Westminster Presbyterian Church
Music and Arts Series, Sunday, May 17 at 3:00 p.m.
Sinfonietta for Piano Four Hands (1986)
Kapustin was a USSR born composer. At the age of 14 he moved from his hometown of Horlivka, Ukraine, to Moscow, where he studied piano with Avelian Rubakh and later with Alexander Goldenweiser. His first attempts in composition were at the age of 13 with his piano sonata. During his studies at the Moscow Conservatory Kapustin composed and premiered his first opus, a Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (1957). He was closely drawn to composition but not in the style sanctioned at the time by the USSR’s Ministry of Culture. Instead, he wrote music that sounded as “American jazz.” Kapustin later remembered, “…in the ’50s, [jazz] was completely prohibited, and there were articles in our magazines that said it was typical capitalistic culture, so we had to throw it away” (source: Tom Neenan, LA Phil). Kapustin graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1956, and by that time there was something of a thaw occurring in Soviet musical life. Jazz was heard in urban clubs and made its way more frequently onto the Soviet radio airwaves. In 1961, Kapustin became a member of the Oleg Lundstrem Big Band. He continued his experimental fusion of classical and jazz idioms, developing a unique compositional style. In the early 60s, he also had his own quintet and was a member of Yuri Saulsky’s Big Band. From the early 1980s, he focused completely on composing, mostly piano works such as Suite in the Old Style, Op. 28 (1977), 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53, 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 82 (1997), and the Sonatina, Op. 100. His works also include orchestral and chamber works.
Kapustin first composed the Sinfonietta Op. 49 for orchestra in 1986. He later arranged the four-handed piano version for a concert in the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. Its four movements Overture, Slow Waltz, Intermezzo, and Rondo showcase Kapustin’s improvisatory and expressive jazz techniques. The complex dialogue between the two piano parts elevates to the extreme the challenges of sharing an instrument, and it is a unique addition to the contemporary repertoire written for piano fours hands.
Andante and Allegro assai vivace, formerly known as the Allegro brillant, op. 92.
Felix Mendelssohn could rely on his equally talented sister Fanny to join him for his piano duets, which he started composing in his teen years. His four-hand piano works include arrangements of his symphonies, overtures, chamber music, and seven of the Songs Without Words. In 1833, he collaborated with his friend, the Bohemian pianist, composer, and teacher Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870), on the Variations on a Theme by Weber, Op. 87b, for two pianos, four hands. His two most impressive works for four hands are the Andante and Variations, Op. 83a, and the Andante and Allegro brillant, Op. 92 (generally known as the Allegro brillant). The Op. 92 has an interesting history that begins with an autograph dated March 23, 1841, located in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Cracow, Poland. The work is in Mendelssohn’s handwriting and is titled Allegro assai vivace. A second autograph of the same work, dated by Mendelssohn March 26, 1841, and located in the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris, is written in oblong format with the Secondo part to the left and the Primo to the right. This autograph opens with an introductory Andante leading into the Allegro assai vivace. The third source, located in the Staatsbibliotek in Berlin, is a copy of the Paris autograph but is written in another person’s hand. Mendelssohn dedicated Op. 92 to Clara Schumann. He composed it “expressly to play with his friend” at her concert on March 31, 1841. The Allegro brillant is one of the most challenging pieces in the entire four hand piano repertoire. The expressive Andante theme alternates between the Secondo and Primo parts, transitioning into the jubilant Allegro assai vivace section, lush with virtuosic scale patterns and technically challenging contrasts between two themes, the dance and its more lyrical and cantabile counterpart.
(Source: G. Henle Verlag edition).
Ma mère l’Oye Suite (“Mother Goose” Suite)
The literal translation of the title of this work by Ravel is My Mother the Goose, subtitled subtitle cinq pièces enfantines (five children’s pieces). This work was written as a five-part suite for piano four hands in 1910. A year later, in 1911, Ravel orchestrated his work and created a ballet by adding four interludes and two more pieces, bringing the suite to a total of eleven movements.
Ravel originally wrote Ma mère l’Oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7 (Godebski, a renowned Polish sculptor, was close friends with Ravel, Mallarme, Monet, Renoir, and other artists of the time). Ravel dedicated this work to the children just as he had dedicated an earlier piano work, Sonatine, to their parents. Two of the movements are inspired by different fairytales by Charles Perrault (a French author and member of the Académie Française, who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales. The best known of Perrault’s tales include Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, and Bluebeard).
Sleeping Beauty and Little Tom Thumb are based on the tales of Charles Perrault, while Little Plain Girl, Empress of the Pagodas is inspired by a tale (The Green Serpent) by Perrault’s contemporary Madame d’Aulnoy. Beauty and the Beast is based on the tale’s version by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (another contributor to children’s literature and folk tales). The origin of The Fairy Garden is not known, although the ballet version interprets it as the Sleeping Beauty being awakened in the garden by her prince. On several of the editions, Ravel included quotes specific to what he is trying to convey, e.g., for the second piece Little Tom Thumb, he quotes Perrault:
“He believed he’d easily find his way because of the bread that he’d strewn all along his path; but he was very surprised to find not a single crumb: the birds had come and eaten everything.” — Charles Perrault
The winding musical lines of the second movement evoke the feeling of being lost and suggest unease to find one’s way through the enchanted woods. In the third movement, Ravel evokes the sonorities of East Asia with the use of the pentatonic scale and resonances resembling Javanese drums. The fourth movement represents a dialogue between the Beauty and the Beast in the guise of a moderate waltz, and the final movement creates a beautiful bridge with the first one by continuing its Sleeping Beauty’s premise.
