CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Alfred Brendel

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Alfred Brendel, Piano

HAYDN Variations in F Minor, Hob. XVII:6
MOZART Sonata in F Major, K. 533/K. 494
BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 13 in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, "quasi una fantasia"
SCHUBERT Sonata in B-flat Major, D.960

Encores:
BACH JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Andante from Italian Concerto, BWV 971
LISZT Au Lac de Wallenstadt, S. 160
SCHUBERT Impromptu in G-flat Major, D.899, No. 3

Program Notes:

By William Kinderman

JOSEPH HAYDN Variations in F Minor, Hob: XVII/6
Born March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Lower Austria; died May 31, 1809, in Vienna.

Composed in 1793, Haydn’s Variations in F Minor were first performed at Carnegie Hall on November 23, 1901, with Josef Hofmann, piano.

Haydn’s Variations in F Minor, Hob. XVII:6, represent his most ingenious contribution to the genre of alternating “double” variations, a musical design involving transformations of a pair of contrasting themes. The opening Andante theme already employs aspects of variation, since the opening melody in the high register, with its descending triadic motive and dotted upbeat rhythms, is soon restated in varied form in the bass, played by the left hand. Already in the second half of the theme, Haydn introduces elaborate melodic ornamentation and motivic dialogue between the low and high register, features that he develops further in the ensuing variations.

The contrasting theme appears in the brighter key of F major, and is characterized by a rising chromatic motive, which leads into passages featuring rapid decorative figures. Haydn’s subsequent variations of his two themes display increasingly brilliant textures. The initial variation of theme 1 introduces sustained syncopation between the melody and the accompaniment, whereas in the ensuing first variation of theme 2, the melody is often expressed through chains of trills. Especially intricate textures follow in the second variations of each theme.

With the return of the F-minor theme in its original form, we seem to have come full circle; yet Haydn reserves a stunning climax for the end. The original theme contained near its conclusion a surprising syncopated chord—an accented inflection on the “Neapolitan” harmony, G-flat. Each of the variations reiterates this telltale harmony, yet its destabilizing potential is realized only in the weighty coda, as sidestepping chromatic passages invade the music, drastically altering Haydn’s otherwise strict adherence to the formal shape of his themes. After this gaze at chaos, the ensuing resolving passages seem urgently motivated and deeply satisfying, and the pianissimo octaves of the last moments echo the crisis wrought by this temporary breach in the musical form.


WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Sonata in F Major, K. 533/K. 494
Born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg; died December 5, 1791, in Vienna.

Composed in 1788, the Sonata in F Major received its first Carnegie Hall performance in Carnegie Recital Hall (now Weill Recital Hall) on November 18, 1957, with Konrad Wolff, piano.

When Mozart completed his outstanding Sonata in F Major, K. 533, in early 1788, he wedded two newly composed movements to a rondo (K. 494) that he had written two years earlier. Mozart’s substantial changes made to the rondo when it became part of the sonata include an alteration in tempo from Andante to Allegretto and the addition of an extended and weighty new passage.

The opening Allegro of K. 533 is characterized by transparent textures evocative of chamber music, which unfold with considerable contrapuntal complexity. Even minute details of this music, such as the curious absence of accompaniment at the outset, can assume a rich gestural meaning. The psychology of the beginning of this sonata is well described by Robert D. Levin, who observes that instead of depicting a settled character, the composer gives us “the impression of watching a sculptor mold the clay: Mozart seems to pause in midair right away (m. 2) ponders (thus the half-note upbeat rather than the original quarter), apparently finds his original idea satisfactory after all, and only then does the left hand enter to confirm that the decision has been made.”

Particularly impressive is the Andante, a seemingly abstract piece characterized by calm breadth, but also by poignant dissonances. There is a delicate balance here between repose and tension. At the beginning of the second measure the melody falls through the tensional space of a dissonant tritone, while another tritone is heard between tenor and bass; dissonant suspensions are prominent throughout. Mozart’s flexible rhythm and phrasing sustain the intensity; later, in the development, a shattering climax will be built out of these materials, unleashing their dramatic power. Striking as well is Mozart’s sensitive use of an isolated high A in the right hand at the end of the exposition, which appears like a ray of light emerging out of the darkness of the minor; this crucial pitch later becomes the starting point for the chain of sequences that initiate the forceful development.

The finale is more naive than its companion movements and more restricted in its treatment of register, but Mozart’s substantial revisions forged links to the rest of the piece, even while risking stylistic discontinuities in this rather innocent rondo. Originally, measure 142 resolved directly to measure 170; the 27 intervening measures were added when Mozart joined the rondo to the sonata. The added passage includes an astonishing contrapuntal development of the head of the rondo theme, which rises through the entire tonal space before leading to a trill and cadence into the original coda, with its quiet conclusion in the lower register.


LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, “Quasi una fantasia”
Baptized December 17, 1770, in Bonn; died March 27, 1827, in Vienna.

