BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1969-1970 FOURTH RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST NIKITA MAGALOFF PIANOFORTE Price SIR WILLIAM WHITLA HALL Queen's University, Belfast THURSDAY, 22nd JANUARY, 1970 1/-

Nine Variations on the Menuet of Mr. Duport, K.573 Mozart Mozart wrote these variations in Potsdam in 1789 while he was on a visit to the court of the Prussian King, Frederick William II. They were in honour of Jean-Pierre Duport who taught the king the cello and was attached to the court as conductor of his private band. By the time Mozart came to write the Duport variations he was certainly much practised in this very early instrumental form he wrote two sets of variations for the clavier at the age of ten while on a visit to the court of the Hague. These were also for a special occasion - the festivities to mark the coming-of-age of the Prince of Orange. The nine variations Duport's minuet were among the last of many written by Mozart in his short life. Also in 1789 two years before he died - "Cosi fan tutte" was commis- sioned and begun; the String Quartet in D major and the Clarinet Quintet in A major (K.581) date from the same year. Fandango Soler Father Antonio Soler, a Spanish monk, was one of the great key- board composers of the 18th century. He was born in 1729 and at the age of 23 was appointed organist and Master of Chapel at a monastery near Madrid. Here the following year he took his vows and until he died in 1783 devoted himself to the music in the monastery and to teaching members of the Spanish Royal Family. For a time he was taught by Domenico Scarlatti and his work shows the influence of this composer. Soler wrote many works for the harpsichord and the organ but the piano was also known to him there was one at the monastery when he first arrived there and the use of colour in many of his keyboard compositions sug- gests that he had the newer instrument mind. Spanish popular rhythms were another influence in his work the "fandango" is a lively Spanish dance, believed to be of South American origin, in which castanets are used, and the pace accelerates as the dance proceeds. The harmonic basis of this "fandango" is not venture- some and Soler makes a great deal of use of the notes A and G in the bass, almost as an "ostinato". Sonata in B minor, Op. 58 Allegro maestoso Scherzo Largo Finale: Presto non tanto Chopin This is the last of Chopin's three Piano Sonatas and was composed in 1844 at Georges Sands' summer house at Nohant. Between 1839

and 1846 Chopin spent the winters in Paris and the summers at Nohant, and it was only at Nohant he felt able to compose. One of Chopin's contemporaries criticised him on the grounds that he lacked "the power of continuity", saying that although his subjects were all excellent "his entire work is not a consequence of the first idea", and Grove suggests in his Dictionary that the Sonata in B minor gives point to this view. However if Opus 58 is not so concise as it should be, it soon offers in the second subject of the first movement - an illustration of one his many virtues, de- scribed by Gerald Abraham as "an instinct amounting to genius for inventing melodies that would be actually ineffective if sung or played on an instrument capable of sustaining tone, but which picked out in percussive points of sound, each beginning to die as soon as born, are enchanting and give an illusion of the singing that is often lovelier than singing itself". Estampes INTERVAL Pagodes La soireé dans Grenade Jardins sous la pluie Debussy Written in 1903, this Suite marks the start of a decade during which Debussy wrote many impressionistic pieces for the piano and per- fected his very individual style. It is interesting to note however that Ravel claims the invention of this "rather special kind of piano writing" in "Jeux d'eau" which appeared a year earlier than "Estampes". The evocative titles of these pieces combined with the subtlety of the music seems to have inspired many people to ds- scribe these pieces in visual terms. Pagodes was suggested by the music of Javanese and Cambodian. musicians visiting Paris. The main theme is built on the oriental 5-note scale, and Debussy, writing about the piece said "Pales- trina's counterpoint is child's play when compared with that found in Javanese music". Over the long pedal points there is elaborate decoration. This is described by Edward Lockspeiser as "a cease- less tinkling of runs over the black notes producing a vision of the glitter of glass palaces and of little oriental idols in crystal". La soireé dans Grenade also gives an impression of a country visited by Debussy only in his imagination. Here, with the rhythm of the "habanera" throbbing throughout, he evokes what Manuel de Falla calls "images in the moonlit waters adjoining the Alham- bra". The impressions suggested by the thematic material include the strumming of guitars, a Moorish chant, a foot-stamping dance- song ("très rhythmé") and some profess to hear at the passage towards the end which is marked "léger et lointain" the faint echo of castanets.

Jardins sous la pluie is described by Frank Dawes as "another Debussy-an Toccata, the picture being obviously that of a child looking out from a nursery window at the rain drenching the gar- den, for two French nursery songs are woven into the music's texture". Grandes Études de Paganini Étude No. 1. Étude No. 2. Étude No. 3. Étude No. 4. Étude No. 5. Étude No. 6. Liszt G minor ("Tremolo") E flat major ("Andantino Capriccioso") G sharp minor ("La Campanella") E major ("Arpeggio") E major ("La Chasse") A minor ("Theme and Variations") These piano studies appeared in their final version in 1852, and were dedicated to Clara Schumann. They were begun in 1832 as an adaptation of "Twenty-four Caprices for violin" by Paganini who performed them in Paris in 1830 - a sensational appearance which opened a new horizon to the young Liszt. They were not com- pleted until 1838 and because they had the reputation of being of insurmountable difficulty, Liszt revised them twelve years later. When Liszt heard Paganini perform his "Caprices" in Paris as a young man, he realised to what extent virtuosity could be used by an artist to establish power over an audience and that his own technique was almost childish when compared with Paganini's. He set out straight away on an arduous programme of technical practice to raise himself to this level. The measure of his success can be judged by this note from Clara Schumann's journal: "We have heard Liszt. He can be compared to no other virtuoso . . . he is the only one of his kind... it can be truly said of him that his art is his life". The Paganini studies have been described as "a masterwork of the modern art of arrangement, pianistic and still absolutely true to the spirit of the original". Étude No. 4 is a good illustration of this with its vivid reminder of the bowings on the violin. Étude No. 6 is a set of eleven short variations on a theme also used by Brahms and Rachmaninov.