Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music

[DipABRSM]
Candidate Number: 4841904
Choice of Instrument: Piano
Date of Examination: 5 September 2017
Word Count: 1268
Programme

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

2 Sonatas in A major , Kp. 208 and Kp. 209

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Adagio in B Minor, K540

Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828)

Impromptu No. 3 in G flat major, D. 899/3 (Op. 90/3)

Charles-Valentin Alkan (1797 – 1828)

Barcarolle, for piano in G minor (Recueil de Chants 5/6), Op. 70/6

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)

Sarabande from Pour le piano, L260

Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)

Mikrokosmos, Vol. 6, Nos. 149 & 152
Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757)
Keyboard Sonatas in A Major Kp.208, Kp.209
Domenico Scarlatti was born in 1600, a prolific baroque composer, he wrote a
staggering total of 555 keyboard sonatas. Iberian folk music and dance are infused
within the sonatas, and each sonata is a study of a musical or technical idea.
Scarlatti often wrote his sonatas in pairs, intended to be performed consecutively
in concert. In the sonata Kp. 208, the central gestural idea is that of the
anticipatory beat. A homophonic texture, rather than the typical Baroque
contrapuntal style, is observed in Kp. 208. This creates some wonderful
momentary harmonies, and gives a lilt to the melody. The theme opens with a slow
arpeggio followed by a descending scale that introduces the gentle skipping rhythm
of the anticipation that is a consistent theme throughout the piece. The Sonata Kp.
209 opens with a bouncy rhythm over which the festive main theme is played,
again, influences of Spanish folk music are clearly evident in Scarlatti's writing with
ornaments that imitate a guitar. In the second half of the work Scarlatti develops
his material, first tempering the merriment with a note of sobriety before launching
back into the festive kind of mood predominant during the two expository
sections.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)
Adagio in B Minor, K540
Mozart composed the Adagio in B minor, K540 in March 1788. He composed his
Adagio at a time when his financial situation was steadily deteriorating due to the
Austro-Turkish war.
The Adagio was composed between the Prague and Vienna premieres of Don
Giovanni. Indeed, it has operatic elements with its tense, emotional atmosphere, as
well as the use of rests and silence to create a hushed intensity. The melodic line
when isolated reminds one of a lyrical soprano aria. Like Mozart’s D minor
Fantasia, this Adagio is a highly personal recreation that shares C. P. E. Bach’s
language of Empfindsamkeit (Sensitivity), characterized by halting, broken phrases,
suspensions and piercing diminished-seventh chords.
The Adagio is also a taut sonata-form structure, opening by outlining a B minor
triad; the rhythmically diverse theme continues through several dynamic changes
with a brief, concentrated development exploring far-flung tonalities. This Adagio
speaks of a profound heaviness that finds resolution in a peaceful whisper, after an
intensely chromatic coda that hovers from minor to major in the last bars likening
to Schubert’s turns from minor to major, which deepen the pathos.
Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828)
Impromptu No. 3 in G flat major, D. 899/3 (Op. 90/3)
Schubert, is perhaps best known and loved for his Lieder, which forms a
significantly large proportion of his compositional output. Schubert’s Impromptus
were written during the latter half of 1827, which also saw the completion of
masterpieces such as the song-cycle Winterreise. Schubert was ill with syphilis that
would take his life the following year, resulting in more poignant and riveting
compositions. The third of Schubert's first set of Impromptus, in G flat major, Op.
90, No. 3 (D. 899/3), is a flowing song without words that seems almost hymn-like
in the serene peace of its melody, a precursor to Mendelssohn’s Song without
words.
The melody soars above a constantly rippling accompaniment with a slow-moving
and solemn bass line treading softly far below. The intensifications of the melody
are accomplished by modulations through keys rather than through any increases
in the work's tempo or pace. The occasional expansion of the bass line into a
countermelody during these intensifications brings an added pathos to the music.
The piano of Schubert’s time had six different pedals, each corresponding to a
tone or timbre required, such as at pianissississimo sections a special pedal would
be used, likewise the use of the una corda (soft pedal) now would seek to achieve
the hushed intensity Schubert had in mind. Throughout his short working life
