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the muriel mcbrien kauffman master pianist series
Fabio Bidini, piano
saturday, april 1 • 8 pm • the folly theater
A Carnival of Sound and Noise
CLEMENTI (1752-1832) Sonata in B Minor, Op. 40, No. 2
Molto adagio e sostenuto; Allegro con fuoco e con espressione
Largo, mesto e patetico; Allegro; Tempo primo; Presto
BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53, “Waldstein”
Allegro con brio
Introduzione: Adagio molto
Rondo: Allegro moderato; Prestissimo
DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Images, Book I
Reflets dans l’eau
Hommage à Rameau
Mouvement
—Intermission­—
SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Carnaval, Op. 9
Préambule
Pierrot
Arlequin
Valse noble
Eusebius
Florestan
Coquette
Réplique
Papillons
A. S. C. H. - S. C. H. A. (Lettres dansantes)
Chiarina
Chopin
Estrella
Reconnaissance
Pantalon et Columbine
Valse Allemande; Paganini; Tempo I
Aveu
Promenade
Pause
Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins
This concert is sponsored by the H&R Block Foundation.
Sonata in B Minor, Op. 40, No. 2
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
Remember those simple sonatinas you — or
perhaps one of your siblings — played as a child? Yes,
this is the same Clementi. No, this is not the same music.
It remains a mystery why Clementi’s mature piano
works have been virtually ignored except as teaching
pieces, while Mozart’s and Haydn’s solo sonatas, which
do not always represent their finest keyboard writing,
are played so frequently. Clementi was exceedingly
important in the development of modern piano
technique. He had an excellent command of classical
form and contrapuntal writing, and his keyboard sonatas
represent the pinnacle of the high classic style. From the
1780s on, Clementi’s music was quite popular throughout
Europe, and he wrought a powerful influence on the
young Beethoven.
Clementi’s early musical training took place
in Rome, and by age 13 he had become organist in his
home church. An English traveler named Peter Beckford
discovered him and persuaded the elder Clementi to let
the boy return to England. There Beckford oversaw his
education and musical training for seven years. Clementi
moved from Dorset to London in 1774, and began touring
the continent’s important musical centers as a keyboard
performer in 1780. He met both Haydn and Mozart
in Vienna in 1781. In December 1781 he and Mozart
participated in an improvising contest in the Emperor
Joseph II’s court. The verdict was a tie. Mozart’s report
to his father Leopold was uncharitable. He wrote:
Clementi plays well, so far as execution with
the right hand goes. His greatest strength lies
in his passages in thirds. Apart from this, he
has not a kreuzer’s worth of taste or feeling—in
short he is simply a mechanicus.
Through much of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, Mozart’s dismissal had an unfortunate
impact on Clementi’s reputation. Despite the fact that
Haydn and Beethoven thought highly of him, Mozart’s
disparaging remarks were the ones that stuck. In recent
decades, pianists and scholars have taken a closer look at
Clementi’s works and been surprised and pleased by the
quality of the music.
Gradually, the expatriate Italian shifted his
emphasis from touring to teaching. When the English
publishing firm of Longman & Broderip fell into
bankruptcy in 1798, Clementi entered into a successor
partnership with four British businessmen. The new
company, initially called Longman & Clementi, was
quite successful both in the manufacture of pianos and
the issuance of printed music. In 1810 Clementi gave up
performing altogether in order to concentrate his efforts
on the business. After 1821, he focused his composing
attention on pedagogical exercises that would foster
advanced keyboard technique.
The sonata that opens Mr. Bidini’s program is
one of three that were published together in 1802 as
Opus 40. Although Clementi’s mature style is usually
compared to Jan Ladislas Dussek, this B Minor work
is arguably the most Beethovenian of his sonatas. The
structure is compressed: two substantial movements,
each consisting of slow introductory sections followed
by an Allegro, which is separated from the slow
introduction, only by a fermata (pause). The tonal layout
is rigorous: the entire sonata is in B Minor. In the early
Romantic era, the choice of this particular key meant
it was associated both with passion and with physical
and mental suffering. Those feelings come through with
startling impact in Clementi’s dynamic music.
