BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1957-1958 FOURTH RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST SHURA CHERKASSKY PIANOFORTE SIR WILLIAM WHITLA HALL Queen's University, Belfast FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20th, 1957 at 7.45 p.m.

Sonata in E minor Joseph Hadyn (1732-1809) Songs without Words Presto Adagio Allegretto vivace Haydn's 35 piano sonatas were probably all written between 1760 and 1780, though the one to be played was not published till 1785. They are works of lesser importance compared with his quartets and symphonies, but it is in them that we see the first real maturity of "sonata form." Note in the presto of this movement how the rhythm of its opening phrases persists almost unbroken. The adagio is of a florid type that Haydn had attempted less suc- cessfully before. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) No. 17 in A minor No. 20 in E flat Mendelssohn wrote his songs not merely without words but also without titles. Some English editor of the 19th century labelled them, the first of these being called Passion, the second Fleecy Cloud. One may quote the feeling words of Willi Apel "May Mendelssohn's magnanimous and kindly soul forgive him for this well-meant but ill-considered service by which he put the works of an important composer in the same class with the Prayer of a Virgin or the Joyous Sleighride.

Sonata in F sharp minor, op. 11 II Introduzione un poco adagio: Allegro vivace Aria-andante cantabile Scherzo ed Intermezzo-allegrissimo Finale-allegro un poco maestoso This sonata was begun in 1833 and published in 1836 under the authorship of "Florestan und Eusebius," two pseudonyms much used by Schumann especially in his critical writings to denote the two aspects of his temperament. He shaped the first movement out of a previous work, Fandango, Rhapsodie pour Piano, written in 1832. The second movement he transcribed from one of his early songs An Anna. Robert Schumann (1810-1856) INTERVAL III Elégie, Op. 3, No. 1 Prelude in B Flat, Op. 23, No. 2 Serge Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) The Elégie was written in 1892 and comes from a collection of five pieces dedicated to Arensky, the best known or, as the composer would have said, the most notorious of which was the Prelude in C sharp minor. The Prelude in B flat is from a set of ten preludes written in 1902-3 and dedicated to the Russian pianist A. Siloti. Islamey Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) This work was written in 1869 and dedicated to Nicholas Rubinstein. Balakirev considered it as a sketch for his pro- jected symphonic poem on Leontov's Tamara, which he had begun a year or two before, but did not complete till 1882.

Next Concerts : FRIDAY, January 17th, at 7.45 THE ROBERT MASTERS PIANOFORTE QUARTET PIANO QUARTET IN G MINOR, K.478 PIANO TRIO IN A MINOR PIANO QUARTET IN G MINOR, OP. 25 Friday, February 7th, at 7.45 QUARTETTO CARMIRELLI TERZO QUARTETTO IN E FLAT QUARTET No. 4, OP. 83 (1949) QUARTET IN G MAJOR, OP. 161 Mozart Ravel Brahms Paisiello (arr. Bonelli) Shostakovitch Schubert