Schubert wrote many sonatas for his own beloved instrument the piano; yet his
only sets of piano pieces such as the impromptus are all late works.
Charles-Valentin Alkan (1797 – 1828)
Barcarolle, for piano in G minor (Recueil de Chants 5/6), Op. 70/6
Charles-Valentin Alkan was one of the great French composer-pianists of the
nineteenth century and was a major influence on many subsequent musicians such
as Debussy. Alkan wrote five volumes of Chants: Op.38 (two books), 65, 67 and
70. Taking inspiration from Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, his Chants share
their harmonic language and length, and even the key sequence of Mendelssohn’s
first book, Op 19, as well as ending with a barcarolle.
Alkan's fifth and last collection of chants, was composed just after defeat of the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870, which was soon followed by the rattling Paris
Commune. In the aftermath, Alkan wrote these chants. This Barcarolle ends the
fifth and last collection of Chants, published by Richault in about 1872, and likely
marks the end of Alkan's creative life. This final Barcarolle is marked Andante
Flebile and carries a mournful melody. The left hand combines a gently rocking
accompaniment with a subdued inner voice throughout. Sotto voce, the melody
swings between minor and major before yielding to an etude-like passage. The
initial theme returns to the major but in a series of chromatic melismas made more
intense by its articulation in thirds. A sudden interruption and dramatic silence
returns us to the initial drooping theme, only to fall away in a series of descending
chromatic lines made, before a calming and sudden feint to G major.
Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Sarabande from Pour le piano, L260
Claude Debussy began his three-movement piano suite, Pour le piano, L. 95,
around 1896 and completed it in 1903. Debussy composed two sets of piano
pieces during the 1890s which look back to Baroque music, Suite Bergamasque and
the Suite Pour le piano. Sarabande from Suite Pour le piano is a revision of the
"Sarabande" found in his Images oubliées(forgotten) of 1894. A Sarabande is a
slow dance in 3/4 time, often with a certain weight felt on the 2nd beat of the bar,
and was one of the standard movements of the Baroque Suites written in the late
17th and early 18th Century. The Sarabande has origins in Spain, but later became
popular in France as a slower, stately dance, hence the musical direction given by
Debussy, to play with a deep elegance and slowly. In images oubliées, Debussy
further gave a direction to think of an old portrait or a memory of the louvre.
These examples indicate the introspective nature of this piece intended by
Debussy.
Though the piece still largely remains unchanged in the revised edition, one
notable difference is the use of an extended series of repeated arpeggiated octaves
at the ending of the Sarabande, and a change in harmony where the leading note
only resolves at the penultimate bar, as opposed to two resolutions in images
oubliées. As the arpeggiated octaves rise over an unresolved texture, Debussy
creates a sensation of weightlessness in the music, that eventually resolves in
pianississimo, akin to a forgotten memory fading into the distance.
Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)
Mikrokosmos, Vol. 6, Nos. 149 & 152
Béla Bartók was a devoted collector and arranger of folk music. These six dances
comprise the final works in Mikrokosmos, Bartók's masterful set of 153 pieces of
progressively challenging piano compositions, meant primarily as an instructive
collection for students. Here, he fashioned six dances of high difficulty that feature
all manner of technical challenges for the pianist, including hand crossing, thorny
rhythmic figures, constantly changing metric patterns, fingering problems, and
numerous other hurdles. As for compositional characteristics, all feature lively
contrapuntal writing and inventive harmonies, and all are highly colourful and full
of contrast.
Bulgarian rhythms are characterized by pulses which are divided asymmetrically
within the measure. In No. 149, instead of using the conventional 7/8 meter,
Bartók divides the meter into (2+2+3)/8, and in No. 152 he employs a
(2+2+2+3)/8 meter. The second dance opens with a driving, colourful rhythm,
invoking the spirit of Spain. An Eastern European ethnic character is also hinted
at, even with less a sense of the dance here. The music is more toccata-like, though
still full of colour and lively rhythm. The fifth and penultimate dance is lively and
light, exhibiting a sunny, playful manner in its driving, rhythmic character. A
chromatic dance theme and a secondary melodic line are alternated throughout this
piece. This dance, like the second, is full of excitement for both the performer and
the listener.