St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Daniil Trifonov recital (piano)

  Daniil Trifonov (biography)

The programme includes:
Alexander Scriabin
Sonata No 2 in G Sharp Minor, Op. 19

Frantz Liszt
Sonata in B Minor, S. 178

Frédéric Chopin
24 Preludes, Op. 28

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin started work on his Second Sonata in 1892, soon after he graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire, though he only completed the work as late as 1897. Many events took place during these years: something went wrong with his right hand, threatening to end his career as a pianist, he began to collaborate with the publisher Mitrofan Petrovich Belyaev and he married Vera Isakovich – they toured together to Paris and this was when the premiere of the sonata took place. The First Sonata in G Sharp Minor was composed by Scriabin in 1886 when he was fourteen. It was a sonata-fantasy in two movements (Andante – Allegro vivace). At the age of twenty, the composer returned to the idea of a two-movement sonata in G Sharp Minor. Following six years of Chopin’s romanticism other concepts emerged. The first movement (written almost entirely in major key) is light and inspired, its music full of arabesques in the style of early Debussy, while at times it equally reminds one of lyrical themes by Brahms. From start to finish the first movement is imbued with a leitmotif which always sounds fresh, imperceptibly changing its character so that the meaning remains a mystery. The monolithic second movement is notable for its natural power. Scriabin was a master of jewel-like detail – he wrote this powerful finale with exceptionally broad strokes.

Although Franz Liszt's Sonata in B Minor is dedicated to Robert Schumann, its closest musical “relative” would be Wagner’s musical dramas and Liszt’s own symphonic poems. Hearing the sonata for the first time, Wagner was ecstatic, and there was much to rejoice at. Piano works on such a scale had not been written since Beethoven’s time. Moreover, Liszt’s grandiose sonata is in one section; without interruption it lasts over half an hour and the piano sounds at times like the orchestra and at times like the organ. Liszt did not give the sonata a programme title, but there is no doubt that it does not belong to the world of “pure music”. The uninterrupted development of the three themes that are subjected to various metamorphoses, even transforming into the reverse of what they began as, bears witness to the fact that there is a “plot” and there are “characters” in the sonata. Most of all, Liszt was interested in two great subjects – The Divine Comedy and Faust, which formed the basis for two of his symphonies.
Liszt completed this Sonata in B Minor in February 1853, but the public at large heard it only in 1857 when it was performed by Hans von Bülow. In the 19th century this work was rarely performed and only came to be appreciated in the 20th century.

Frédéric Chopin’s Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28 appeared in 1838–1839, at the same time as such monumental works as the Second Sonata, ballades, scherzos and études. The composer concluded the cycle of preludes on Majorca, where he had taken Bach’s two-volume Well-Tempered Clavier, which he had known from his childhood years. Chopin responded to Bach’s grandiose idea – to compose a series of preludes and fugues in all extant major and minor tonalities – in terms that were the exact opposite. His works include preludes, very short ones, such as the Prelude in A Major (No 7) which lasts just sixteen bars. And if Bach arranged his preludes and fugues across the chromatic scale, Chopin arranged his preludes according to the circle of fifths, underlining the relationship between the neighbouring tonalities as much as possible. This means that the twenty-four preludes should preferably be performed together and not individually.
The cycle of twenty-four preludes forms a condensed encyclopaedia of Chopin’s style. Here there are brilliant examples of cantilena (for example, Preludes No 4 in E Minor, No 6 in B Minor, No 15 in D Flat Major), there is a piece close to Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, a chorale and even a funeral march. Almost half are dazzling virtuoso pieces in which the extremely complex piano figurations do not destroy the lightness and elegance inherent in miniature works.
Anna Bulycheva

Age category 6+

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