Chopin Again

Last month, after my post on Chopin, I saw that the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra had scheduled a concert that included the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 which, those of you who read the comments might recall, is my sister's favorite work by Chopin.  So I immediately e-mailed her to see if she was free and if she wanted to go with me.  She was and she did.

The concert was tonight at Powell Symphony Hall and the program was called Warm Music for Cold Nights (which was appropriate as it was quite cold out).  The concert opened with Samuel Barber's Essay No. 1 and was followed by the Chopin work.  After intermission we heard Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3.   I had never heard any of these works performed live before (not even the Chopin, that I could recall) and I was unfamiliar with the  Tchaikovsky .  I had no idea why this program was considered "Warm Music", so I checked the SLSO's web site before going to the concert. 

Barber's Essay lights a bright American candle. Chopin's piano concertos are all of fire, a dramatic combustion between orchestra and soloist, a battle as riveting as a volatile marriage. Tchaikovsky's suites are just as incandescent.  Being Russian he knows the darkest nights require heat and light.  He brings them. 

I have to say, I thought that was a little overwrought.  But I decided to withhold judgment until after the concert.

The soloist for the Chopin was French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie, of whom I had never heard.  He struck both of us as a man with a sense of humor.  The way he held his body and moved his head during the third movement, we could almost see a twinkle in his eye up in the balcony where we were seated.  

Lortie was in command of this performance, playing with exquisite technical proficiency but with an interpretation that was somewhat mellow.  To say that he made it look effortless probably doesn't convey the depth of his calm at the piano.  And yet he was fully engaged.  Personally I prefer a slightly more emotional interpretation - more longing.  But that didn't detract at all from my experience.

Chopin represents early romanticism, Tchaikovsky represents the height of romanticism.  I had never heard Suite No. 3 (in fact this was the first time in its more than 100 year history that SLSO was playing the entire Suite).  I can't say it would count as one of my favorite works by Tchaikovsky.  The Suite has four movements: an elegie, a waltz, a scherzo and then a final movement that is a theme and variations.   The final movement was worth the rest of the piece and more.  The theme itself wasn't particularly memorable, in my opinion, but the variations were interesting and in some cases humorous.  I particularly liked the somewhat schmaltzy violin solo which made me think that Hollywood composers must have had it in mind when they composed "russian" background music.

The Barber piece was also somewhat Hollywood. I often think his works sound like the soundtracks to a Hollywood film of the 1950's but that's not his fault, it is Hollywood's).  This is a somber piece with lighter moments in the middle and then more tension toward the end.  What I liked about it was that it was not only the strings, but the horn section and reed sections, that emoted.  I'm generally a fan of Barber and I enjoyed this.

In fact, I enjoyed the whole program and thought it fit together very well.

Rather than link to any Chopin (a bait and switch, I know) I'm going to link to the Barber.  This version was performed recently by the Conway Symphony Orchestra after the shootings at the University of Central Orchestra.

Barber Essay No. 1

Chopin

Last week, when I wrote about my love for Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, Family Man, in the comments, asked for some Chopin. It's hard to know where to begin with Chopin, I love so much of his work. Since I couldn't identify the piece that Family Man was thinking of, I thought I'd simply choose one of my favorite bits of Chopin - the second movement from his Piano Concerto #2 in F-sharp minor.

Although the entire concerto is dedicated to a woman, she was not the inspiration for the music. The second movement was inspired by the youthful Chopin’s love for a young opera singer named Konstancja Gładkowska. Later, of course, Chopin entered into a famous long term relationship with Aurore Dudevant (who is better known by her pen name, George Sand).

Unlike my experience of Rachmaninoff, I never have any narrative in mind when I hear this. I just listen and enjoy. I think of it as more than contemplative and less than fantasy. Dreamy, perhaps.

Chopin himself wrote about this movement in an 1830 letter:

It is not meant to be powerful, but rather romantic, quiet, melancholic, should give the impression of a look back at a thousand loveable memories. It is like meditating in beautiful springtime, at moonlight.

Chopin, himself a great pianist, mostly composed for solo piano and not for orchestra. And even in the piano concertos, it seems to me that the orchestra is there less as a partner than as a background to showcase the virtuosity of the pianist. Chopin himself was known for using rubato - a technique where the pianist doesn’t play the notes on the page with their exact tempo, but slows down or speeds up as emotion demands. In the hands of a virtuoso, this gives Chopin’s work an appealing combination of fragility and solidity. (In the wrong hands it just sounds as if the pianist can’t remember what notes come next.)

Sometimes a work that is beloved today was not appreciated during it’s own time. But this piano concerto was praised by Chopin’s contemporaries, including Robert Schumann who commented that it was "...[a concerto] which all of us put together would not be able to reach, and whose hem we can merely kiss". The second movement was especially praised as original and Chopin was called an “exceptional musical genius.” Not bad for a composer fresh out of school.

A Chopin piece will not have the intensity of a work by Rachmaninoff, although they are both considered Romantics. Chopin was among the earliest to compose in the Romantic style (contrast the expression in Chopin's music with the careful formulas of the earlier Mozart or even Beethoven). Chopin was breaking new ground. Rachmaninoff, among the last of the Romantic composers, was taking the genre to it's fullest expression.

This is not a piece that I like to watch played. I just like to listen. So click play and then walk away from your computer and just sit and listen. And think about ... whatever it brings to mind.

Enjoy.

One-Buttock Playing