UNCG Focus on Piano Literature 2014
The Brothers Bach
UNCG Faculty and Guests
André Lash, harpsichord
Andrew Willis, fortepiano
John Salmon, piano
Joseph Di Piazza, piano
Stephanie Vial, violoncello
Gesa Kordes, violin
Thursday, June 5, 2014
8:00 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building
Program
Sonata in F major, F. 10 Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Allegro e moderato (1710-1784)
Andante
Presto
André Lash, harpsichord
Andrew Willis, fortepiano
Fantasia in C major, Wq. 59, No. 6 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Fugue in G minor, Wq. 112, No. 19 (1714-1788)
Rondo in E major, Wq. 57, No. 1
Sonata in A minor, Wq. 57, No. 2
Allegro
Andante
Allegro di molto
John Salmon, piano
Rondo in G major, Wq. 59, No. 2 C. P. E. Bach
Sonata in A major, Op. 17, No. 5 Johann Christian Bach
Allegro (1735-1782)
Presto
Joseph Di Piazza, piano
Intermission
Sonata in A major, W. X/4 Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach
Allegro (1732-1795)
Larghetto
Rondo: Allegretto
Stephanie Vial, ‘cello
Andrew Willis, fortepiano
Trio in C major, Wq. 90, No. 3 C. P. E. Bach
Allegro di molto
Larghetto
Allegretto
Gesa Kordes, violin
Stephanie Vial, ‘cello
Andrew Willis, fortepiano
Program Notes
Friedemann Bach: Sonata for Two Keyboards
It would be interesting to know the impetus behind the composition of this
unique sonata (sometimes referred to as concerto) for two claviers. One can
easily imagine Friedemann wishing to engage his father – or perhaps his kid
brother – in a musical dialogue at the keyboard, and taking advantage of the
models found in Sebastian’s three concertos for two claviers. Indeed, this sonata
was once misidentified as the elder Bach’s own work, and the version we play
from tonight comes from the 19th-century Bach-Gesellschaft Edition of J. S. Bach’s
complete works. As was already true of extensive passages in the father’s
concertos, the two keyboards are perfectly self-sufficient; the richly contrapuntal
texture requires no further accompaniment. The opening movement unfolds at a
leisurely pace, allowing Friedemann to fill the measures with greater and greater
detail as he proceeds. After the second movement provides a melancholy
interlude in the minor, the brisk and brilliant finale lets the players now join
forces in unison, now take turns, and now trip over one another to get in the final
word.
We know considerably more specifics about Emanuel Bach’s opinion of
keyboard instruments than we do about Friedemann’s. In his treatise Emanuel
praises the piano as, among other things, excellent in “accompaniments that
requre the most elegant taste” and as “pleasing for improvisation.” We also
know that Silbermann’s pianos in the Italian style were making a splash in
Saxony in the 1730s and 40s. So there is nothing in the historical record to
suggest that tonight’s pairing of a harpsichord with an Italian fortepiano would
have seemed in any way odd to a Bach. In fact, Emanuel himself would later pen
a double concerto specifying the plucking and hammered actions in contrast to
each other.
Andrew Willis
Emanuel Bach: Fantasia, Fugue, Rondo, and Sonata
For most of my pianistic career, I knew only one piece by CPE Bach, the super-famous
Solfeggietto in C Minor, Wq 117/2. While for many years I have valued
CPE’s treatise Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, only recently,
by association with my colleague Andrew Willis and his many splendid
performances, have I begun to know other keyboard works of the most famous
son of Johann Sebastian Bach. I’ve spent the last seven months digging into the
multifarious works of this quirky genius, aided by my purchase of several
volumes of the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach edition published by The Packard
Humanities Institute and edited by Christopher Hogwood.