The substantial Molto adagio e sostenuto, which
opens the first movement, establishes the serious and
dramatic character. It leads to a precipitous Allegro
con fuoco e con espressione. Clementi’s fire (fuoco) can be
heard in the agitation of the accompaniment figures and
an unusual amount of chromaticism. A brief interlude
marked dolce e con espressione provides only momentary
relief from the intensity.
In the sonata’s second movement, Clementi
unifies the Largo, mesto e patetico opening with the
concluding Allegro by means of shared motivic material.
The change in tempo transforms the music. Instead
of a rondo, he chooses a sonata form, with two clearly
delineated themes; this adds to the work’s gravitas.
A return to the Largo music – another Beethovenian
touch, reminiscent of the Pathétique Sonata, Op. 13 (1798)
– precedes the Presto coda. Dazzling in its technical
demands, this finale will alter your perception of
Clementi. This sonata clearly places Clementi in the first
rank of classical composers.
Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53, Waldstein
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Count Ferdinand Ernst Joseph Gabriel Waldstein
(1762-1823) was a Bohemian nobleman who joined the
Teutonic Order in his twenties. He served the Grand
Master of the Order, Elector Maximilian Franz, for much
of his early career, working as a diplomatic envoy.
Maximilian Franz was the youngest son of the Austrian
Emperor Franz I and became Archbishop and Elector of
Cologne and Bishop of Münster in 1784.
Beethoven met Count Waldstein in 1788,
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when the Elector summoned the Count to Bonn to be
knighted. Both the Elector and the Count were cultured
men and passionate about music. Waldstein was
among the first to recognize the teenage Beethoven’s
prodigious talent and potential. He and the young
composer socialized frequently in Bonn, and Beethoven
wrote music for a ballet that the Count presented for
Carnival season; Beethoven also composed variations
for one piano, four hands on a theme by Waldstein,
WoO67.
When Beethoven moved to the Austrian capital
in 1792 to study with Haydn, Waldstein famously wrote
to him, “You are now going to Vienna in fulfilment of
your long-held wish. . . . As a result of unceasing effort,
you will receive Mozart’s spirit from Haydn’s hands.”
Waldstein is best remembered today as the
dedicatee of this C Major Piano Sonata, which is
known universally by his surname. The dedication
is something of a mystery in Beethoven scholarship,
because Waldstein served in the British army from 1795
to 1805, and is not known to have had any contact with
Beethoven in 1803 and 1804, the years when Beethoven
composed his Opus 53.
The sonata is one of the triumphs of
Beethoven’s so-called ‘heroic decade’ and one of the
great middle-period piano works. He was inspired in
part by the gift of a new piano by the French make
Sebastian Érard in 1803, which had an extended upper
range. Bold pianistic innovations in the Waldstein
reflect his experimentation with that keyboard,
particularly in the high register.
All three movements of the sonata open
pianissimo, and the designation pp appears frequently
throughout the score. The pulsing C Major chords that
open the Allegro con brio are more gesture than melody;
it is Beethoven’s subsequent little fillips of commentary
– seemingly throwaway motives -- that will provide
essential material for his development section. The
second theme is a grand, chorale-like idea in the
distant key of E Major, rather than the conventional
modulation to G Major one would expect in a sonata in
C Major. He expands the chorale theme with triplets
that usher in a series of closing themes organically
related to the opening idea. Such ingenious surprises
abound throughout the first movement.
Beethoven’s original slow movement was
an Andante in F Major. He rethought the pacing and
balance of the sonata and withdrew that movement,
eventually publishing it independently as the popular
Andante favori, WoO57. His replacement for the
Waldstein is marked Introduzione: Adagio molto. It is the
one of many middle period slow movements in which
he proceeds directly to the finale. (Connecting the last
two movements became a favorite device. Beethoven
would do the same in the Appassionata and Les Adieux
Sonatas, the A Major Cello Sonata, the Fifth Symphony,
the Violin Concerto, and the Fourth and Fifth Piano
Concertos.)
