianist's left hand keeps a steady pulse, while the right hand frolics above. The sustaining pedal is held down for whole phrases, lifting up the dampers inside the piano to allow the strings to resonate. The tonal blur evokes the visual whirl of dancers.

By contrast, the Third Mazurka is deeply melancholy, with widely spaced jumps that reach the limits of the piano (in Chopin's time, only slightly narrower than a modern piano). The middle section, which returns to the center of the keyboard, marries three descending lines—top, middle, and bottom. The opening then returns to create an A-B-A form that ends with the hands reached out to the edges of the instrument.


—Elizabeth Bergman

© 2010 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

More Information:

The Chopin and Schumann pieces performed here are a combination of dance pieces and fantasies―rhythmic, expressive, and full of wild imagination. They reach new romantic heights by any standards. A Thomas Adès world premiere, written for this bicentennial concert, makes a fascinating complement.

Emanuel Ax, Piano
Emanuel Ax, Piano

Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at The Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. Additionally, he attended Columbia University, where he majored in French. Mr. Ax captured the public's attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975, he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed four years later by the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

In recognition of the bicentenaries of Chopin and Schumann in 2010 and in partnership with London's Barbican, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony, Mr. Ax has commissioned new works from composers Peter Lieberson, Osvaldo Golijov, and Thomas Adès for three recital programs to be presented in each of those cities with colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Dawn Upshaw.

In addition to this large-scale project, Mr. Ax recently toured Asia with the New York Philharmonic on its first tour with Music Director Alan Gilbert. He will also tour Europe with both the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and James Conlon, as well as the Pittsburgh Symphony with Manfred Honeck. Mr. Ax has been an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist since 1987. Recent releases include Richard Strauss's Enoch Arden, narrated by Patrick Stewart; discs of two-piano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman; and Mendelssohn trios with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Ax has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn's piano sonatas. He has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. His other recordings include the concertos of Liszt and Schoenberg, three solo Brahms albums, an album of tangos by Astor Piazzolla, and the premiere recording of John Adams's Century Rolls with The Cleveland Orchestra for Nonesuch.

Mr. Ax resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki. They have two children together, Joseph and Sarah. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia universities. Visit emanuelax.com for more information.