My jaw drops to the ground in contemplating this composer’s voluminous and
varied output. Sometimes the music veritably defines Empfindsamerstil, such as
in the 1781 work for clavichord Rondo in E Minor, Wq 66 (“Farewell to my
Silbermann Clavier”), a piece brimming with Seufzer (sigh figures) and explicit
indications of “Bebung.” But other pieces seem quintessentially carefree and
intended for mere pleasant amusement, as in the Alla Polacca in D Major, Wq
112/17, composed in 1765. Above all, CPE seems intent on surprising and even
unnerving us with his frequent modulations, unsettled key centers, rhetorical
pauses, and thematic permutations.
I am still trying to figure out CPE’s personality. He seems to have been an
intense person who would snap at any perceived betrayal. As Christopher
Hogwood notes in the Kenner und Liebhaber preface, “Those who failed to keep
their promises were dismissed succinctly by Bach…as having died, either
‘morally or physically.’” (Fans of the TV show Shark Tank may imagine mogul
Kevin O’Leary shouting “You’re dead to me!” to an entrepreneur who turns
down his offer.) I don’t know if this means CPE was short-tempered, but he
certainly could be abrupt, a trait that comes out in his keyboard works. Often the
music just stops as if running into a brick wall, followed by a measure of rests
that catch the listener by complete surprise. This happens several times in the
pieces I am playing tonight, notably in the first movement of the A Minor Sonata.
But CPE’s music can also be rational and orderly, pleasant and conventional, as
in the Rondo in G Major, Wq 59/2 (which Joe DiPiazza will play tonight). In
such a work, I can hear CPE the tidy bookkeeper who kept a meticulous and
detailed list of his own compositions, showing an accountant’s clear mind. He is
equally fastidious in the Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments,
sometimes exasperatingly so, as in his description of proper embellishments. A
certain schoolmasterishness occasionally comes forth in the Essay, as in the
section on varying reprises – “All this [considering whether and how to vary a
reprise] must be done with no small deliberation”—that seems totally
contradicted by Charles Burney’s 1773 description of CPE himself improvising:
“He grew so animated and possessed that he looked like one inspired. His eyes
were fixed, his underlip fell, and drops of effervescence distilled from his
countenance.”
Which is the true CPE Bach, the one who kept explicit records and wrote clearly
about the proper way to ornament? Or the CPE Bach who improvised with
abandon, face dripping with sweat, as if in a trance? His works certainly reveal
both sides.
The Fantasia II in C Major, Wq 59/6 was composed in Hamburg in 1784 and
published in the fifth volume of the Clavier-Sonaten und freie Fantasien nebst
einigen Rondos fürs Fortepiano für Kenner und Liebhaber (Keyboard Sonatas and Free
Fantasies together with Rondos for the Fortepiano for Professionals and
Amateurs). This work is definitely improvisatory, recalling Burney’s description
of the unfiltered, sweaty, and somewhat mad CPE at his keyboard. Though the
piece is in C major, CPE spends more time in minor tonalities, traversing through
11 of them in addition to 5 major keys. I am also astonished by other bold
harmonic explorations, such as the “omnibus,” a chromatic progression made
famous in the 19th century by such quintessential Romantics as Wagner and
Liszt. Did Wagner and Liszt know CPE Bach’s music? Probably so.
The Fugue in G Minor, Wq 112/19 was composed in Berlin in 1755 and
published in Clavierstücke verschiedener Art (Varied Keyboard Works), Wq 112.
As the title of the collection indicates, the works in this set are quite varied,
including fantasias, one sonata, minuets, polaccas, and solfeggios. Short works
accessible to amateurs, such as the Minuetto I in A Major, Wq 112/16, stand
alongside longer, more sophisticated works intended for the professional
musician, such as his keyboard transcription of the Symphony in G Major, Wq
112/13. The Fugue in G Minor, Wq 112/19 definitely belongs to the “serious”
category, the type of composition written for highly skilled keyboardists. It is
one of CPE’s rare keyboard fugues and, written just five years after his father’s
death, definitely looks back to an earlier style. On the other hand, there is a
certain polyphonic liberty present that his father never would have taken, such
as composing a three-voice fugue using mainly two voices. And, speaking of
“Fuga a tre voci, con alcune licenze,” the phrase Beethoven used to describe his
own fugue at the end of his “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Op. 106, I hear in CPE’s
Fugue in G Minor a kind of precursor to Beethoven’s Op. 106 fugue, with motivic
similarities and a common perpetuo mobile drive.