Composed in 1800–01, the Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, received its first Carnegie Hall performance in Carnegie Lyceum (now Zankel Hall) on May 12, 1899, with Florence Traub, piano.

Beethoven described his Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, as a “Sonata quasi una fantasia.” Like its companion work, the so-called “Moonlight” Sonata, this fantasy sonata begins with a slow section followed by a dance movement with trio, while Beethoven reserves the fastest rhythmic motion for the finale. His merging of sonata and fantasy in this work enables him to impose an unusually tight relation between the individual movements, which are directly connected to one another.

The opening Andante of Op. 27, No. 1 starts with a relaxed, almost weightless improvisation, behind which lurks surprising depths. The first striking change in tonal color—to C major—foreshadows the key of the exuberant Allegro episode that is heard before the restatement of the opening Andante. In the following scherzo-like movement in C minor, a humorous syncopated trio in A-flat is enclosed by the dark outer sections; in the reprise Beethoven creates a unique sound texture by prescribing connected, legato articulation in the right hand and detached staccato in the left. The finale combines two movements into one. A reflective Adagio con espressione in A-flat major serves as slow introduction to the ensuing rondo, marked Allegro vivace. The rondo theme reshapes the melodic contour from the beginning of the Adagio with an almost Handelian energy, and near the end of the finale Beethoven recalls the entire main theme from the slow movement in the tonic key of E-flat major. Beethoven underscores thereby the interdependence of these contrasting movements, and he concludes his sonata with a vigorous presto coda that resolves both the Adagio theme and the head of the rondo theme into the joyously emphatic close.


FRANZ SCHUBERT Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960
Born on January 31, 1797, in Vienna; died there November 19, 1828.

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

Franz Schubert’s final Sonata is representative of his finest and most advanced style, and combines lyrical charm, structural grandeur, and a daring treatment of tonal relations. The first movement begins, in the words of Donald Tovey, with a “sublime theme of the utmost calmness and breadth,” whose first half ends mysteriously in a long, low trill on G-flat. Following the second phrase of the theme, the trill is heard on B-flat, but it soon unfolds downwards to initiate a restatement of the main theme a third lower, in G-flat major. As is characteristic of Schubert, the exposition incorporates three main keys and thematic areas, the second of which—in F-sharp minor—is linked to the mysterious trill.

The development section is based largely on the third thematic area from the exposition, whose motives and dactylic (long-short-short) rhythm recall Schubert’s famous song “Der Wanderer,” D. 489. The music modulates widely before building to a great climax in D minor. In the ethereal passage which follows, the sublime opening theme, now preceded by its trill, is stated softly in the high upper register. This recall of the main theme is delicately poised, not “in” but “on” the tonic key, as if contemplated from a vast distance. After two further appearances of the trill on G-flat, the ensuing recapitulation assumes a character of overwhelming immediacy and inwardness.

The slow movement, in C-sharp (D-flat) minor, marked Andante sostenuto, assumes an almost static quality due to a recurring accompaniment figure which ranges a span of four octaves under and over the melody. The contrasting middle section of this movement is suggestive of a song, and the stepwise ascending contour of the theme reshapes the melodic outline from the outset of the first movement. The playful gaiety of the following scherzo movement is enhanced by its effective changes from major to minor, and its wide tonal range. Particularly striking is the manner in which Schubert approaches the reprise of the scherzo theme in B-flat major from the remote but adjacent key of A major.

Harmonic subtleties are even more conspicuous in the finale, which opens with a call to attention: a G octave in the left hand appended to a theme which persistently begins in the “wrong” key, C minor, instead of B-flat major. This striking gesture may be connected not only to the opening of the finale of Beethoven’s string quartet in this key, Op. 130, but also at least distantly to the mysterious trill on the minor submediant in Schubert’s first movement. Only with its final appearance in this rondo-sonata movement is this material explained and completely resolved: the octave call-note descends by semitones through G-flat to F, the dominant note of B-flat, and a brilliant coda caps Schubert’s very last composition for the piano.

Copyright © 2008 by The Carnegie Hall Corporation

William Kinderman’s books include Mozart’s Piano Music (2006) and Beethoven (new ed. 2008), with Oxford University Press.

Alfred Brendel, Piano
Now celebrating his 60th year of performing before the public, Alfred Brendel is recognized by audiences the world over for his legendary ability to communicate the emotional and intellectual depths of whatever music he performs. A supreme master of his art, his accomplishments as an interpreter of the great composers have earned him a place among the world’s most revered musicians.

Having spent the earlier part of this season in the concert halls of Vienna, Berlin, London, Budapest, and other musical capitals of Europe, Mr. Brendel appears on his annual North American tour, performing Mozart’s C-Minor Concerto, K. 491, with James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, with Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra, with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra, and with Stéphane Denève and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He also appears as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston, with Chicago Symphony Presents, and at the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Mr. Brendel has performed with virtually all leading orchestras and conductors. He has appeared in the major cultural centers of Europe and the Far East, and his annual tours of North America have taken him from coast to coast. In recent seasons Mr. Brendel has performed with the Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony and Daniel Barenboim, the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the inaugural season of the new Disney Hall.

