15 features More Prokofiev! Nissman introduces the viewer to this giant of the 20th century and begins with his first opus written when Sergei Prokofiev was 15-years-old. She concludes with his touching Traumerei. She continues with his2nd sonata in G minor, which is the work Clara played on her concert tours. Nissman performs “Widmung,” composed as a wedding present for his bride Clara, and the finger-breaking Toccata that ended Schumann’s career as a pianist. The program continues with romantic composer Robert Schumann.
Nissman concludes with his beautiful and dramatic Scherzo in Bb minor.
#Chopin scherzo 2 program notes series#
The first program of the new eight-part series is Even More Chopin! Nissman introduces the viewer to more “comfort food” from the popular composer Frédéric Chopin the story behind his Fantasy in F minor and the drama of his C minor Nocturne. Nissman created the series in a specific order so that each segment builds scaffolding that enhances the viewer’s experience of the following parts of the series. She makes the music relevant to her audience, spinning out wonderful tales that we need to hear, especially now when access to in-person conversations and performances are limited. In each video Nissman connects both her performance and the listener to the music and its composer. Recorded in her home studio in Greenbrier County, Nissman has donated “Behind The Notes” as a fundraiser for Carnegie Hall. Adding to her original 12-part series, the new series features work by composers Chopin, Schumann, Prokofiev, Bartok, as well as four sonatas of Beethoven. As an encore, Hough offered Mompou’s Canción y Danza 1, dreamy and evocative.Steinway Artist and Lewisburg resident Barbara Nissman has produced eight new programs for her “Behind the Notes” series of online conversations and performances of classical composers. 2 closed, brimming with its requisite drama. Hough’s recent recording is a survey of the nocturnes, one of no less than six albums he recorded during lockdown. A pair of nocturnes followed, and Hough wonderfully brought out their ineffable allure that makes them amongst the most beloved works in the repertoire. The Mompou-esque movements were rather more meditative, though not without spiky contrasts, and the piece culminated in a big-boned finish that echoed the brilliance of the beginning.įour works by Chopin completed the recital, starting with a warmly lyrical account of the Ballade no. The opening was bright and energetic, and the colorful harmonic palette with which Hough worked was utterly captivating. Moreover, Canción y Danza is an explicit homage to Federico Mompou, another composer whose body of work Hough is closely associated. A five-movement conception, Hough explained that the outer movements ( Overture and Toccata respectively) were inspired by the cathedral organ, while the inner movements ( Capriccio and Canción y Danza I & II) are based on the interval of a fifth. Hough presented his recent (2019) Partita. In this case, the English composer was Hough himself, who has enthusiastically donned the mantle of the composer-pianist. The recital’s second half mirrored the first in pairing a more contemporary English work with a Romantic one. Another highlight came in the fugato passage of the penultimate movement wherein the pianist achieved a pointed clarity, in no way compromised by its breathless vigor. In the sharp rhythmic gestures that punctuated, Hough used limited pedal to yield a strikingly dry tone, saving the more liberal pedaling for the lyrical sections in the interest of further maximizing contrast. Hough was keen to emphasize these contrasts, authentically capturing its mercurial temperaments. This is music of enormously wide contrasts, embodying the opposing Florestan and Eusebius personas Schumann crafted, perhaps in reflection of his bipolar condition.
At times I found his tone a bit harsh, but this evened out as he better adjusted to the instrument he was provided. In the commanding opening, the darkly passionate material was given quite a workout. In lesser hands, Schumann’s 35-minute Kreisleriana can meander and wander, but Hough’s reading was of singular direction and purpose in spite of the work’s kaleidoscope of moods. The percussiveness of the opening was tempered by the wistfulness of the succeeding piece, and the closing Lento was perhaps the finest in its languid nostalgia. Just over a minute apiece, they manage to say much in little. Written in 1938 for Gordon Greene – who would later become one of Hough’s teachers – the Bagatelles are each based on the same ten-note theme.