After the relentless energy of the Fugue in G Minor, the Rondo in E Major, Wq
57/I, composed in Hamburg in 1779, offers a comforting repose. The melody is
sweet and singable and we get to hear it many times. The piece is almost an
example of 18th-century Unterhaltungsmusik, popular music to be played in salons
as pleasant diversion—except that CPE engages in compositional mischief by
transposing the refrain into several remote keys: F major (the flatted supertonic!),
F# major, and C major. Theory geeks may notice my own mischief in the final
iteration of the refrain, about which we can argue after the concert. This piece
could be played on a variety of keyboards—fortepiano, clavichord, harpsichord,
organ, or some other instrument, in accordance with CPE’s own predilection for
many different keyboard sounds.
At least 150 of CPE’s 300 keyboard works are titled “sonata,” so, in that regard,
Sonata in A Minor, Wq 57/2 is highly representative. Composed in Hamburg in
1774, four years after the birth of Beethoven, in some ways it paints the future for
the importance of the genre to the next generation of composers. I can imagine
the young Beethoven finding inspiration in this work. It has fire, imagination,
unexpected turns and structural sophistication. It is no surprise to me that
Beethoven revered CPE Bach, giving his student Carl Czerny the task of reading
CPE’s Essay as his first assignment.
I relish the opportunity to play works representing four significant genres of
CPE’s day—fantasia, fugue, rondo, and sonata. These works also bring together
different esthetics embraced by CPE: serious and sophisticated (the Fugue in G
Minor) alongside the light and pleasant (the Rondo in E Major—at least the
initial refrain!). These twenty minutes of music, composed over an
approximately 30-year period (1755, 1774, 1779, and 1784), comprise a descriptive
snapshot of CPE Bach’s compositional life.
John Salmon
Rondo in G by Emanuel Bach and Sonata in A by Christian Bach
With the numerous works of C. P. E. Bach being performed at this year’s Focus
on Piano Literature, this decorous homage to the second son of J. S. Bach is an
excellent celebration saluting the 300th anniversary of his birth. Carl Philipp
Emanuel was renowned both as a composer and an important music theorist. He
was recognized as a crucial link in the transition from the Baroque to the
Classical styles. Like his older brother, Wilhelm Friedemann, he was an exponent
of Empfindsamkeit (sensibility) or Empfindsamer Stil (sensitive style)—an aesthetic
which emphasized emotional variety and contrast prevalent in Northern German
music in the 18th century.
The Rondos of C. P. E. Bach all have one particular in common: the episodic
material alternated between statements or variations of the main theme is
frequently non-thematic. In the G major Rondo Wq. 57/3, the main idea
dominates the work as it reoccurs in eight different keys. Absent in this Rondo
are the usual extended episodes of rapid arpeggios. Instead, there are quirky,
toccata-like scales alternating between the hands in martellato style. What is not
absent are contrasting gestures of expression and humor.
For those fond of the Mozart piano sonatas, the sonatas of Johann Christian
Bach’s Opus 17 will elicit similar satisfaction. The opening theme of the A Major
Op. 17, No. 5, may sound familiar. Having taught a class on the Mozart Piano
Concertos many years, their familiarity was an asset for me in recognizing a
similarity of Johann Christian’s theme to an idea Mozart uses in the first
movements of the C Major Concertos K. 246 and K. 415. In both concertos it is the
secondary theme, and it is found at bar 57 of K. 246, and at bar 93 of K. 415.
