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Fantasie in C, Op. 17
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Schumann's love of puzzles, secrets and disguises went so far as to produce in him split alter egos whom he called Florestan (his brilliant and active character) and Eusebius (the poetic dreamer). Indeed, the first version of the Fantasie was declared to have been composed by this same 'mythical' duo, Schumann's real name not being mentioned at all. His penchant for extra-musical allusions in his works - drawn as often as not from literary fiction, or his circle of friends and lovers - has made them a rich mine for those who would pin such things down.
On the first page of the Fantasie, Schumann includes a quotation from the German writer Friedrich von Schlegel, which translates roughly as:
Through all the tones
In Earth's many-coloured dream
There sounds one soft-drawn note
For the secret listener.
To what or whom does this 'leiser Ton' refer? Is it Clara Wieck with whom Schumann was deeply in love but separated from at the time of composing the Fantasie? Is it the spirit of Beethoven? The composition was originally written as a contribution to a Beethoven monument and contains a quotation from Beethoven's song cycle To the Distant Beloved. (The Fantasie might even be seen as an apotheosis of the Moonlight sonata in reverse!) Or is it simply the spirit of music itself?
Whatever the truth of the speculation about its meaning, the Fantasie remains one of Schumann's most perfect conceptions for the piano, beautifully satisfying in both form and content, a creative peak of the Romantic age.
Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28
SERGI PROKOFIEV
When asked to summarise the principal elements in his overall musical composition, Prokofiev wrote the following:
"The first was the classical line, which could be traced back to my early childhood and the Beethoven sonatas I heard my mother play... The second line, the modern trend, begins with that meeting with Taneyev [Russian composer and academic]when he reproached me for the 'crudeness' of my harmonies. At first this took the form of a search for my own harmonic language, developing later into a search for a language in which to express powerful emotions... The third line is the toccata, or the 'motor' line, traceable perhaps to Schumann's Toccata which made such a powerful impression on me when I first heard it… this line is perhaps the least important.
The fourth line is lyrical; it appears first as a thoughtful and meditative mood, not always associated with the melody or, at any rate, with the long melody... I should like to limit myself to these 'four' lines and to regard the fifth 'grotesque' line, which some wish to ascribe to me, as simply a deviation from the other lines. In any case I strenuously object to the word 'grotesque'... I would prefer my music to be described as 'Scherzo-ish' in quality, or else by three words describing the various degrees of the Scherzo – whimsicality, laughter, mockery."
The third sonata, written when Prokofiev was 26, is based on a sonata composed ten years earlier but unpublished.
It is one of two sonatas (there are nine altogether) comprising a single movement. The toccata element is paramount, but equally striking are the beauty of the second theme and Prokofiev's use of the entire keyboard.
Sonata No. 9, Op. 68
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
It is barely possible to read a paragraph about Scriabin without discovering that he was absorbed in mystical theories of reality and art. Such information is presented, as often as not, as some sort of character defect which produced in Scriabin an appalling megalomania and solipsism, if not delusion and insanity.
However, I would suggest that it is misleading to listen to his great music as 'mystical utterance' rather than simply as music. Although Scriabin 'accepted' the ascription 'Black Mass' for his ninth sonata, is it not possible to play and listen to it and be enchanted without having entertained the notion of a 'Black Mass', let alone having participated in one?
Faubion Bowers in his book 'The New Scriabin - Enigma and Answers' writes:
"Two of the ten sonatas represent theologically the Left-Handed Principle... the sixth and the ninth. Although such concepts as evil, satanism, demonism are certainly as difficult to hear in music as any other morality, Scriabin considered these pieces to be nightmarish visions of wickedness. When he played the ninth sonata he said he was 'practising sorcery'. It is not surprising that the sixth and the ninth were composed simultaneously with saintly [sic]and radiant counterparts, the seventh and eighth, almost as if antidotes to each other."
Perhaps more helpful in understanding what Scriabin is on to is a quotation from Beethoven:
"When I open my eyes I find myself involuntarily sighing because what I see around me is so against my religion. I must despise this world which does not understand how music is a higher revelation than all other wisdom and philosophy."
Three Etudes-tableaux from Op. 39
SERGEI RACHMANINOV
Op. 39 No. 1 in C minor (Allegro agitato)
Op. 39 No. 2 in A minor (Lento assai)
Op. 39 No. 9 in D major (Allegro moderato)
Rachmaninov composed two sets of Etudes-tableaux ('picture studies'), the first (Op.33) in 1911 and the Op.39 set five years later. There are seventeen pieces in all and they essentially carry on where his Preludes left off. That is, they are interested in defining and elaborating a single mood or idea within a small and self-contained structure
Although frequently virtuosic, they do not follow Chopin's etude model of concentration on a specific technical problem. Rather, Rachmaninov uses whatever means are required to present the tableaux. Unfortunately he was reticent when it came to divulging the exact pictorial inspirations for these pieces, but there is good reason to think that Op.39 No.1 depicts a tumultuous sea, Op.39 No.2 again the sea with the sounds of gulls, and Op.39 No.9 an oriental march. Rachmaninov's love of bells finds expression in the D major Etude-tableau. Perhaps the most haunting of this selection is Op.39 No.2 with its use of the 'Dies Irae' theme. Rachmaninov was shaken by the deaths in quick succession of his father, Scriabin and Taneyev, and he confided to his friend, the young poetess Marietta Shaginyan: "I have never personally wanted immortality. A man wears out, grows old; under old age he becomes fed up with himself. I have grown fed up with myself even before old age. But if there is something beyond, then that is terrifying."
Notes by Michael Houstoun
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