Spring Piano Concert

Chopin - C# minor etude, Impromptu in F#
Debussy - Estampes
Barber - Sonata

In Estampes, Claude Debussy evokes three locales - Asia, Spain and France. The sonorities of the Orient heard in Pagodes were inspired by the Javanese gamelans (percussion orchestras of southeast Asia)heard by Debussy at the Paris World's Fair. The Spanish composer Manuel de Falla commented on Lasoirée dans Grenade that "although not one bar of this work is borrowed from Spanish folk song, the entire composition, in its most minute details, admirably conveys the character of Spain." Debussy returns to his French homeland in Jardins sous la pluie. Two French nursery rhymes are incorporated in this toccata which was apparently motivated by a sojourn in Normandy one rainy spring day.

Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata is a mixture of conventional and modern techniques including elements of the twelve tone system. The eerie mood of the sonata as a whole strikes me as something Dracula would have composed. The first movement follows the traditional ABA layout while the second movement scherzo is a dance perhaps for impish, puckish fairies. The third movement is a doleful lament. A bebop and modern jazz influence can be heard in the final Fuga movement which transcends all the technicalities associated with this seemingly outdated compositional form. From the opening Charlie Parker-esque fugue subject through all its transformations, Barber pulls all the stops out and dazzles us with this Herculean tour de force.

When it comes to Romantic lyricsm, the pieces presented here are two of my favorites. Frederic Chopin’s Etude in C# minor has a most tragic tone, while the Impromptu in F# major has a much brighter, but no less emotional mood.
-MV