Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Theme with Variations e-cital: Part 1

A really great start to this e-cital. I enjoyed every performance and was quite impressed by the polish and musicianship on display. I was most impressed with Tim's submission. I've never heard it before but I love this piece. Great choices by everyone else too, all of which are new to me.

Indeed you were !!!!!!!!

Some great performances!

I really appreciated your comments, actually. Honest and full of insight. Not hawkish at all!


I'm still parsing this, but I think I get what you're saying. However, with prose like this, meaning is secondary (T.S. Eliot once said something similar about poetry). I just get a kick out of reading the words and hearing them in my head.

Tim’s performance of Norman Dello Jojo’s Piano sonata no.3, 1st movement

This was very interesting and beautiful music. Some of the elements remind me of modern European church music - usually played on the organ.

My perception of your performance is that it is rock solid - very challenging, but also necessary for this kind of music. I really enjoyed your performance and want to say thanks for all effort you put into this e-cital.

Thanks, Ganddalf! But, in the interests of full disclosure, let me indicate that all the selections were originally intended for a piano competition that was subsequently canceled, or more precisely, delayed until 2017. My "theme" was going to be Piano Variations by American composers for that competition -- and so, when you launched the proposal for a "Theme and Variations" e-cital, it just dovetailed beautifully with the music I had been working on in 2015.

After a pretty turbulent period I finally got some time to listen and comment to more pieces.

About nhpianos's performance of Beethoven: 8 Variations in F on Sussmayr's Trio 'Tundeln und Scherzen' WoO 76 :

This was really entertaining to listen to. I think that this is an example that shows that Beethoven really had a sense of humor and could express it through his music. But this compositions also shows a lot of lyricism.

About the performance I can just say that I'm impressed. So much delicacy and musical expression. Your technique is awesome. Thanks for your contribution.

Thanks, Ganddalf. Of my three submissions I was most pleased with how this one came out. (I'm particularly proud of the run at 5:14, which I think I really nailed!)

Thanks for the kind remarks from the forum - maybe a few words about the piece - Haydn, during his remarkably successful gig in England, heard the stirring God Save the King - more than once I'm sure - and was inspired to composed his own version of a Nation Anthem in the form of a hymn to the long life of the Emperor Franz. Which Franz? you are wondering? - which Emperor Franz? LOL

It's first line is Gott erhalte Franz der Kaizer - God preserve Emperor Franz - so it is as much a hymn as it is a national anthem - and the melody and found its way into various hymn books. There is a version from Haydn's hand of the hymn in 4-part choral harmony.

But most importantly the melody inspired Haydn to write one of his most beautiful pieces - the slow movement or the string quartet Op 76 #3 in C. There it takes on yet a different quality - no longer nationalistic - no longer even a hymn - but a deeply felt, highly spiritualized setting of this melody. Here's is one performance (Kodaly I think)

https://youtu.be/bhuyLPKV96g/

The quartet was a hit and someone must have wanted a piano transcription because Haydn turned this out as well. I have the impression he did not exactly agonize over it because it is just a note by note transcription of the quartet itself. It is awkward to play in some places, and when two voices meet in unison Haydn copies both, confusingly, into the piano version.

The little melody met an undeserved fate at the hands of Bismark and others for whom it represented nationalism and militarism. It is not too hard to undo those associations, I think, listening to the quatet and playing the transcription. Wiener Urtext has it their collection of Haydn Keyboard stuff.

Schubertian's performance of Haydn: Variations on Kaiserlied, G-major, Hob.III:77

I always liked the Kaiserlied, and fortunately I never had any bad associations with it. The second variation (with the melody in the middle voice) was wonderful, and the two last variations were interesting harmonically, especially considering that it was composed by Haydn. The performance was very nice to listen to. Thanks for your contribution!

Händel: HWV 428, 5th movement, Air and Variations played by Cinnamonbear

Finally I got time to comment on this performance. I was amazed both by the music and the performance. All the embellishments of the "air" were so smoothly executed and just a joy to listen to. And I was impressed by the following variations. Extremely well played. Händel's keyboard music is obviously neglected, and deserves to be played more often. Thanks for contributing with this piece for this recital.