BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1969-1970 FIRST RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST IVAN DAVIS PIANOFORTE * Price * SIR WILLIAM WHITLA HALL Queen's University, Belfast SATURDAY, 25th OCTOBER, 1969 1/- PR2

Czerny VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY RODE, Op. 33 Carl Czerny was born in Vienna in 1791 (the year of Mozart's death) and died there in 1857. He has been described by Dr. Percy Scholes as "a great pianist-pedagogue"; he was also a very in- dustrious composer though today all that survives are his pianoforte studies of which he wrote some hundreds. He provides an interest- ing piano-playing link between the 18th and 19th centuries since he was the pupil of Beethoven and the teacher of Liszt. Jacque Pierre Joseph Rode was a French virtuoso violinist of the day. SONATA Op. 53 IN C MAJOR, 'Waldstein' Allegro con brio Introduzione molto adagio Rondo: Allegretto moderato Beethoven This Sonata was written in 1804 and dedicated to Beethoven's friend Count Waldstein. Other works of the same period are the Third Symphony ('Eroica'), the Kreutzer Violin Sonata and the Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 57. This last work (known as 'The Appassionata') and the 'Waldstein' Sonata together form what Denis Matthews has described as "two middle peaks in the whole range of Beethoven's piano sonatas". Originally the 'Waldstein' had another slow movement which the composer withdrew because it was too long and was out of touch with the harmonic style of the rest of the work. This movement survives on its own as the 'Andante favori in F'. The short movement molto adagio which replaces it is a pivot movement leading to the final Rondo. In Grove's Dictionary the Rondo is called "a great tune with streamers of accompaniment and pageant-like episodes". BALLADE IN G MINOR, Op. 23 Chopin The Ballade in G minor was first sketched in 1831 in Vienna where Chopin had come from Warsaw in November 1830. The Grande Polonaise, Op. 22 and the B minor Scherzo, Op. 20, date from the same period which was a time of disappointment and frustration for Chopin, the novelty of his first successes as a performer having apparently worn off. It was also a time of tension in Poland Warsaw was captured by the Russians in 1831. The four Chopin Ballades are supposed to have taken their strong national inspir- ation from epic poems by Mickiewicz. The Ballade in G minor, which is the first of the four, is long and dramatic and has some of the qualities of the old English ballads of the 16th century. In the short Recitative-like introduction Chopin disguises the main key of the piece. INTERVAL

FOUR SONATAS 1. A major (L.238) 2. G major (L.286) 3. F major (L.119) 4. D minor (L.422) Scarlatti Domenico Scarlatti, the best known of the famous Italian family of musicians, was born in Naples in 1685 and died in Madrid in 1757. Harpsichordist and composer, he was born in the same year as Handel and was his friend and rival. He has been described as "the touring keyboard virtuoso of his age" and "in some sense the founder of modern keyboard execution". He made great use of the crossing of the hands, thus producing entirely new effects. He also wrote many extravagant leaps: examples of these can be seen in L.119 but more especially in L.286 where in the final section the hands have to jump to the outside limits of Scarlatti's keyboard. The word "sonata" has changed a great deal since it was first use around 1600. Scarlatti used it to describe a single binary movement. Over 500 of his "sonatas" have been catalogued by Alessandro Longo who grouped them according to their keys but not chrono- logically. FUNERAILLES, Oct. 1849 This is the seventh in a collection of ten pieces called "Harmonies poétiques et religieuses" which were written between 1845 and 1852. "Funérailles" (funeral ceremonies), written in Liszt's most dramatic style, was inspired by the defeat of the Hungarian revolu- tion of 1848-49. In particular it commemorates the deaths of three of Liszt's fellow-countrymen who were killed in this uprising. Liszt SPANISH RHAPSODY Liszt The "Rhapsodie Espagnole" is similar in style to Liszt's fifteen rhapsodies on Hungarian gypsy melodies. The piece was written during the composer's visit to Spain in 1845. In it he used two dance tunes, the "Jota Aragonesa", a rapid dance with castanets from the Aragon district of Northern Spain, and "La Folía", the name given to a melody originally used for a Portugese dance. This was later made famous by Corelli in a Sonata for violin and harp- sichord. In the Spanish Rhapsody, Liszt joins a long list of com- posers, who, over three and a half centuries have used this "Folía" tune. Here it appears early in the work, after a slow intro- duction, and is marked Andante moderato.

NEXT CONCERTS: Saturday, November 1st 1969 THE QUARTETTO DI ROMA Quartet in E flat major, K. 494 Quartet in C minor, Op. 15 Quartet in C minor, Op. 60 Saturday, December 13th 1969 THE AEOLIAN STRING QUARTET Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5 Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130 Thursday, January 22nd 1970 NIKITA MAGALOFF Piano Programme will probably include: Variations on a Minuet of Duport, K. 573 Three Sonatas, L.14, L.331, L.361 Sonata, Op. 58 Estampes Six Grandes Etudes de Paganini Friday, February 6th 1970 RUGGIERO RICCI Violin ERNEST LUSH Piano Sonata No. 12 in E major Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80 Partita in D minor for solo violin Sonata in A major, Op. 13 Introduction and Variations on "Nel cor piu non misento" Caprice No. 9, Op. 1, "La Chasse" (solo violin) Tuesday, February 24th 1970 Mozart Fauré Brahms Haydn Shostakovitch Beethoven Mozart Scarlatti Chopin Debussy Liszt Pergolesi Prokofiev Bach Fauré Paganini Paganini THE MUNICH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA