Diploma Repertoire – Page 2

Poulenc • Mélancolie

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Among the many French composers to make a significant impact on the piano repertoire, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) stands out as among the most unjustly overlooked. His piano music surely deserves a more prominent place, alongside his well-known chamber, orchestral, choral, and vocal works.

As a child, Poulenc enjoyed listening to music from beneath the family grand piano, and as his musical skills developed, he took pleasure in playing the instrument himself, delighting friends with his improvised performances, and excelling as an accompanist and chamber musician. Poulenc may not have regarded his piano works with particular seriousness, but his predominantly short pieces showcased his distinctive musical voice, quirky humour and personality.

Mélancolie stands in contrast to much of this music however, being one of Poulenc’s most extended and deeply personal piano works. The piece was completed in August 1940 following, and written in response to, the Nazi invasion of France, the composer’s brief mobilisation, the armistice, partition, and his subsequent refuge in the ‘free zone’.

Summarising the piece in his introduction to a superb new edition from Durand Editions Musicales, Edmond Lemaître rather perfectly writes,

“More complex than mere sadness, Poulenc’s Mélancolie takes on an air of nostalgia, a resignation that never reaches despair. A bit painful, but at the same time filled with sweetness…”

Mélancolie is without question a genuine masterpiece, so the appearance of this new edition, making it more accessible, is to be warmly welcomed. Read on to find out more about this diploma level concert piece, listen to a recording, and discover the brilliant new Durand edition…

Prokofiev • Visions fugitives

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) is unquestionably among the great composers of the solo piano repertoire, as well as one of the most important innovators. As Maurice Hinson and Wesley Roberts assert (in their Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, fourth edition, 2014):

“Prokofiev developed an individual, percussive style, which was probably the most signifiant innovation in piano technique since Chopin. His percussive manner is uniquely blended with a lyric element frequently accompanied by strong dissonance, yet his basic arsenal of figuration stems directly from the nineteenth century. Influences of Russian folk song are evident in his melodies and energetic rhythms.”

To this impressive list of qualities, I think we must also add Prokofiev’s contrapuntal genius, clarity of musical texture, profound affinity with the instrument, biting wit, and of course remember that he composed some of the twentieth century’s most remarkably memorable and widely recognised melodies.

With the relaxing of copyright restrictions, we can happily anticipate that the available catalogue of Prokofiev piano music in print will rapidly grow in the coming months, raising the quality and increasing the choice of editions, as well as improving access to the composer’s less well-known pieces.

Dominated by the nine Sonatas, this astonishing body of work also includes more than 100 smaller pieces, as well as the composer’s transcriptions of his famous orchestral works. Edition Peters have been quick to reissue legacy editions, but perhaps more significantly, Henle have begun to bring out brand new scholarly urtext editions of the most significant pieces, so far including the Seventh Sonata and the virtuosic Toccata Op.11.

Among these releases, Henle’s new edition of the seminal masterpiece Visions Fugitives Op.22 is the subject of this review…

Schönberg • The Piano Works

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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When music publisher Universal Edition was founded in Vienna in 1901, its goal was to provide core classical and educational works to an enthusiastic Austrian market, but the company soon became associated with some of the most radical modernist composers of the age.

Within ten years, UE had signed contracts to publish new music by Mahler, Bartók, Schönberg, Webern, Zemlinsky, and in subsequent decades the company became the publishers of Kurtág, Ligetti, Stockhausen, Berio and Boulez among many others.

Austrian copyright ownership lasts for 70 years after a composer’s death, and since Bartók’s music came out of copyright in 2015, leading publisher G. Henle Verlag have been quick to produce new urtext editions which significantly improve on the scores previously available.

Now the turn of Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), Henle bring us his complete piano works in a major new volume, the four most important sets of pieces also available to purchase individually, all additionally available digitally within the Henle app.

Liszt: Années de pèlerinage

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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As a teenage pianist entering the Bedford Festival back in the early 1980’s, I was told that I “didn’t have the right touch for Chopin”, a misty and slightly absurd put-down that somehow embedded its way into my psyche. My young mind decided that perhaps I should switch allegiance to Liszt, whose epic Sonata in B minor was already on my bucket list (where it remains).

Having already enjoyed the ever-lovely D flat major Consolation, I tried my hand at the somewhat absurd St.François de Paulo marchant sur les flots, which quickly established itself as my party piece (and with which I exacted my revenge), before turning my attentions to Liszt’s seminal (if still underrated) cycle, the Années de pèlerinage.

Edition Peters were my go-to publisher for this music, and their edition by the great Liszt student Emil Von Sauer seemed as authoritative as they came. My fixation with Liszt gave way to a fascination with the French Baroque long before I had learnt most of these variously eloquent and virtuosic pieces, but Sauer’s single volume tome has seen plenty of abuse over the years, finally becoming ripe for replacement.

How brilliant to find that Edition Peters have brought out a brand new critical performing edition of all three volumes of the Années de pèlerinage, this time edited by Leslie Howard, a towering authority whose deep knowledge and advocacy of this repertoire has extended to recording a definitive set of Liszt’s complete piano works across 99 compact discs.

Whether you have an older edition or not, this new one in three volumes and with additional pieces more than lives up to expectations…

Discovering Smetana

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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In March 2024, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), esteemed Czech composer and pivotal figure in the development of the national style during the Romantic Era.

Smetana’s compositions, including his epic tone poem cycle “Má vlast”, not only captured the essence of Bohemian landscapes and folklore but also encapsulated the national spirit during a period of intense political and cultural awakening in the region.

Smetana’s remarkable talent persisted despite hardships. By late 1874, he became completely deaf, but he continued composing until a mental breakdown in early 1884 led to his confinement in an asylum and subsequent decline.

Today, Smetana’s works remain cherished emblems of Czech cultural identity. But what of his piano music? Like many, I have remained largely unfamiliar with the significant body of solo repertoire Smetana composed, the bicentenary year thus providing an opportunity for discovery.

I am most grateful to publishers Bärenreiter for helping me evaluate Smetana’s legacy, kindly supplying me with their editions of his piano works, which presently appear in the seven volumes reviewed below…