Giuseppe Tavanti (Italy)

27.10.2010

7 pm Dwór Czeczów

                It is a commonly known fact that Chopin was fascinated by Italian music. His love for beautiful singing - Italian "bel canto" - had a great influence on his melodies. The basis of his didactic approach was to form musical phrases as if they were vocal. Singing phrases demands a deep and full tone and joins the sounds together in a "legato" way. Chopin repeatedly told his students that it was important to be able to "sing on the piano".
               Putting together Chopin's works which were inspired by the Italian masters and their original compositions, is an interesting idea. Among the composers, whose music we will hear this evening, are Chopin's contemporaries - Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. However there are also some later composers - Catalani, Leoncavallo, Mascagni and Puccini, many of whom were able to play the piano (and Bellini even did so quite well) - though their piano compositions are of little importance compared to the rest of their work.
               In the Romantic Era, opera provided the spur to create all sorts of elaborations - arrangements and variations. The phenomenon was quite similar to the practice of improvisation and composing occasional music, which all too often found its way into the diaries of wealthy damsels. Some examples of compositions created in this way, are the E major Variation from Hexaméron, the cycle of variations on the march from Bellini's "The Puritans" (other variations were written by Liszt, Thalberg, Pixis, Herz and Czerny) and The A major Variations "Souvenir de Paganini". There is little wonder that even The Lullaby op. 57 is included in the concert, as it too is a variation based on a fixed bass accompaniment. The technique of variations had a profound influence on the entirety of Chopin's work; and it is said, the composer never used a certain musical thought in the same way again. It is good to remember this while listening to the Mazurka in A minor, op. 17 no. 4 or the Nocturne in B major, op. 9 no. 3.
               Franz Liszt was the unrivaled master of virtuoso piano arrangements and transcriptions; a composer who unlike anybody else, was able to work through the musical fabric of the complicated scores of foreign works. To do this he used every available piano means, exploring the instrument as widely as possible. His concert paraphrase of Verdi's "Rigoletto" is fit to be the crown jewel of any concert.