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PROGRAMME
Bach Prelude
in C major, BWV 846/1, The Well-Tempered Clavier Book
1
Chopin Study
in C major, Op. 10 No. 1
Bach Prelude
in C minor, BWV 847/1, The Well-Tempered Clavier Book
I
Chopin Study
in C minor, Op.25 No. 12
Hummel
Fantasie in B flat major
Kalkbrenner
Rondo in C major
Chopin Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante,
Op.22
INTERVAL
Field
Nocturne No.4 in A major
Chopin
Nocturnes Op.9
Mozart
Fantasie in D minor, K397
Chopin
Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op.23
NOTES
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was born in
Eisenach, where his father was a church musician. He was
given musical training by his father and brother, but
was largely self-taught as a composer. After several
brief appointments as organist in various churches in
Germany, he became court musician to the Duke of Weimar
in 1708. In 1717 he moved to Cöthen,
whose musical Prince, Bach's employer, became a personal
friend. Bach wrote much of his keyboard music during
this period. In 1723 he became Kantor of the
Thomasschule in Leipzig, a post which he held until his
death.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) was a pupil of
Mozart, in whose house in Vienna he lived for two years
as a boarder. Hummel toured Europe as a child prodigy at
the age of 9, during which period he stayed in London
for a year. He had an extremely successful career as a
travelling virtuoso and composer. He was renowned for
his smooth, easy playing style, and had a remarkable
gift for improvisation.
Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner (1785-1849) was born in
a coach in Germany, while his parents were en route from
Kassel to Berlin. Although almost completely unknown
today, he had a very successful career as a pianist,
teacher and composer, first making his name in Britain
during a stay of some years between 1820-30. His
performing career declined from 1836 and he rarely
played in public after 1839, though he remained active
as a teacher until his death.
John Field (1782-1837) was born in Dublin, the son of
a theatrical violinist. He showed an early talent for
the piano, making his debut aged 9. The following year
his family moved to London where Field was apprenticed
to Muzio Clementi, one of the most important
international musical entrepreneurs of the period. Field
worked for Clementi as a piano demonstrator, and in 1802
Clementi took Field with him on an extensive tour of
European capitals. At St Petersburg Field left Clementi
to start a career of his own as a fashionable pianist
and teacher. Field wrote the majority of his
compositions, the most important of which are the
Nocturnes (of which form he was the originator), in the
period up to 1823 after which increasing alcoholism
began to mar his career_ Field toured Europe from 1831,
ending up in a state of collapse in Naples, from where
he was rescued by some Russian aristocrats and taken
back to Moscow where he died.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (175 6-179 1) was born in
Salzburg, where his father Leopold was himself a court
musician and teacher of exceptional ability. Like his
elder sister, Maria Anna, Mozart showed an extraordinary
talent at a very early age. He was playing pieces from
his sister's book at four, and composing at five, when
he also began to perform in public. His youth was spent
in extensive tours of Europe organized by his father,
appearing with his sister at most courts and cities of
Germany and the Netherlands, also at Versailles and
London. It seems likely that these journeys undermined
his health. Later visits to Italy were intended to find
Mozart an opening for opera composition, but these
mostly came to nothing and no full-time posts
materialised. His first job was as Konzertmeister to the
Archbishop of Salzburg, an unsympathetic employer who
looked with disfavour on the Mozart family. Mozart's
frustration with his appointment in Salzburg led in 1780
to his dismissal. From this time he worked as a
freelance musician in Vienna, and was increasingly often
in debt.
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) was born in Zelazowa Wola,
near Warsaw, where his father, an emigré
from France, later taught French at the high school.
Chopin appears to have been largely self-taught at the
piano, and began composing at the age of seven. He was
an exceptionally gifted improviser and showed
extraordinary originality at the keyboard, encapsulated
in his Studies Op.10, the first of which were written in
1828; most of his subsequent works were for the piano.
The following year he visited Vienna, where he made a
spectacular debut. In 1830 he left Poland for good,
ending up in Paris, which had become the European
musical capital. Here Chopin had an almost instant
success as a pianist and teacher. He gave very few
public performances during his career, preferring more
intimate gatherings of selected friends. He was acute,
not to say ruthless, in his dealings with publishers
and, as a result, made a very large amount of money from
his compositions, many of which were ideally suited for
the growing number of middle-class amateur pianists of
the period. His health was seriously undermined when, in
a disastrous winter visit to Majorca with the novelist
George Sand and her children in 1838, Chopin had his
first serious attack of tuberculosis. Even so, with
Sand's devoted care he managed to complete the Preludes
Op.28 among other important works. After their return to
France, Chopin's life settled into one of an unvarying
domestic routine of teaching in Paris in the winter and
composing at Sand's country home, Nohant, in the summer.
Here Chopin wrote most of his mature masterpieces. His
break with Sand in 1847 heralded the final collapse of
his health.
Tom Cooper |
Those
present in St Mary’s church, Buriton, on Sunday afternoon
were treated to a wonderful piano recital by Tom Cooper,
a resident of the parish, in support of its Restoration
Fund. His programme had
been cleverly devised to include music by those
composers who influenced Chopin, whose 200th
anniversary is being celebrated this year.