I have been talking about doing a recital for RCMS since my first term here in Cambridge, and it has never got done because I am very indecisive on my programme. I am glad that I have finally settled on one, and I hope you all enjoy the Part I of this two-part project.
MESSIAEN
Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus
No. 2 "Regard de l’étoile"
BEETHOVEN
Piano Sonata No. 17 "The Tempest"
IVES
from Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860"
III. The Alcotts
CHOPIN
Ballade No. 2
BERG
Piano Sonata
Robinson College Chapel
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The origin of the project:
2006 is a terrible year - for me and my family, at least. It was the most traumatic experience to lose a number of close relatives and friends in such a short period of time. That was the time when I was formulating a programme and I just started learning Harrison Birtwistle’s Harrison’s Clocks No. 4, the fourth piece of the set of five piano etudes inspired by John Harrison’s mechanical clocks – No. 4 being a pocket watch. The pieces represent the mechanical movements of the clock parts and have very rigorous structures associated with the respective clocks. The pieces stop because the clock-spring is wound down, but time itself has not stopped. It goes on, but not necessarily constantly. Einstein got rid of the notions of absolute time and space with the Theory of Relativity. Just as a decaying body will take different form and shape, so can (space-)time. This led me to the idea of programming a concert on the subjects of life, death, time and decay. I have found too many fascinating pieces for time and decay that I have to split the programme into two parts in order to fit in with RCMS’s Friday night schedules (so people can go to Formal in time!) Part I deals with “life”, but by the end of it does not necessarily mean “death”, because “decay” will start immediately after the inevitable conclusion of life, and that will be the subject of Part II, which I hope to schedule in the near future.
It is then that I find Salvador Dalí’s most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory (1931), provides great visualization for the concept: melted clocks on peaceful land and face. Ants are Dalí’s symbolism for life, and in this painting they all stick to the pocket watch. What is more amazing is that, its sequel, The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-1954), provides excellent illustration for Part II. By naming my recital after the great paintings, I hope my audience would make their own connections between the themes and the works that I am going to play tonight.
This project is dedicated to my late grandfather Choy Sik Ming (1919-2006) and my uncle Sammy Yuen (1947-2007), the memories of whom persist in my mind.
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MESSIAEN
Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus
No. 2 "Regard de l’étoile"
Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus (1944) is one of the most successful and important sets of work in the 20th century piano literature. The work was conceived during the German Occupation of France and was eventually premiered by its dedicatee and the composer’s second wife, Yvonne Loriod, in 1945. It is a cycle of twenty piano pieces written as meditations on the childhood of Jesus which features several recurring leitmotifs, such as the “Theme of God” and “Theme of Joy”. The second one of the set is called “Gaze of the Stars - The fall of Grace: the Star shines innocently, surmounted by a Cross…” It is the shortest one of the twenty, and is effectively a prelude for the set. After a robust opening (which is to repeat itself twice later), the rather important “Theme of the Star and the Cross” enters in bare octaves. Instead of going into substantial development, the theme repeats itself in the left hand decorated by chime-like chords on the right, which concludes with three reassuring chords.
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BEETHOVEN
Piano Sonata No. 17 "The Tempest"
Beethoven’s Seventeenth Piano Sonata in D minor (1801/02) was the second of Op. 31 which was written during the more troublesome years of the composer’s life. Beethoven himself did not give the work the nickname “The Tempest”, but it was claimed by the Beethoven scholar Anton Schindler (1795 – 1864) that the work is inspired by and thus can be thoroughly understood by reading the Shakespeare play of the same name. Whether the claim is true or not, the sonata is indeed very tempestuous. The great sonata starts with a peaceful A major chord, which suddenly breaks into an unexpected turmoil of continuous fragments, resulting in an unsettling tremolo that penetrates the conversational first subject, which climaxes to the quietly intense second subject that consists of descending fragmented phrases akin to the opening, and which is accompanied by a rocking figure in the left hand. There is a long and introspective recitative at the end of the development section, before the abrupt interruption of chords which introduce the second subject again. The second movement, in B-flat major, is slower and more graceful. Somewhat unusual in the case of Beethoven, this middle movement lacks substantial development. It, however, allows a large range of tone colours to be displayed on the instrument, as demanded by the ornamental phrases and decorative figures in the left hand. The D minor third movement is in tripartite sonata form. It is relentless, almost exhaustive in fact, that fragmented and punctuated phrases fill the music continuously from the beginning to end, and that it forms a texture of such complexity. It is very fast flowing and involves a large range of dynamics and timbre. One tide after another, every turn of the phrases shows a sign of internal struggle which, by the end, does not end. The movement only finishes because of acceptance of fate, voluntarily or otherwise – perhaps a fitting testimony to the composer’s life too.