Perhaps someone will recollect another work and share it with me during our
symposium.
J. C. Bach left Germany around 1755 and spent 7 years in Italy studying with
Italian notables such Martini and Sammartini, and as organist at the Milan
Cathedral. He was drawn to Italy by Italian opera and contributed to that genre
with successful operas in Naples. In 1762, he moved to London hoping to further
his career in opera. However that was not to be. For over 47 years he composed
some 450 works, about 111 of them are called sonatas but only 24 are solo
keyboard sonatas; the others are accompanied sonatas or duets.
The first movement of Op. 17/5 follows the tonic-dominant key relationships of
Classical sonata form. A generous portion of the development visits the relative
minor of F# – for me one of the most expressive keys but rarely used by
composers of this era. Some exceptions include: Sonata Wq.52/4 by C.P.E. Bach;
Sonata Op. 26/2 by Clementi; Elégie Harmonique, Op. 61, by Dussek; the lovely
second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 488 and extended sections in
Don Giovanni.
Except for the first Sonata of Opus 17, the remaining 5 Sonatas have fast, triple
meter finales. There is a distinct Italianate flavor to them reminiscent of the
tarantella dance character. Curiously, of the 6 Sonatas in this set, only Nos. 2 and
6 are in 3 movements, the rest have only two. I, for one, would have welcomed a
slow movement in the A Major Sonata – and in the key of F# minor!
Joseph DiPiazza
Friedrich Bach Sonata for ‘cello and piano
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach's sonata in A major for Pianoforte e Violoncello
obbligato, written ca. 1789, plays an important role as one of the very few
surviving works of the genre from the late 18th century. While there are
numerous continuo sonatas for cello, including remarkable works by Anton
Kraft and Luigi Boccherini (and also Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach), there is a
remarkable lack of such works preceding the appearance of Beethoven's Op. 5
sonatas in 1797. Cellists often bemoan the fact that both Mozart and Haydn failed
to produce any cello sonatas, either with continuo accompaniment or a written-out
keyboard part. Sadly, Johann Christoph Friedrich's sonata does not survive
in its original form, but comes to us via a 1905 edition by Johannes Smith, a
student of the famed cellist composer and arranger Friedrich Grützmacher.
Smith's edition transposes the sonata into the key of D major, most likely in order
to use a brighter range of the cello and thereby improve its balance with the
modern concert grand piano. Smith, like his teacher, naturally felt free to stamp
the sonata with his own brand of technical wizardry in the form of extended
passages in upper octaves. We have thoroughly enjoyed performing this version
of the sonata in the past, but are delighted this evening to play from Stefan
Fuchs's admirable reconstruction of the work, which restores the original key of
A major and the happy blend and balance between cello and fortepiano.
The A major sonata wonderfully combines Johann Christoph Friedrich's skill in
writing sensitive vocalic melody with his delight in the capabilities of the
fortepiano. The opening Allegro contrasts exuberant and brilliant scale passages
with broader lyrical expressions. The Larghetto which follows is exceptional in
its simplicity and elegant poignancy. The final Allegretto is a rondo with
variations based on the folksong “Es sind einmal drei Schneider g'we'n.” Johann
Christoph Friedrich fully exploits the humor of the text: three tailors thinking
they are facing a terrible beast of a bear, only to find in the end that it is merely a
small snail.
Stephanie Vial
Emanuel Bach Trio in C major
The admirable Complete Works Edition being produced by the Packard
Humanities Institute is certain to revitalize C. P. E. Bach scholarship and
performance for decades to come. No longer does one need to comb library
catalogs in the hope of turning up a musty old edition of a particular hard-to-find
work. Thus I eagerly consulted the worklist at cpebach.org, only to find
that the present work, though clearly for three instruments, was not listed
anywhere among the “Keyboard Trios.” A little persistence led to the discovery
that it is actually gathered among the “Accompanied Sonatas,” having been
dubbed by the composer a “Keyboard sonata with violin and violoncello for
accompaniment.”
