Daniel Herscovitch and Clemens Leske

Thursday, 8 April 2021 at 8pm

Daniel Herscovitch (piano) and Clemens Leske (piano).

Playing the Concourse’s two concert Steinways, this duo present a feast of the greatest music for two pianos

This concert is now over and we thank Daniel and Clemens for a wonderful programme played with passion and an amazing display of simpatico.

Programme

MOZART - Sonata in D major, K 448

BRITTEN - Mazurka Elegiaca, Op.23 no 2 

CHOPIN - Rondo in C major, Op.73

INTERVAL

MOZART - Sonata in C major, K 545 arr. Grieg for two pianos 

SAINT-SAENS - Polonaise in F minor, Op.77

BRAHMS - Variations on a theme of Haydn, Op.56b

 

About the Artists

These fine Australian pianists have enjoyed a two-piano collaboration for a decade.  Individually, they have appeared overseas and regularly at home with many of Australia's leading musicians and ensembles.

Read more about the artists.

Programme Notes

Wolfgang MOZART (1756-1791) Sonata in D major, K 448 (1781)

Allegro con spirito / Andante / Allegro molto

This sonata is in the brilliant style of Mozart’s concertante works of that time. The two piano parts are made completely equal in prominence. Mozart performed it on several occasions with his very gifted student Josepha von Auernhammer.

The first few bars of the allegro con spirito movement are reminiscent of JC Bach’s Clavier Concerto no 2. In sonata form it begins in D major and sets the tonal centre with a strong introduction. The two pianos divide the spirited first subject of the exposition and when the theme is presented, both play it simultaneously. The more sedate second subject provides a pleasing contrast. The development section is brief leading to the recapitulation, which repeats the first theme.

The peaceful andante is written in ABA form.

The final movement begins with a galloping theme, which is contrasted with a lyrical theme in the minor key.

This work begins a programme centred on Chopin in that Mozart (with Bach) was his favourite composer and the other composers featured were influenced by Chopin.    

T.R.

 

Benjamin BRITTEN (1913–1976) Mazurka Elegiaca, Op.23 no 2 (1941)

Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor and pianist and a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. Britten showed talent from an early age establishing himself as one of the leading 20th-century composers.  His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945), the War Requiem (1962) and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945). His muses included the tenor Peter Pears, Kathleen Ferrier, Janet Baker, Dennis Brain, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Mstislav Rostropovich.

Traditionally the mazurka is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter.  In the 19th century it was danced in courts and became famous internationally.  Britten’s Mazurka Elegiaca differs in character from the mostly lively mazurka style, being a pensive tribute to a great Polish patriot Jan Ignace Paderewski.  Paderewski was a famous pianist who was requested to become president of Poland at an extraordinarily difficult time in that nation's history.  As a result of the Nazi-Soviet dismemberment and occupation of Poland in 1939, Paderewski went into exile and died in New York City in 1941.

The work commences quietly with a five-note repeating motif that is pervasive throughout the composition, initially ending on the third note of the scale and so introducing an atmosphere of plaintive suspension.  The motif sequence starts descending and becomes louder resolving to the first note of the scale.  A series of chords introduces a brisker pace.  A quiet section follows, reflective of the sorrow attributable to an elegy.  More chords lead to a quietly diminishing ending.

T.R.

 

Frédéric CHOPIN (1810–1849) Rondo in C major, Op.73 (1828)

This Rondo, originally conceived for solo piano, was composed when Chopin was just 18 years old and a student at the Warsaw Conservatory.  Soon after, Chopin arranged it for two pianos; it is his only composition for two pianos.  However, the work was not published until after his death when the two-piano version reached print in Berlin in 1855.

The piece begins with an introduction that alternates between an ascending fiery passage and a quiet response.  This is followed by a lively main theme incorporating both elegant and rapid forceful passages. Interspersed with the main theme, other ideas materialise including a lyrical melody of Slavic (some say Jewish) provenance that is repeated a couple of times and develops from unembellished simplicity to eventual epic proportions.  The main theme returns and a brilliant coda closes the work.

T.R.

 

Charles-Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921) Polonaise in F minor, Op.77 (1886)

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist.  He was a musical prodigy and made his concert debut at the age of ten. He was also a writer, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and archaeologist.  At the end of a long and productive life he expressed regret at not having had time to study Ancient Greek. Well-known works include Danse macabre, the opera Samson and Delilah and The Carnival of the Animals.

A Polonaise is a stately, march-like Polish dance in triple meter.  Works by Chopin popularised this form for the piano.  Saint-Saëns always regretted at the age of six being forbidden his only opportunity to hear Chopin play.

The introduction of this work begins with a rapid rhythmic repetition of a note with the main theme gradually emerging in the background.  The theme is then strongly brought out accompanied by a pulsing background typical of a polonaise.  A quieter section follows with a second theme leading to several ideas intermingled with the main theme.  Rapid ascending and descending passages in similar motion deliver contrast.  A quiet rapid passage leads to a brief percussive finish.

T.R.

Wolfgang MOZART (1756-1791)
Sonata in C major, K545 (1788) arr. Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907) for two pianos (1876-77)

Allegro / Andante / Rondo - Allegretto

This deceptively simple sonata was described by Mozart himself in his own thematic catalogue as “for beginners”.  Although sounding youthful it was a late composition, written when he was 32 years old (he died at 35) with many life experiences behind him.  It has been described as “with a smile on his face, tears in his eyes”.

In 1876–77 Edvard Grieg arranged this sonata for two pianos.  Leaving the first piano part original as Mozart wrote, he added embellishments on a second piano part.  According to a widely quoted 2013 Gramophone review, Grieg achieved his aim “’to impart…a tonal effect appealing to our modern ears’” clearly illustrating “just what those 19th-century ears expected”.  At the time Grieg was heavily criticised for having the temerity to add to Mozart, one Norwegian critic even calling it "a bungling". Grieg defended himself saying he only wanted "to demonstrate his admiration for the old master".

In the first movement Grieg enjoys composing countermelodies to Mozart's original. The singing theme is accompanied by an Alberti bass (a repeated broken chord with notes in the order lowest, highest, middle, highest).  A bridge passage leads to the second theme (the movement is in sonata form).  The development modulates through several keys before the recapitulation.

In the gentle second movement, it is the fruity 19th-century harmonies Grieg adds that are so striking.

In the brief finale, Grieg's added syncopations almost turn this into a Norwegian folk dance. The movement is in Rondo form.

T.R.

 

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897) Variations on a Theme of Haydn, Op.56b (1873)

Johannes Brahms stands as one of the central-most figures of late 19th-century German art music. Composed before his symphonies, the Variations on a Theme by Haydn was published in a version for two pianos and a version for orchestra.  It exhibits the high degree of musical craftsmanship, emotional sincerity and depth that permeates the bulk of his music.

The work was initiated in 1870 when the librarian of the Vienna Philharmonic Society showed Brahms a transcription he had made of a piece attributed to Haydn titled Divertimento no 1.  The second movement bore the heading ‘St. Anthony Chorale’ and forms the theme on which these variations are based. It is not known whether the composer of the divertimento actually wrote this chorale or quoted an older theme taken from an unknown source.  No other mention of a ‘St. Anthony Chorale’ has been found.

The theme begins with a repeated ten-measure passage, each consisting of two five-measure phrases.  Eight variations follow with the phrasal structure and, to a large extent, the harmonic structure of the theme.  A stirring finale concludes the work, being a theme and variations derived from the principal melody.

T.R.