CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Vladimir Feltsman

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 8:00 PM

Vladimir Feltsman, Piano

SCHUBERT Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960
SCHUBERT Der Müller und der Bach, S. 565, No.2 (arr. Liszt)
SCHUBERT Wohin?, S.565, No. 5 (arr. Liszt)
LISZT Sonata in B Minor

Program Notes:

THE PROGRAM

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)

About the Composer

Schubert was the only of the canonic classical composers in Vienna—namely Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—to have been actually been born there. The son of a schoolteacher, he studied piano and violin at home as a young child and learned basic music theory from the organist at his family’s church. His talent won him many opportunities. In 1808, Schubert was appointed a singer in the Imperial choir and thus matriculated at a prestigious boarding school, where he played the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in the orchestra, and studied composition with Antonio Salieri.

In 1814, Schubert’s career as a composer, especially of songs, exploded: At age 18, he produced some 150 lieder. His productivity was astonishing; musicologist Robert Winter estimates that at the time, Schubert was composing some 65 measures of music each day—not only songs, but also works for piano, orchestra, and chorus. A similar frenzy of composition came in 1822, which yielded the "Unfinished" Symphony and "Wanderer" Fantasy for piano.

The next year, however, Schubert was confined to his home, suffering the first effects of syphilis. Despite his troubled health, he continued to compose at a prodigious pace, finishing the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin in 1823. There were times when he felt well enough to socialize and even to perform; on March 26, 1828 (the anniversary of Beethoven’s death a year earlier) he gave a concert devoted to his music. In this—his final—year, he finished his last three piano sonatas, which Schubert himself premiered in private immediately after its completion.

Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960

Schubert’s last piano sonata, D. 960, was completed in 1828 along with D. 958 in C Minor and D. 959 in A Major. The timing of the works, along with the culminating quality of the music, recalls Mozart’s last three symphonies. But the closer comparison is to Beethoven, whose presence looms large in these sonatas. The finale of the A-Major Sonata, for example, is modeled on the finale of Beethoven’s Sonata in G Major, Op. 31, No. 1, and the last movement of Schubert’s B-flat Major Sonata harkens back to the finale of Beethoven’s string quartet in that same key, Op. 130.

There are three themes and three keys in the exposition of the first movement’s sonata form: a first, lyrical theme that runs up against a long, low trill; a stormy, restless second theme in a minor key, carried in the middle register of the piano with a pulsing accompaniment above; and a livelier third theme back in the major, punctuated by odd pauses. The development begins with a restatement of the first theme in the minor mode but spends most of the time exploring the third.

The second movement seems a solemn procession: The form is a simple A-B-A, with the contrasting middle section becoming more vocal, even hymn-like. The melody is harmonized by rich chords and accompanied by a rather static bass line. A sprightly scherzo presents two themes: the second begins with two measures for the left hand alone (in an oom-pah-pah pattern); a short trio features off-kilter rhythms in the bass and repeated chords above. As with the trill in the first movement, a disruptive element plagues the finale: A bare octave, heard right at the opening, is iterated throughout with the refrain in this happy rondo. The second theme features a seamless melody above a fluttering accompaniment and roaming bass line; the third is shockingly dramatic.

Performance Time: approximately 40 minutes

Composed in 1828, the Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960, received its Carnegie Hall premiere on January 23, 1927, with Walter Gieseking, piano.


Der Müller und der Bach, S. 565, No. 2 (1823; arr. Liszt)
Wohin?, S. 565, No. 5 (1823; arr. Liszt)

Although Schubert’s great song cycles, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, are today considered to be complete works performed in their entirety, in the 19th century, only individual songs were generally performed in public, the whole cycle in private. Die schöne Müllerin was not performed in concert until 1856. Moreover, the songs were widely known not merely as vocal works, but as piano transcriptions. Indeed Schubert’s reputation after his untimely death rests on these transcriptions, especially those by Franz Liszt.

"Wohin?" is the second song in Die schöne Müllerin. A young wanderer, who falls tragically in love with a beautiful girl working at a mill, addresses his hopeful questions to a babbling brook. "Where to?" he asks the brook, not yet knowing that his fate lies beneath the waters. Rejected by his beloved, he sings a duet with the brook in the penultimate song, "Der Müller und der Bach," begging to rest beneath the waters. The final song is a lullaby sung by the brook to the drowned youth.

A Closer Listen

The gently flowing waters described in the original poem are perfectly captured by the constant rolling pattern in the pianist’s right hand, above which the vocal melody sings out. In the left hand is a held drone that begins to move just as the protagonist expresses some uncertainty: "I know not what came over me," he sings; the harmony darkens, turning from diatonic major chords to chromatic minor ones. The idyllic opening recurs as a sort of refrain, alternating with contrasting phrases; in the end, all seems right.

