FANTASIA ON AN OSTINATO
John Corigliano (b. New York, February 16, 1938)
Composed 1985; c12 minutes
An “ostinato” is a persistently repeated figure in a composition. In one of his best-known pieces, American composer John Corigliano here works with a famous repetitive passage by Beethoven – the second movement of his Seventh Symphony. “This music,” he explains, “is unique in Beethoven’s output because of a relentless ostinato that continues, unvaried except for a long crescendo and added accompanimental voices, for over four minutes. Beethoven’s near-minimalistic use of his material and my own desire to write a piece in which the performer is responsible for decisions concerning the durations of repeated patterns, led to my first experiment in so-called minimalist techniques.
“In Fantasia on an Ostinato, I attempted to combine the attractive aspects of minimalism with convincing structure and emotional expression. My method was to parallel the binary form of the Beethoven Seventh Symphony ostinato by dividing the Fantasia into two parts. The first explores the rhythmic elements of the ostinato as well as the harmonic implications of its first half, while the second develops and extends the ostinato’s second half, transforming its pungent major-minor descent into a chain of harmonies over which a series of patterns grows continually more ornate. This climaxes in a return of the obsessive Beethoven rhythm and, finally, the appearance of the Beethoven theme itself.” The performer’s sense of fantasy colors every performance of Fantasia on an Ostinato and each performance is unique.
PIANO SONATA NO. 14, IN C-SHARP MINOR: Sonata quasi una fantasia, OP. 27 NO. 2 (‘MOONLIGHT')
Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, Germany, December 15 or 16, 1770; d. Vienna, Austria, March 26, 1827)
Composed 1801; 16 minutes
The German romantic poet and critic Ludwig Rellstab pictured a moonlit boat off the shores of Lake Lucerne when listening to Beethoven’s Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 – giving the piece its nickname. But Beethoven was not thinking of a moonlit Swiss lake when he wrote his 14th piano sonata. Like its companion in E-flat, this Sonata quasi una fantasia is titled to indicate that something unusual is about to happen. The opening movement makes its impact almost entirely through restraint. Unusually for a piano sonata, the tempo is slow. Berlioz describes it as “one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify.” In it, the left hand softly displays what Berlioz described as “large chords of a solemn, sad character, the length of which allows the vibrations of the piano to extend gradually over each one of them.” Played throughout, as Beethoven directs, with “the greatest delicacy and with pedal,” the right-hand triplet accompaniment builds on the slight augmentation of sound produced by the resonating strings and continues hypnotically until the end. Structurally, the movement gives the impression of a free improvisation, but it is disciplined by sonata form. The second movement is gentle, even wistful, although it is possible to hear an element of unease in its syncopated rhythm. Then the finale is one of Beethoven's most turbulent outpourings, a passionate foreshadowing of the Appassionata sonata of three years later – and a terrible storm on Rellstab's idyllic lake.
Frédéric Chopin
(b. Żelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, March 1, 1810; d. Paris, France, October 17, 1849)
POLONAISE-FANTASY, OP. 61
Composed 1845-46; 13 minutes
BARCAROLLE IN F-SHARP MAJOR, OP. 60
Composed 1845-46; 9 minutes
NOCTURNE, OP. 27, NO. 1
Composed 1836; 6 minutes
SCHERZO NO. 2 IN B-FLAT MINOR, OP. 31
Composed 1837; 9 minutes
Program change did not allow time for program notes for the Chopin works.