PIANO CLASSICS

The familiar harmonic language of Beethoven may invite a relaxation, but I wonder what Beethoven’s contemporaries made of these miniature detonations and meditations. Far from being the “trifles” that their title suggests, the Bagatelles of Op. 126 are the product of the same period as the Ninth Symphony. Concentrated and explosive, they are every bit as expressively dense and seemingly modern as the compositions of Schoenberg we have already experienced. It is worth noting that Schoenberg’s Three Piano Pieces, composed in 1909, bear roughly the same chronological relation to us that the Bagatelles did to Schoenberg. 

While Beethoven’s previous sets of published bagatelles had largely been accumulations of leftover minor statements, the six bagatelles of Op. 126 were deliberately composed as a single entity. In a letter to his publisher, Beethoven wrote that they were “quite the best pieces of their kind that I have written.” The instant juxtaposition of frantic motion and serene contemplation that we find in the final bagatelle, when contained in such a short duration, seems to enhance and deepen the sensations rather than constrict them. 

In 1820, four years before the completion of Op. 126, Beethoven had already started work on not only the Ninth Symphony, but the monumental Missa solemnis as well. At this period of creative magnificence he also produced his three final piano sonatas, each an experiment in form. The first two movements of the Sonata in E, Op. 109, could be taken for two contrasting bagatelles. Their concision, whether in introspection or march-like vigor, is a startling contrast from the vastness of the Hammerklavier Sonata which came before. That the finale of Op. 109 is a set of six variations on a theme seems an almost misplaced technical observation as we experience the noble benediction of the last movement. 

Grant Hiroshima 

Four Fugitive Pieces, Op. 15, group of four brief compositions for solo piano by Clara Schumann, published in 1845. They are character pieces, presenting distinct movements of contrasting moods rather than an integrated multi-movement sonata. 

Clara Schumann wrote the Four Fugitive Pieces soon after her marriage to the composer Robert Schumann in 1840. The music was published five years later. Wistfully understated, the pieces are romantic and introspective, suffused with the same gentleness that characterizes the nocturnes of Chopin. By calling the pieces fugitive, Schumann refers to the unrestrained nature of the music, which is freer and less restricted by formal conventions than music of earlier eras. 

The pieces span a range of moods and keys. The first, “Larghetto,” in F major, is sweetly reflective, recalling Chopin. The second, “Un poco agitato,” in A major, is more nervous in character, with spirited lines that rise and fall. “Andante espressivo,” in D major, is the longest of the four pieces and returns to the nocturnal spirit of the “Larghetto.” The set then concludes in a playful mood with the “Scherzo,” in G major. 

Betsy Schwarm 

Adagio
Andantino un poco agitato
Grazioso e giocoso
Allegro risoluto

In May 1893, Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann about the first of his latest set of piano pieces: ‘It is teeming with dissonances! These are correct and can be explained – but perhaps they won’t be to your taste. This little piece is exceptionally melancholic and … every bar and every note must sound like a ritardando, as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each one, taking pleasure in all those dissonances! Good Lord, surely this description will arouse your interest!’

The Intermezzo in B minor (marked Adagio) is based on a falling idea of infinite sadness, and it reveals the extent to which Brahms was continuing to experiment as he turned 60: this is music of haunting strangeness, making imaginative use of the sustaining power of the piano to create overlapping dissonances. The E minor Intermezzo that follows is demonstration of Brahms’s distilled, economical late style, dominated by a persistent motif from which all the material is derived (including its own accompaniment). The C major Intermezzo is a gentle scherzo, full of rhythmic inventiveness, and the set ends with a flamboyant Rhapsody in E flat major which has surprises too: using five-bar phrases, and ending in E flat minor.

© Nigel Simeone 2015

Schumann’s Waldszenen, Op.82, dates from 1848, just after finishing his opera Genoveva, the last act of which takes place in a forest. The woodland inspiration evidently persisted and the new set of pieces was completed in January 1849, with the last of them, ‘Vogel als Prophet’ (‘The Prophet Bird’) added as an inspired afterthought. One early review captured the spirit of these pieces, delighting in ‘the enigmatic rustlings, the distant melodies, the mystical flowers in this magical forest.’ 

Nigel Simeone