"Der Müller und der Bach" opens with an ominous drone in the piano that leaves the mode—major or minor—ambiguous until the entrance of the vocal line secures the minor. As active as the piano is in "Wohin?," the accompaniment to the vocal line is at first grimly sparse. The first strophe presents the protagonist’s plaint to the brook, who answers in a luminous shift to major and offers the sparkling waters as solace. He accepts the offer, and the rolling figurations first heard in "Wohin?" return to dominate the rest of the song. The brook envelops the lovelorn boy, lulling him into a deep and deadly sleep.

Performance Time: approximately 6 minutes

Composed in 1823 and arranged by Liszt in 1846, Der Müller und der Bach, S. 565, No. 2, received its Carnegie Hall premiere on November 28, 1927, with Mieczyslaw Münz, piano.

Performance Time: approximately 2 minutes

Composed in 1823 and arranged by Liszt in 1846, Wohin?, S. 565, No. 5, received its Carnegie Hall premiere in Weill Recital Hall on April 29, 1993, with Barbara Moser, piano.


FRANZ LISZT (1811–1886)
Sonata in B Minor, S. 178

About the Composer

Liszt traveled all of Europe as a virtuoso pianist and composer, spending time in Vienna, Paris, Geneva, Venice, Budapest, and Rome, as well as in Weimar, where he lived and worked from 1848 to 1861 with Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein at his side. As Kappellmeister to the Duke of Weimar, Liszt had only modest responsibilities that left him free to host the most notable musicians of the era, including Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz, as well as leading artists, writers, and politicians at their home outside the city.

About the Work

It was wartime in the 1850s—musically speaking, at least—with conservatives like Brahms and Hanslick in Leipzig pitted against Liszt in Weimar. War was waged over the legacy of the Classical composers and future of Romantic music; the battle was fought over sonata form. Composers like Brahms were seen to develop the form beyond Beethoven, but still within bounds, and to engage in a purely musical discourse, whereas the likes of Liszt changed it radically and drew on literary associations.

Unlike the vast majority of his music, Liszt’s B-minor Sonata bears no descriptive title, but it does reinvent conventional forms. The work—in continuous movements—combines both the sections of sonata form (exposition, development, recapitulation) and a four-movement sonata or symphony (allegro, andante, fugato/scherzo, allegro-prestissimo). Despite the formal intricacies, however, the overall effect is ironically improvisatory.

A Closer Listen

Liszt generates a lot of music from a very few ideas: the low octaves and nebulous descending scale at the opening; the fanfare-like jagged leaps in the right hand; and the nervously repeating single note low in the bass. These elements combine to create a first theme; the second is grandiose, with a slowly rising, melodic line accompanied by repeating, dense chords. The slow second movement—so to speak; there are no pauses—offers respite: The texture thins out, and a lovely melody emerges above. The following fugato draws upon the fanfare theme from the opening and repeated motive. The final section begins with a flurry of octaves that lead to an earth-shattering climax. Liszt’s biographer, Alan Walker, notes that the sonata was originally to end loudly and boldly; instead, in its finished form, the music slinks away, destroyed by its own outbursts.

Performance Time: approximately 30 minutes

Composed between 1852 and 1853, the Sonata in B Minor, S. 178, received its Carnegie Hall premiere in Recital Hall (now Zankel Hall) on April 14, 1891, with Arthur Friedheim, piano.


—Elizabeth Bergman
© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

More Information:

Liszt, the demonic virtuoso, and Schubert, by comparison so innocent, might seem to inhabit different spheres. But this strong and thoughtful Russian pianist brings the two composers together, with sonatas big enough to encompass many worlds, along with two transcriptions, in which Liszt lovingly brings Schubert songs into his own hyper-romantic universe.

Vladimir Feltsman, Piano
VLADIMIR FELTSMAN

Pianist and conductor Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and interesting musicians of our time, his vast repertoire encompassing music from the Baroque era to the 20th century. A regular guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras in the US and abroad, he appears on the most prestigious concert series and music festivals around the world.

In the summer of 2009, Mr. Feltsman’s engagements included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra, as well as recitals in Singapore, and at the Caramoor and Aspen music festivals.

Recently, Mr. Feltsman performed Mozart’s Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major, K. 595, on his own fortepiano with the American Classical Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and returned to his native Russia to conduct the Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra, and perform Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra in St. Petersburg. He also gave recitals in Chicago and Detroit, and traveled to Beijing to perform with the Macao Orchestra.

This evening’s recital is Mr. Feltsman’s fourth at Carnegie Hall since 2004. He also appears this season in London with the London Symphony, and gives recitals in various US cities, including Washington, DC (Strathmore Performing Arts Center); Urbana (University of Illinois); and West Palm Beach (Kravis Center).

Mr. Feltsman holds the Distinguished Chair of Professor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and teaches at Mannes College The New School for Music in New York City. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Piano Summer at New Paltz, a monthlong training program for advanced piano students.

Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography has been released on the Sony Classical, Music Heritage, Camerata Tokyo, and Melodiya labels. It includes six albums of clavier works by Bach; recordings of Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas; solo piano works of Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Messiaen, and Schubert; and concertos by Bach, Chopin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Tchaikovsky.