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IVES
from Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860"
III. The Alcotts
Ives’ monumental Piano Sonata No. 2, or commonly called the Concord Sonata (1904-1947), is a bizarrely unique piece. It is not a sonata in the conventional sense but is a four-movement piano work where each of the movements represents the philosophical and literary ideas of the four Transcendentalists – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. For that reason, each of the movements can be a standalone piece in their own rights. The complete Concord Sonata is 45 minutes long and has optional parts for viola and flute in the second and fourth movements. Although the American composer is an amateur (his “day job” is an insurance agent), it is absolutely remarkable that he is able to construct musical textures of such great complexity. Whilst most of his works are largely neglected (partly due to the technical difficulties), Ives is remembered as a true original of his generation. “The Alcotts” from the Concord Sonata is amongst the more accessible pieces. It is the more lyrical movement of the four, and like the others, makes great use of the famous “fate” motif from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In Ives’ Essays before a Sonata, the composer wrote: “Concord village, itself, reminds one of that common virtue lying at the height and root of all the Concord divinities. As one walks down the broad-arched street… he comes presently beneath the old elms overspreading the Alcott house. It seems to stand as a kind of homely but beautiful witness of Concord’s common virtue – it seems to bear a consciousness that its past is living…” It has the sense of tranquility and peacefulness that one would find in an Edward Hopper painting, that of “a strength of hope that never gives way to despair”, wrote Ives.
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CHOPIN
Ballade No. 2
Frédéric Chopin pretty much single-handedly came up with the idea of instrumental ballades. The term was used by the Polish composer to describe the four grand-scale single-movement piano pieces which possess great dramatic qualities (Op. 23, 38, 47 and 52) The second one of these was composed from 1836 to 1839 and is dedicated to Robert Schumann. It starts off clearly as a barcarolle in F major in a pseudo-SATB fashion concluding with a perfect cadence. In a stark contrast, it then breaks into a Presto con fuoco second section in A minor, with bare octaves on the left hand and arpeggios recalling the first section on the right in contrary motion. The development is a polyphonic structure based on the opening motifs, followed by a recapitulation of the Presto section, which eventually erupts into a bombastic Agitato ending. The piece ends on A minor – and has in fact never returned to F major since its departure.
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BERG
Piano Sonata
Tonight’s programme concludes with Alban Berg’s monumental single-movement Piano Sonata, the composer’s Op. 1 (1907/08). It was written in the midst of a troubling time for the composer when his fiancée’s parents objected to the marriage because of his unstable health. It is one of the first mature works he conceived under his teacher Arnold Schoenberg, one of the first prominent advocates of atonality and serialism. The work is centred in B minor but the frequent use of chromaticisms, whole-tone scales and key modulations give it a very unstable feeling. It takes a relatively simple sonata form, but the thematic development is based on Schoenberg’s idea of variation from a single theme. The theme breaks in right at the beginning with a clashing quartal chord, immediately setting a very unsettling mood. The subsequent sections are all based on this opening phrase in a polyphonic array. The juxtapositions of the varied themes create a mesmerisingly complex texture and wonderful harmonies. The piece is finally and reluctantly settled down from the previous temperamental development, signifying that unity is achieved, perhaps in more than one way – but has to face the eventual disintegration, a fate that will ultimately come upon all…
