BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1968-1969 SEVENTH RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST ANNIE FISCHER PIANO SIR WILLIAM WHITLA HALL Queen's University, Belfast SATURDAY, 3rd MAY, 1969 at 7.45 p.m.

Programme notes by Evan John I Chaconne in G major Handel Among Handel's enormous output are a number of movements of the chaconne or passacaglia type, including at least two keyboard chaconnes in G major, one having 62 variations and the other- No. 3 of "Trois Leçons"-21. Although no firm derivation has been established for the actual term, the chaconne like the passacaglia and despite the usual French and Italian spellings of these two is known to have been originally a Spanish dance, rather younger than the saraband, the first extant example dating from 1606. Throughout most of its history the chaconne has been a series of variations on a ground bass of about eight notes in triple time. The two Handel examples mentioned above have these features, and both make use of a variant of the standard chaconne bass of the seventeenth century. The identity of tonight's piece has not been disclosed, but it is probably one or other of these two, which contain elaborate keyboard figurations (broken octaves, plain octaves, broken sixths, arpeggios, repeated notes) of the type which are usually described as astonishingly modern and daring whether they be by Byrd, Bull, Bach or Brahms. The chaconne from the "Trois Leçons" has a substantial portion in the minor key. II Sonata in A minor, K. 310 Allegro maestoso Andante cantabile con espressione Presto Mozart The sonata, K.310, one of a group written in Paris in 1778, stands apart from Mozart's other works notably in respect of its key of A minor, most unusual for a main key. This is associated with the sonata's character of wild despair (particularly evident in the finale), approached only by the violin sonata in E minor-a similar and equally unusual key-written at about the same time. While the overall plan of the first movement is orthodox, with a "second group" in C major, the comparative calm of this key is only reached via its own tonic minor, C mnior, most striking in its relationship with the main key of A minor. The equanimity of the C major passage proves to have been illusory in its A minor trans- position near the end of the movement. The slow movement is a rich, wide-ranging elaborate cantabile in full sonata form, not with- out its anxious moments in the middle nor its melodic premonitions of the following movement.

The presto finale, like the first movement, has its early excursion to C minor, and then cannot make up its mind whether the proper subsidiary key should be the relative major (C) or the dominant (E minor). The overall sonata rondo pattern is complicated by this fact and also by the fact that Mozart shows unusual economy of thematic material by using the opening motifs almost everywhere, except in the distinct A major episode, and even there to some extent. III Sonata in A flat major, Op. 110 Moderato cantabile molto espressivo Allegro molto Adagio ma non troppo (Arioso dolente) - Fuga - Allegro ma non troppo Beethoven The last half-dozen of Beethoven's piano sonatas conform even less to standard textbook patterns than the others. The penultimate one, Op. 110, is in the key of A flat. Beethoven's remark in another context that this key is "barbaresco" must have been a joke- possibly putting forward the views of fumbling beginners-as is evident from the gentle mellifluousness ("con amabilità") of the opening of the first movement, which, in spite of being "moderato contabile molto espressivo" is basically of a normal first movement type. The second movement may be regarded as the scherzo and trio, in a binary metre instead of the usual quick three-in-a-bar. The rest of the work is continuous and consists, after a brief recitative-like passage, of an "Arioso dolente" followed by a fugue whose subject is closely connected with the opening melody of the first movement, the arioso again, transposed down a semitone, and the fugue again, also transposed down a semitone but naturally ending in the home key, but starting with the subject turned upside down. The two sections of fugue between them contain more dif- ferent types of device (melodic inversion, double counterpoint, diminution, stretto and pedal-point) than are found in any one Bach fugue, with possibly one or two exceptions. It is unlikely that Beethoven wrote thus in many of his late works for academic reasons. The expressive qualities of such treatment will be apparent in this sonata. INTERVAL

Fantasie in C major, Op. 17 IV Allegro fantastico e con passione - alla legenda Moderato ma energico Andante sostenuto e mezza voce sempre The wonderful, impassioned opening of the Fantasy leads us to expect a work of high romanticism and we are not disappointed, since it is probably Schumann's finest piano piece, consistently inspired throughout. It was first announced as a forthcoming "Grand sonata for piano entitled Ruins, Trophies, Palms, of which copies will be sold in aid of the monument" (to Beethoven, erected at Liszt's instigation). Later it became "Three poems, which I shall call Ruins, Triumphal Arches, Starry Brightnesses". It finally appeared in 1839 as a Fantasy, prefaced by a quotation from chlegel: "Through the numberless sounds which fill the world's gay dream one song, barely heard, calls to the secret listener". Actually, Schumann wrote to Clara, "You will not be able to understand the Fantasy if you cannot transport yourself in spirit to the unhappy summer when I renounced you. The first movement is the most passionate I have ever composed; it is a profound lament on your account." The 1969-70 season will include Schumann NIKITA MAGALOFF Piano IVAN DAVIS Piano RUGGIERO RICCI Violin QUARTETTO DI ROMA MUNICH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA