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Piano recital

This is a sélection of "untypical" works by well-known composers.
Schumann wrote his Fantasiestücke when he was 27 years old.The rhythm and the phrasing are very complex, literally fantastic; "Des Abends" has a phrasing in several rhythms at the same time: 2/8 time and triplets, in sequences of four measues. "Aufschwung" and "Grillen" are written in a three-beat time, whereas the phrasing is again in four-measure sequences. Schumann combines all this with an exuberance of musical and technical skills.
Domenico Scarlatti composed about 500 sonatas. In the piece included here, Scarlatti imitates wind instruments on his harpsichord. A joyful flute and horn melody is interrupted by a trumpet fanfare theme. The motifs are then given alternately and in the second part, combined.

Shostakovitch's collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues, composed in 1950-51, is the twentieth-century equivalent of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
Shostakovitch creates his own universe, intimate and audacious, including dances (Prelude no. 1, Saraband, Fugue no. 2), humorous pieces (Fugues nos. 3 and 5) and an overture (Prelude no. 6). Fugues nos. 1, 4 and 6 are masterpieces of their kind.
The first prelude is a saraband followed by a fugue in four voices which, remarkable for the twentieth century, contains not a single accidental.
The second prelude is a brilliant monody; the fugue is dissonant and staggering, jumping from one key to another. The third piece commences with a Russian chant and the three-part fugue is humorous and lively. The following Prelude in E minor is dark and introverted. It takes us without interruption to the double fugue, composed as one single crescendo which goes from near silence to an almost symphonic end.
The fifth piece is a delightful serenade with the theme in the bass. The fugue is bright and skips through many different keys.
A French overture introduces a mysterious fugue (no. 6) in four voices, with two themes.
The Fantasia in D minor by Mozart (1782) is a fragment, but it gives us an impression of how Mozart might have improvised.

Beethoven's Sonata no. 26 concerns the farewell of his friend and pupil, the Archduke Rudolf, on the 4th of May, 1809.
The original title, "Lebewohl", directly inspires the principal theme of the entire Sonata (a descending G, F, E flat melody, whose notes are harmonized respectively with E flat major, B flat major and C minor chords). You can hear the Postillion (farewell horn motif) at the end of the first movement, followed by a lamento on the absence of his dear friend, while the third movement celebrates his return.


Program

Robert Schumann
Fantasiestücke op 12
des Abends, Aufschwung, Warum, Grillen

Dimitrij Schostakovitsch (1906-1975)
from 24 Preludes and Fugues op 87
Prelude & Fugue in C major
Prelude & Fugue in a minor
Prelude & Fugue in G major
Prelude & Fugue in e minor
Prelude & Fugue in D major
Prelude & Fugue in B minor

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonate opus 81 "Les Adieux" E flat- major
Das Lebewohl (Les Adieux)
Adagio / Allegro
Abwesenheit (L`Absence) Andante espressivo / in gehender Bewegung, doch mit viel Ausdruck
Das Wiedersehen (Le Retour)
Vivacissimamente / Im lebhaftesten Zeitmaße

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Fantasie d-minor (KV 397)

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonate in G major

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonate op.28 in D-dur (Pastorale)
Scherzo/Trio

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