Mr. Brendel is an annual visitor to Carnegie Hall, where in 1983 he became the first pianist since the legendary Artur Schnabel to play all 32 Beethoven sonatas. At Carnegie Hall in 1999, he appeared six times in just over three weeks to delight audiences with recitals, chamber music, lieder with baritone Matthias Goerne, poetry reading, and a Mozart concerto with James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Mr. Brendel’s performance at Carnegie Hall the year before—on April 26, 1998—marked the exact anniversary of his first public recital 50 years ago at the Kammermusiksaal in Graz, Austria. The same series of celebratory events took place later that year at the Lucerne Festival. Strongly identified for his performances of Mozart, Mr. Brendel marked the composer’s 250th birth anniversary on January 27, 2006, with a special performance of Mozart’s final Piano Concerto, K. 595, with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle at Carnegie Hall, which they performed together thereafter with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Alfred Brendel is one of the most prolific recording artists of all time, and for the past 30 years has recorded exclusively for Philips Classics. He is the first pianist to have recorded all of Beethoven’s piano compositions and one of the few to have recorded the complete Mozart piano concertos. His extensive discography includes The Art of Alfred Brendel, a deluxe limited-edition collection of his comprehensive and varied repertoire. His recent releases include a live recording of Schubert sonatas; the five Beethoven piano concertos with Simon Rattle and the Vienna Philharmonic (the fourth time Mr. Brendel has committed these works to disc); Mozart concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Charles Mackerras; works by Haydn, Schubert, and Liszt recorded live in Salzburg; and a series of discs devoted to the complete sonatas and other solo works of Mozart. Also recently released is a recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas for piano and cello with his son, cellist Adrian Brendel. He has won many prizes for his recordings, notably the Grand Prix du Disque, the Japan Record Academy Award, Gramophone’s Critics’ Choice, the Edison Prize, and the Grand Prix de l’Académie du Disque Français. In 2001, Mr. Brendel received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Cannes at MIDEM, the world’s largest recording industry’s fair.

Mr. Brendel is well versed in the fields of literature, language, architecture, and films. In addition to his latest books, Alfred Brendel on Music and Ausgerechnet Ich (“Me of All People”), he has published two collections of articles, lectures, and essays. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, having written articles on Mozart, Liszt, and Schoenberg. Mr. Brendel’s volumes of poetry—“a collection of texts which can be numbered among the sparse ranks of genuinely comic literature and which make their author possibly ‘immortal.’”(Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung) include One Finger Too Many, published in the United States by Random House, and Cursing Bagels, released in English by Faber and Faber. He has given readings of his works in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and in many of the cultural capitals of Europe. Mr. Brendel is the subject of the BBC documentary Alfred Brendel—Man and Mask.

Born in Weissenberg, Moravia, Alfred Brendel spent his childhood traveling throughout Yugoslavia and Austria. His father, an architectural engineer, businessman, and cinema director, also ran a resort hotel on the Adriatic. The younger Brendel began piano lessons at the age of six but, owing to the family’s continuous travel, had to give up one piano teacher after another. In his teens, he attended the Graz Conservatory, where he studied piano, composition, and conducting. He also showed talent as a painter, and, when he made his recital debut at the age of 17, an art gallery near the concert hall was showing a one-man exhibition of his watercolors.

He discontinued formal piano studies soon after, preferring to attend occasional master classes, including those given by the famed pianist Edwin Fischer. To this day Mr. Brendel regards his untraditional musical background as something of an advantage. “Many times a teacher can be too influential,” he says. “Being self-taught, I learned to distrust anything I hadn’t figured out myself.” Although Mr. Brendel’s artistic interests as a young man did not focus on music alone, his winning the prestigious Busoni Piano Competition in Italy launched his career as a performing musician. He quickly established a reputation of unusual integrity and insight into the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Schubert, as well as the works of Liszt and several 20th century composers.

Alfred Brendel is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Oxford, London, Sussex, and Yale universities. He is only the third pianist in history to be named an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic, a distinction he shares with his illustrious predecessors, Emil von Sauer and Wilhelm Backhaus. Mr. Brendel has been awarded the Leonie Sonning Prize, the Furtwängler Prize for Musical Interpretation, London’s South Bank Award, the Robert Schumann Prize presented in Zwickau, Schumann’s birthplace; the Ernst von Siemens Prize; and, most recently, A Life for Music—the Artur Rubinstein Prize, presented by the Artur Rubinstein Cultural Association of Venice, Italy. In 1989 he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for Outstanding Services to Music in Britain, where he has made his home since 1972.