This Introduzione is shorter than the Andante
favori, but has more emotional depth. The music asks
profound questions, moving in spare textures through a
series of startling modulations. We are not quite certain
whether this is a free-standing slow movement or an
eloquent preface to the finale: a bridge between two
mighty C Major shores.
When the delicate arpeggios of the Allegretto
moderato return us to the home tonality, Beethoven’s
rondo theme feels like a ray of sunlight. His episodes
introduce elaborate left hand passage work and
extensive right hand trills. The atmosphere is elated,
even ecstatic, clearly foreshadowing the transcendent
world of the late sonatas and quartets. A prestissimo
coda in double time brings the Waldstein to a jubilant
close.
Images, Book I
Claude-Achille Debussy (1862-1918)
Claude-Achille Debussy
“Of all the musicians who ever lived, Claude
Debussy was one of the most original and most
adventurous; at the same time, unlike many original
adventurers, he was a consummate master within the
limits of his exquisite style.”
So begins William W. Austin’s now classic
survey, Music in the 20th Century, originally published in
1966. More than half a century later, his words still ring
true. Nowhere is Austin’s assertion more evident than
in Debussy’s astonishing piano compositions. The set
that Mr. Bidini plays reveals Debussy as a genius of the
piano, redefining technique and touch along with form,
harmonic language, and aural texture.
In a famous letter to his publisher Jacques
Durand, dated 11 September 1905, Debussy wrote of the
first series of Images, “Without false vanity, I think these
three pieces work will and will take their place in piano
literature . . . to the left of Schumann or to the right of
Chopin.” He was spot on in his prediction and matched-if not surpassed--his achievement in the second set
of Images [pronounced ee-MAHJ], published in 1908. (A
third series for piano was planned but never composed.
Debussy’s Images for orchestra are different, unrelated
works.)
Although Debussy did not favor the term
“impressionism” in describing his music, these pieces
certainly support the association of his name with
the movement. The first of the Images, Reflets dans
l’eau (“Reflections in the water”) suggests a musical
impression of nature in music: the play of light on
concentric ripples after a pebble has been tossed into
still water. Debussy constructs flickers of sound from
delicate arpeggios and feathery figuration that undulate
over the full expanse of the keyboard. The piece
demands the lightest of touches and superb control.
Debussy uses some whole tone scales, with intimations
of pentatonic scales in what he described as “the newest
discoveries in harmonic chemistry.” Subtle gestures
such as the reversal of the two principal themes suggest
the reflection of the title.
In a 1901 essay, Debussy wrote that “Rameau,
whether one likes it or not, is one of the surest musical
foundations.” He revered the rich legacy of 18th-century
French music as personified in the works of Couperin
and Rameau, and sought to restore that national
heritage to its origins and essence. Hommage à Rameau
pays tribute to Rameau by choosing a form often used
by French Baroque composers, including Rameau: the
stately and venerable Sarabande. Yet the expansive
piano writing is curiously indebted to Musorgsky,
whose music Debussy would have encountered during
the summers he spent in the employ of Tchaikovsky’s
patroness Nadezhda von Meck. Nevertheless, the sound
is completely Debussy’s own. He captures the stately
elegance and old world decorum of 18th-century France,
cloaked in his very personal adaptation of late Romantic
pianism.
Virtuosity is the watchword in Mouvement.
A dazzling, whirring ostinato provides the impetus;
Debussy is said to have described a rapid, wheel-like
motion for the repetitive figure. Think of the wings of a
hummingbird, whose hovering in mid-air is an optical
illusion of stasis, while the bird’s motion is actually
lightning quick. Debussy’s harmonies linger on extended
pedal points, belying the rapid movement swirling
above. This piece is all about shimmering texture and
subtle gradations of tone color. It is magnificent writing
for the piano.
