MARTHA ARGERICH: WITH NELSON FREIRE

This live recording from the Kongressaal in Munich shows Martha Argerich playing alongside her life-long friend Nelson Freire. With typically South American fervour, they tackle several late Romantic pieces: La Valse by Maurice Ravel and the Suite for Piano No.2 Op.17 by Sergei Rachmaninov.  In the same concert Nelson Freire plays Claude Debussy’s Estampes, followed by the Scherzo in B flat minor Op.31 and the Trois Nouvelles Etudes by Frédéric Chopin.

La Valse, un poème choréographique (a choreographic poem)

is an orchestral work written by Maurice Ravel from February 1919 until 1920, and premiered in Paris on 12 December 1920. While the work has been described as a tribute to the waltz, it is in fact a less sentimental reflection of post-World War I Europe. The composer George Benjamin, in his analysis of La valse, summarized the ethos of the work as follows:

"Whether or not it was intended as a metaphor for the predicament of European civilization in the aftermath of the Great War, its one-movement design plots the birth, decay and destruction of a musical genre: the waltz."

 In his tribute to Ravel after the composer's death in 1937, Paul Landormy described the work as follows:

"....the most unexpected of the compositions of Ravel, revealing to us heretofore unexpected depths of Romanticism, power, vigor, and rapture in this musician whose expression is usually limited to the manifestations of an essentially classical genius".^]

Suite No.2 Op. 17 by Sergei Rachmaninoff

This work was composed in Italy in the first months of 1901, and like the famous second piano concerto Op.18, it confirms the comeback of the creativity of the composer after four years of silence since the flop of his first symphony. The Suite was first performed on November 24, 1901 by the composer and Alexander Siloti.

In contrast to the first Suite for two pianos, the work is not based on literature, and the form tends to approach the traditional suite.  The movements are:

I. Introduction (Alla marcia, in C major)
II. Valse (Presto, in G major)
III. Romance (Andantino, in A flat major)
IV. Tarentelle (Presto, in c minor)

The most famous performance of this piece was in Los Angeles in the early 1940's, just before Rachmaninov died. He and Vladimir Horowitz were at a party and played the piece, the last and only time they ever did.

Estampes (Woodcuts), L.100

Iis a composition for solo piano by Claude Debussy. It was finished in 1903.

It consists of three parts:

1. Pagodes (Pagodas) - approx. 6 minutes.
2. Soirée dans Grenade (Evening in Granada) - approx. 5½ minutes.
3. Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) - approx. 3½ minutes.

The Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31

Is a scherzo by Frédéric Chopin. The work was composed and published in 1837, and was dedicated to Countess Adele Fürstensein. Schumann compared this scherzo to a Byronic poem, "so overflowing with tenderness, boldness, love and contempt." According to Wilhelm von Lenz, a pupil of Chopin, the composer said that the renowned sotto voce opening was a question and the second phrase the answer: "For Chopin it was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never vaulted (tombe) enough. It must be a charnel-house. The melody, marked "con anima," is repeated three times during the lengthy proceedings, the last time bringing us to the coda in a magnificent key change. The gorgeous melody overlies a six-note-per-measure left-hand accompaniment of exceeding richness. The trio, filled with longing, takes on a pianistic complexity. Huneker exults, "What masterly writing, and it lies in the very heart of the piano! A hundred generations may not improve on these pages."

Trois Nouvelles Etudes by Frédéric Chopin

First Étude

The first of Chopin's "Trois Nouvelles Études" composed in 1839 as a contribution to Méthode des méthodes de piano, a piano instruction book by Ignaz Moscheles and François-Joseph Fétis, this intimate piece in F minor develops students' facility with 3-on-4 polyrhythms while showing none of the technical flash of most of the composer's Études Op. 10 and 25.

Second Étude

The second of Chopin's "Trois Nouvelles Études" composed in 1839 as a contribution to Méthode des méthodes de piano, a piano instruction book by Ignaz Moscheles and François-Joseph Fétis, this piece in A-flat major develops students' facility with 2-on-3 polyrhythms while showing none of the technical flash of most of the composer's Études Opp. 10 and 25. Its melody sits atop a series of chords in the right hand with a simple bass in the left hand. It was also the last piece Franz Liszt was heard playing before he died.

Third Étude

The third and last of Chopin's "Trois Nouvelles Études" composed in 1839 as a contribution to Méthode des méthodes de piano, a piano instruction book by Ignaz Moscheles and François-Joseph Fétis, this piece in D-flat major is probably the most technically challenging in this collection, while still being far more manageable than most of the composer's Opp. 10 and 25. It develops independence of voices and articulation in the right hand, with the upper melodic line quite legato over a staccato alto accompaniment. Some of the reaches required between the alto and soprano lines might be difficult for pianists with smaller hands.

For more Chopin Etudes and biography info, follow the link to EVERYTHING CHOPIN ON CLASSICAL TV