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August 6 – Festival Fridays

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Chopin – 24 Preludes

Beethoven – Violin Concerto in D major

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Frédéric Chopin

Polish composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin (1810-49) was a musical prodigy and already a published composer of piano music before his eighth birthday. He graduated from the future Warsaw Conservatory in 1829, having been proclaimed "exceptionally talented" and "a musical genius." His early works include the Variations in B-flat (op. 2, 1827) on 'Là ci darem la mano' from Mozart's Don Giovanni and his two piano concertos (1829-30). Most of Chopin's works are from his later career in France and for solo piano. However, he also composed chamber works with cello, including the Cello Sonata in G minor (performed on July 5) and the Piano Trio in G minor (July 14). Paris in the 1830s provided the cultural milieu in which Chopin succeeded as a piano teacher and composer. Starting in 1838, he had a stormy relationship with the novelist George Sand (b. Amantine Dupin). Early during that relationship, he completed his 24 Preludes. His health also began to decline, probably due to tuberculosis. In the early 1840s, he wrote such major works as the Ballade No. 4 in F minor (August 4). In 1846-48, he composed his Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major (June 30) and his Cello Sonata. In 1848, he went to London, but he then died in Paris in the autumn of 1849.

24 Preludes (Op. 28, 1837-38)

The term "prelude" usually refers to a relatively brief, improvised (or improvised-sounding) piece that introduces the following work. Such a piece typically establishes the mood, as well setting up the tonal area of what follows. However, Chopin's preludes are meant to stand on their own, both as entities separate from one another and from any other works. Chopin's major influence was Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, in which the Baroque master created a paired prelude and fugue in each major and minor key. Chopin does something similar, except that instead of moving by step (C, C-sharp, D, D-sharp, etc.), he pairs each major key with its relative minor and proceeds up by a perfect fifth. Thus, he begins with C major and A minor, next gets to G major and E minor, and ends with F major and D minor. Such an approach is called the "circle of fifths." Also, Chopin creates a single item for each key, instead of Bach's two-part combination. The preludes range widely in style and emotion, which is somewhat indicated by the main marking for each piece. These include: "Agitated," "Slowly," "Lively," "Very slowly," "Quite quickly," "Very fast," "Sustained" (i.e., in the "Raindrop Prelude"), "Very fast, with fire," "In a singing style," "Moderately," and "Quickly, with passion". The pieces are highly-focused and concise. Chopin completed them shortly after his first winter respite with George Sand, on the island of Majorca. He was paid 2,000 francs by the Parisian publisher Camille Pleyel.

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Ludwig van Beethoven

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was the most revolutionary figure to bridge from the late Classical era into the early Romantic era. His early training came from his court-musician father and others in Bonn. As a young man, he played viola in various orchestras, started composing commissions, met influential patrons, and moved to Vienna to study composition with Haydn. His growing deafness (already beginning by 1800) contributed to his acerbic personality. He had numerous additional personal difficulties, including failed romances, and his compositional activities waned through his early to mid forties. However, his late period then resulted in a renewed period of creative work, with a number of quite experimental compositions. His most important works include the relatively early Symphonies No. 3 ("Heroic"), No. 5, and No. 6 ("Pastoral"), as well as the much later Symphony No. 9 ("Choral"). His middle-period piano sonatas were ambitious and virtuosic, and his song cycle To the Distant Beloved was highly influential. His concertos include the Violin Concerto in D major. Beethoven's influential string quartets include No. 3 in D major (August 4) and No. 9 in C major ("Rasoumovsky 3" – July 16).

Violin Concerto in D major – (Op. 61, 1806)

This work was written during one of Beethoven's most prolific phases of the middle part of his career. Among other works, he had recently composed his Symphony No. 3, his Piano Concerto No. 4, and two of his greatest piano sonatas, No. 21 ("Waldstein") and No. 23 ("Appassionata"). This was his second-last concerto, followed only by Piano Concerto No. 5. Beethoven had earlier explored works for solo violin with orchestra only occasionally. However, he had also featured the instrument prominently with orchestra in the context of his Triple Concerto for violin, cello, and piano. The Violin Concerto's first movement ("Quickly, but not too much") is quite lengthy. It begins with quiet tympani gestures that preview the melodic, rhythmic, and structural elements that then emerge. (Some early critics thus dismissed the work as a "Kettledrum Concerto.") The movement follows a time-honored concerto form, the ritornello. In this form, an orchestral refrain precedes the solo instrument's first appearance. It then continues to alternate with additional, varying sections that mainly feature the solo instrument. The most famous example of this form is the first movement of Vivaldi's Spring concerto from The Four Seasons (1725). However, Beethoven's conception is on a much grander scale, and he allows himself a great deal of time and space to explore his melodic materials quite extensively. The movement is highly dramatic and restless. By comparison, the second movement ("Fairly slow") is surprisingly calm for often-blustery Beethoven. It is generally quite lyrical, but an orchestral outburst eventually leads to a violin cadenza that leads directly into the Finale. The third movement (a Rondo) is pleasantly dance-like and was perhaps inspired by the character of folk music. On the other hand, it includes many of the work's most virtuosic demands on the soloist. Surprisingly, Beethoven also made a version of this concerto for piano.

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