Carnaval, Op. 9
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Long before Robert Schumann’s friendship with
young Clara Wieck blossomed into love, he became
enamoured of another Friedrich Wieck student and
boarder: Ernestine von Fricken. She was a gifted pianist
and impressed Schumann as “delicate and thoughtful.”
In July 1834, he wrote to his mother, intimating that
Ernestine was the woman he would marry. In fact
the pair became secretly engaged later that year, and
in November her father, a wealthy Bohemian baron,
consented to the match. The romance faltered in 1835,
in part because Schumann learned that she was the
baron’s illegitimate adopted daughter. The following
January, they agreed to break the engagement.
The primary fruit of this short-lived affair was
Carnaval, one of the crowning masterpieces of romantic
piano literature and one of Schumann’s finest works. It
evolved out of Schumann’s discovery that Ernestine’s
home town, Asch, contained the same four letters of the
German musical alphabet as his own name. In German
orthography, Es (or “S”) is E-flat and H is B-natural.
Carnaval’s subtitle is Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes
(Dainty scenes on four notes). Those four notes,
arranged in two principal figurations, constitute the
dominant musical material for all but two of Carnaval’s
movements.
The work takes its impetus from the masked
balls popular during carnival season (think Mardi Gras).
The opening Préambule establishes an air of celebration
and festivity. A series of character portraits ensues,
as Schumann “introduces” us to various attendees
at the ball. Some are stock characters from commedia
dell’arte: Pierrot, Arlequin, Pantalon and Columbine.
Others are composers Schumann admired: Chopin and
Paganini (pithy tributes and affectionate sendups of
their respective styles). “Chiarina” is his portrait of
young Clara Wieck, already his good friend even though
she was only a teenager. “Estrella” is Ernestine von
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Dramatis personae:
a guide to some of the characters and references
in Carnaval
Schumann’s Carnaval is a series of miniatures, some
of which are portraits of actual people, others of
which allude to fictional characters. Still others are
straightforward dances or interludes. This glosssary
provides a quick explanation for some of the
movement names on the program page and other
terms relevant to Carnaval.
Arlequin (Harlequin) - a stock character in the
Italian commedia dell’arte. He is an acrobat and a
clown. Traditionally he wears a colorful, patched
costume that betrays his common origins, but he is
celebrated for wit and cleverness
Chiarina – the diminutive for Clara and pen name
for Clara Wieck, Schumann’s future wife. At the time
he composed Carnaval, they were good friends, but
their romance had not yet developed.
Chopin – the incomparable Polish-born pianist
and composer, whom Schumann admired. This
poetic movement is Schumann’s salute to Chopin’s
pianistic style.
Davidsbündler - literally, the League of David, as
in the Biblical David. Schumann perceived his role
as one of leading true musicians and music-lovers
against the Philistines of popular musical taste. He
sought to battle against ignorance and arrogance in
contemporary music.
Estrella - refers to Ernestine von Fricken, the
young woman with whom Schumann was in love
when he composed Carnaval.
Eusebius [pronounced oy-ZAY-bee-us] - a
pseudonym Schumann used in his music criticism to
represent the dreamy, imaginative aspect of one’s
thoughts, impressions, and emotions. Eusebius’s foil
was Florestan.
Florestan - another of Schumann’s pseudonyms
in his music criticism, representing the passionate,
impulsive, excitable, and impetuous voice within all
of us; the opposite of Eusebius.
Pierrot (right) and a Noble
from Le ba Musard by Louis Huart, 1850
Grossvatertanz - literally, ‘Grandfather Dance.’ A
traditional German dance in a polonaise rhythm,
performed at weddings and other family occasions.
Tchaikovsky used the tune in The Nutcracker’s Act I;
Schumann used it both in his Papillons, Op.2 and in
the Carnaval, where it symbolizes the old guard, the
Philistines against whom he battled.
Paganini - Niccolò Paganini, the Italian virtuoso
violinist. This movement is one of the most
technically demanding in Carnaval.
