Post by erik on Oct 29, 2022 18:06:24 GMT -5
One of Frederic Chopin's greatest influences was Mozart, and Chopin put that influence to good use in the work for piano and orchestra in this week's Classical Works Spotlight.
Chopin: VARIATIONS ON “LA CI DAREM LA MANO”, OP. 2
Among the most prominent “wunderkind” composers to come after Mozart, the Polish composer Frederic Chopin was an early master of the piano. Virtually every one of his major works involved virtuosi piano playing; and when it involved the orchestra, it was most often with the piano being heavily involved. He composed two out-and-out piano concertos back-to-back in 1830, both of which have retained huge popularity with classical pianists for almost two centuries. Even before those, however, and despite his relative disdain for the orchestra, he was able to compose three major single-movement pieces for piano and orchestra. The earliest of these, written when he was 17, was the work “Variations On ‘La Ci Darem La Mano”, based on an aria sung by the characters of Zerlina and Don Giovanni in Mozart’s darkly comic 1787 opera “Don Giovanni”. In a work that lasts between seventeen and nineteen minutes and consists of an introduction and the theme, followed by five variations, the piano takes the most prominent lead, with the orchestra basically carving out the accompaniment, almost entirely in the key of B Flat Major, save for the first part of the fifth variation, which is in B Flat Minor. Because of its connection to Mozart, and the composer’s unabashed admiration for Mozart, the Opus 2 “Variations” remains arguably the best known of the three concertante works for piano and orchestra in Chopin’s repertoire.
Piano: JAN LISIECKI
North German Radio Elbphilharmonic Orchestra/KRZYSZTOF URBANSKI (Deutsche Grammophon)
Included:
ANDANTE SPINATO AND GRANDE POLONAISE BRILLIANTE, OP. 22
RONDO A LA KRAKOWIAK, OP. 14
FANTASY ON POLISH AIRS, OP. 12
NOCTURNE IN C SHARP MINOR
Chopin: VARIATIONS ON “LA CI DAREM LA MANO”, OP. 2
Among the most prominent “wunderkind” composers to come after Mozart, the Polish composer Frederic Chopin was an early master of the piano. Virtually every one of his major works involved virtuosi piano playing; and when it involved the orchestra, it was most often with the piano being heavily involved. He composed two out-and-out piano concertos back-to-back in 1830, both of which have retained huge popularity with classical pianists for almost two centuries. Even before those, however, and despite his relative disdain for the orchestra, he was able to compose three major single-movement pieces for piano and orchestra. The earliest of these, written when he was 17, was the work “Variations On ‘La Ci Darem La Mano”, based on an aria sung by the characters of Zerlina and Don Giovanni in Mozart’s darkly comic 1787 opera “Don Giovanni”. In a work that lasts between seventeen and nineteen minutes and consists of an introduction and the theme, followed by five variations, the piano takes the most prominent lead, with the orchestra basically carving out the accompaniment, almost entirely in the key of B Flat Major, save for the first part of the fifth variation, which is in B Flat Minor. Because of its connection to Mozart, and the composer’s unabashed admiration for Mozart, the Opus 2 “Variations” remains arguably the best known of the three concertante works for piano and orchestra in Chopin’s repertoire.
Piano: JAN LISIECKI
North German Radio Elbphilharmonic Orchestra/KRZYSZTOF URBANSKI (Deutsche Grammophon)
Included:
ANDANTE SPINATO AND GRANDE POLONAISE BRILLIANTE, OP. 22
RONDO A LA KRAKOWIAK, OP. 14
FANTASY ON POLISH AIRS, OP. 12
NOCTURNE IN C SHARP MINOR