Kathryn Stott (piano) - PARISIAN JOURNEY

Fauré: Nocturne No. 4 in Eb
Ravel: Jeux d’eau
Satie:  Gnossienne No.1                            
Debussy:  L’isle Joyeuse                                   
Ginastera: Sonata No.1                                      
Chopin: Ballade No.1;  Nocturne No.1;  Scherzo No.3

Programme Notes  

‘Parisian Journey’

Nocturne No. 4 in E flat, Op 36                                                                Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

Fauré’s thirteen Nocturnes span virtually the whole of his mature composing career. As his younger son, Philippe, commented, we should not read too much into the title ‘Nocturne’. These pieces are “not necessarily based on rêveries or on emotions inspired by the night. They are lyrical, generally impassioned pieces, sometimes anguished or wholly elegiac...”.

Composed in 1884, the Fourth Nocturne opens with a theme of remarkably delicate clarity, becoming increasingly animated and more richly textured as it approaches the central climax, in which Fauré’s biographer Jean-Michel Nectoux notes Wagner’s influence.

Jeux d’eau                                                                                             Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Written in 1901, Jeux d’eau was not only Ravel’s first fully mature masterpiece but also a work of seminal importance in the development of twentieth-century French piano music. Its techniques derive from Liszt, whom Ravel admired enormously, in particular the upper-keyboard sonorities and arpeggio writing of his Jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este. He was asked on one occasion how Jeux d’eau should be played. “Like Liszt, of course”, was his reply.

The sensuous delight in colour, light, movement and physical sensations conveyed in the music is neatly summed up in the quotation Ravel placed at the head of the score, taken from a poem by his friend Henri Régnier: “The river god laughing as the water tickles him.”

Gnossienne No 1                                                                                          Erik Satie (1866-1925)

Satie’s six Gnossiennes were written at various times between 1889 and 1897, although only three were published in his lifetime; the rest appeared only in 1968. The collective title, like that of the three Gymnopédies of 1888, was coined by Satie as an allusion to the world of ancient Greece, in this case the Minoan palace at Knossos. The cool aloofness of the earlier pieces here takes on a gently exotic flavour, influenced by the Romanian music Satie heard at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1889.

The Gnossiennes also provide the earliest example of the verbal comments which Satie would scatter increasingly over his scores. These include expressive, and even quite helpful, instructions to the player, as well as those impenetrably whimsical remarks for which his scores are notorious; at one point in No 1 the pianist is instructed “Postulez en vous-même”, which almost defies translation but could be rendered “Wonder about yourself”.

L’isle joyeuse                                                                                    Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Debussy wrote L’Isle Joyeuse in 1904, during a summer holiday with his lover, Emma Bardac, later to become his second wife. It seems to have been inspired by L'Embarquement pour Cythère by the French painter Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). In Greek mythology Cythera was where Aphrodite, the goddess of love, first came ashore after her birth; it therefore became a symbolic location of carefree pleasure.

Debussy captures a mood of happy anticipation with some of the most extrovert and virtuoso piano music he ever wrote. It opens with a cadenza-like flourish which re-appears at the end. In between, Debussy conjures up an astonishing range of colours as the rhythmically propulsive main theme drives the music to its breathlessly exciting conclusion.

Piano Sonata no 1, Op 22                                                           Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)

1. Allegro marcato; 2. Presto misterioso; 3. Adagio molto appassionato; 4. Ruvido ed ostinato.

Ginastera was the first significant Argentinian composer to establish an international reputation. His output includes orchestral works, including concertos for violin, piano and harp, operas, instrumental pieces and a number of ballet and film scores.

The first of his three piano sonatas was composed for the 1952 Pittsburgh International and Contemporary Music Festival, in response to a commission from the Carnegie Institute and the Pennsylvania College for Women. It was given its first performance in Carnegie Concert Hall, Pittsburgh, by the Canadian-born pianist Johanna Harris in November that year, and was an immediate success. It is dedicated to Harris and her husband, the American composer Roy Harris.

The Sonata’s rhythmic vitality is immediately apparent in the first movement, not just the vigorous opening theme, but also its more relaxed transformation, marked dolce [sweetly, gently] e pastorale. The second movement is a shadowy scherzo, played mostly very quietly, and fragmenting at the end.

A seven-note figure rising from the depths launches the spare, lyrical slow movement. The music builds to a brief passionate climax, before sinking back, returning to the music with which the movement started. The finale is another breathlessly exciting, rhythmically propulsive movement, with a characteristically Latin-American alternation of 6/8 and 3/4 metres. The final bars are marked tutta la forza, feroce.

Ballade no 1 in G minor, Op 23                                                Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

The title ‘Ballade’ for Op 23 and its three companions seems to suggest links with the narrative poems set to music by Schubert and others, perhaps even hinting at a story-line behind Chopin’s own pieces. Schumann suggested that they were prompted by the work of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. The extent of the connection has been a subject of debate ever since.

The First Ballade is difficult to date accurately, but such evidence as there is suggests it was written in 1834 or 1835. It packs a wealth of experience into its compact frame, from its two song-like main themes, its stormy transitional passages, the almost skittish waltz episode in the middle, and the fiery virtuosity of the ending, which hints at both tragedy and defiance.

Nocturne in B flat minor, Op 9 no 1                                       Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

Chopin’s nocturnes were among his most popular works during his lifetime, doing much to establish his reputation in fashionable Paris salons after he settled there in 1830, and have remained so ever since. Op 9 was his first published set of nocturnes, composed between 1830 and 1832; they are dedicated to Marie Pleyel, wife of the leading Paris piano manufacturer. No 1 is among the best known of Chopin’s Nocturnes.

Scherzo no 3 in C sharp minor, Op 39                                               Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

“How is gravity to clothe itself if humour wears such dark veils?” Schumann’s famous comment on the first of Chopin’s four Scherzos suggests how much the apparent incongruity between title and music must have puzzled its first audiences.

Following an almost furtive opening in octaves, Scherzo No 3 launches into some of Chopin’s most turbulent music, with thunderous descending figures. The tempo slows for a more gentle chorale-like idea, answered by a delicate falling phrase, chiming high in the treble. It is this that ends the work, but transformed almost out of recognition to take on the turbulence of the opening.

 © Mike Wheeler, 2010