Pantalon et Colombine - stock characters in the
Italian commedia dell’arte ; Pantalon traditionally is
a wealthy merchant, not terribly bright, but fond of
women and food; Colombine was the clever, pretty
maidservant
Papillons – (pronounced pop-ee-YOHN) French for
butterflies, and a reference to Schumann’s early
piano cycle Papillons, Op. 2.
Pierrot - a stock character in the commedia dell’arte:
honest, earnest, and loyal – but unlucky in love.
Traditionally he is in love with Columbine, who
rejects him in favor of Arlequin.
Fricken, and “Eusebius” and “Florestan” are
self-portraits, representing the melancholic
and passionate sides of Schumann’s complex
personality.
Coursing through these vivid portraits
are dance movements, primarily waltzes,
to remind us that we are at a masked ball.
“Reconnaissance” is the moment of recognition
when the two disguised lovers (Schumann and
Ernestine) identify each other; “Aveu” is their
declaration of love.
The concluding “March of the
Davidsbündler against the Philistines” is
not a march at all, but another brisk waltz.
The Davidsbund was a group Schumann had
founded to oppose philistinism in music. The
fusty old guard is represented by the traditional
Grossvatertanz (which he had also used in
Papillons, Op. 2); the sturdy “march” theme is
his political statement supporting forwardthinking, progressive composers of substance.
Carnaval is brilliant and virtuosic, but
never flashy for its own sake. Only four of the
twenty-one movements exceed two minutes,
yet there is an astounding feeling of continuity
and organic growth from one dance to the next.
Schumann’s recapitulation of some music from
the opening Préambule in the concluding March
neatly unifies the cycle. His expansion of this
material for the final peroration gives Carnaval
a marvelous sense of closure and inevitability.
Program notes by Laurie Shulman © 2016
Fabio Bidini
“The concert opened with Ravel´s jazz-influenced Concerto in G. Mr.
Bidini, who has a wonderful technical command of his instrument as
well as immaculate musical taste, gave an electrifying performance. He
captured the volatile character of the outer movements with dazzling
dexterity. But his true artistry came to the fore in the heavenly slow
movement. The Italian pianist gave a sensitive reading that brought
out the otherworldly beauty of the music with hypnotic power.” (Desert
Morning News, Salt Lake City)
Fabio Bidini is one of the foremost young Italian pianists since the days of Michelangeli. Beginning piano studies
at age five, young Bidini performed his first public concert six
months later. In the following years, he won eleven of the most
important piano competitions in Italy. He graduated magna
cum laude as one of the youngest graduates of the prestigious
Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Mr. Bidini then went on to win top prizes at the Busoni
and Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions, which
opened opportunities for an expanded international career.
Combining technical wizardry with poetic lyricism, Mr. Bidini’s
fascinating attack of the keyboard brought him a glowing 1992
London debut in the Barbican Center with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. Shortly
after, he had his highly acclaimed North American debut with
the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Joel Levi. Since
then Mr. Bidini has been a frequent guest of prestigious orchestras worldwide.
Mr. Bidini has performed at the Barbican Center with
London Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center
in Philadelphia, Washington’s Kennedy Center, the Royal Festival Hall in London, Davies Hall in San Francisco, Tonhalle in
Zürich, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Auditorio Nacionál in Madrid, Auditorio de Zaragoza, and the
Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.
Mr. Bidini has collaborated with leading conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, Ivan Fischer, Andrey Boreyko, Zoltán Kocsis, Yoel Levi, Pavel Kogan, JoAnn Falletta, Dmitry Sitkovetsky,
Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Joel Levine, and Carlos Prieto, among others. He has performed for Festival Radio France Montpellier
Languedoc-Roussillon,
La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Stern Grove
Festival, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli International Piano Festival in Brescia and Bergamo, and the Festival dei due Mondi.
In demand as a chamber music artist, Mr. Bidini collaborates with the American String Quartet, Janáček Quartett, Brodsky Quartett, Szymanowski Quartet, and Modigliani Quartet.
Fabio Bidini is represented by Arts Management Group.
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