This is not the place to examine the story of the accompanied keyboard sonata, a
genre that achieved wild popularity in the mid-18th century and which can be
viewed as the incubator of the Classical piano trio. Rather, suffice it to say that
Bach is already treating the strings as partners in a joint enterprise and far from
mere tagalongs. Thus, in addition to the expected solo brilliance of the keyboard
part and its occasional doubling by the strings, we also find the strings stepping
forward to chide the piano over its self-satisfied fingerwork (at bar 70 of the first
movement), a melodious duo pairing of violin and piano at the sweet interval of
a third in the Andante, and both instruments matching the piano parry for parry
in brilliant scale flourishes in the finale. And, this being C. P. E. Bach, one need
hardly add that each instrument engages fully in projecting the Affekt of the
music every step of the way.
Andrew Willis
Performers
Joseph Di Piazza, Professor of Piano, UNCG. DMA, University of Wisconsin.
NDEA Fellowship. Performances at Orchestra Hall-Chicago, Cincinnati Art
Museum, Long Island Beethoven Festival, Chicago Art Institute. Guest artist at
Interlochen, Eastern Music Festival, University of Alberta, International
Rachmaninoff Conference. Recital on 1991 Horowitz Steinway tour. PBS
television broadcasts. Concerts and classes in United States and Europe, and in
China in May 2014.
Gesa Kordes, violinist, performs with numerous chamber ensembles and
Baroque Orchestras, having toured in the U.S., Central America, Europe, and
Israel. She has recorded for NPR, harmonia mundi, FONO, Dorian, and Naxos.
Ms. Kordes received Baroque violin training from Stanley Ritchie and John
Holloway at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, where she served as
lecturer for Baroque violin. Master’s in violin and musicology and doctoral
candidate in musicology at IU. Instructor of Early Music Performance, University
of Alabama since 2009.
André Lash, Instructor of Organ, UNCG. DMA, Eastman School of Music, study
with Russell Saunders, Arthur Poister and José-Luis Gonzalez Uriol. Finalist,
University of Michigan International Organ Competition, Concours d’Orgue de
la Ville de Biarritz. Fellow of the American Guild of Organists; students have
been finalists in competitions and certification exams of the AGO. Special
expertise in Spanish Baroque organ works. Solo performances in the United
States, Russia, and Republic of Korea.
Pianist John Salmon (www.johnsalmon.com) has distinguished himself on four
continents, as both a classical and jazz artist. His six compact discs—four of the
piano music of Dave Brubeck, one of Nikolai Kapustin, and one of his own
compositions—are broadcast regularly on radio stations throughout the world.
John Salmon has been a member of the faculty of The University of North
Carolina at Greensboro School of Music, Theatre & Dance since 1989.
Stephanie Vial, cellist, is a sought-after chamber musician and soloist, and has
recorded for the Dorian Label, Naxos, Hungaroton, and Centaur Records. She co-directs
the period instrument ensemble, The Vivaldi Project, and its Institute for
Early Music on Modern Instruments, held annually in Washington, DC. Vial has
taught at Cornell and Duke Universities, and is currently an adjunct faculty
member at the UNC Chapel Hill and a regular guest teacher at The Curtis
Institute.
Andrew Willis, Professor of Piano, UNCG. DMA, Cornell University; MM
Temple University; BM, Curtis Institute of Music. Period-instrument recordings
of Beethoven piano sonatas and lieder programs with sopranos Julianne Baird
and Georgine Resick. Premiere recording of Martin Amlin Sonata No. 7,
commissioned for the 2000 Focus. Recital and concerto performances in the US
and Europe. Articles and reviews in Piano & Keyboard, MLA Notes, Early Keyboard
Journal. Past President, Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society.
