Polina Osetinskaya recital (piano)

George Frideric Handel wrote most of his works for harpsichord solo – suites, sonatas, variations and dances – when he was a young man. During the composer’s lifetime, many such works remained in manuscript form, though he did eventually publish two volumes of suites in  London (1720 and 1733). Handel was spurred on to do this by the “pirates” of Amsterdam who regularly printed his music with a vast number of errors.
Among other pieces, the first of the  two volumes includes the  Suites in  F Major and F Minor. The F Major Suite is such only in name. There is not a single dance in it, and the four sections (Adagio – Allegro – Adagio – Allegro) are laid out in accordance with the  canons of a church sonata. The first section resembles a score for violin in  the style of Arcangelo Corelli who was greatly admired in England. The third section (an ensemble of four voices) is, on the other hand, in the French spirit. The suite culminates with a fugue.
The Suite in F Minor also begins like a sonata, with a polyphonic prelude and sweeping fugue (Allegro) in which Handel draws the powerful sound of the  organ from the  harpsichord. The fugue contrasts impressively with the  dances – a delicate allemande which is often performed mechanically, like an étude, followed by a courante and a jig, both agitated and passionate.
The Chaconne in  G Major and the Suite in B Flat Major come from the second London volume. In Handel’s treatment, the chaconne becomes transformed from a dance into a cycle of virtuoso keyboard variations. In the Chaconne in G Major there are twenty-one variations, though publishers almost invariably miss out at least one of them. The suite opens with a prelude that is more like a recording of a live improvisation. The virtuoso Allegro is followed by an aria with four variations (many years later Brahms would write variations for piano on the  same theme). The four elegant dances – an allemande, a courante, a saraband and a jig – conclude the suite.

The Seasons is a traditional subject for music, but where Vivaldi and Haydn produced picturesque visions of the  four seasons themselves Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky dedicated twelve pieces for piano to the  months of the  year. The composer was commissioned to write them by Nikolai Matveyevich Bernard for Nouvellist magazine. The magazine consisted almost entirely of sheet music – works for piano and romances – and the Bernard family in  St Petersburg published it for over half a century. Having just taken control of the  magazine, the  thirty-three-year-old Nikolai Matveyevich resolved to give it a make-over. Tchaikovsky agreed to the publisher’s proposal and in  1876 each issue of the magazine opened with a new work (“character scene”) by him together with a poetic epigraph and graphic illustration chosen by Bernard. These three art forms sat very well together! This fruitful idea was soon adopted by the  Danes, who in 1881 republished works by Tchaikovsky with specially written verse by Holger Drachmann and engravings by local artists.
Tchaikovsky turned to typically romantic genres (a waltz, scherzo and barcarole) and left the  publisher’s plans for “character scenes” far behind. The illustration that accompanied the  piece in  1876 looks even more interesting today. It really is “scenes” in  “the Russian style.” From them one can understand Bernard’s initial concept – to laud the  poetry of rural life and the  joys of simple folk. In the  illustration for Autumn Song women are singing as they gather hops, two young peasants meet in White Nights and in  the  Barcarole an assembly glides along in  a boat to the sounds of the  balalaika.
Anna Bulycheva