Solo Keyboard

Bach’s Chaconne and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 1178: A Lost Treasure Found

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In 1992, musicologist Peter Wollny came across two dusty unattributed musical manuscripts in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Wollny recalled, The handwriting of the score just fascinated me, and I had this vague feeling that these bits of paper could be interesting some day. So I made photocopies and created a file that I dragged around with me for 30 years. The two works were chaconnes for organ. Featuring variations …

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Chopin’s Nocturne in B-flat Minor, Op. 9, No. 1: Jan Lisiecki

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Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki describes Chopin’s Nocturnes as intimate music one plays for oneself, alone at night. Born in Calgary to Polish immigrant parents, Lisiecki was invited to perform at the 2008 Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw when he was 13. His affinity for the music is on display in a 2021 album of Chopin’s complete Nocturnes. He believes that “Chopin’s music flows by itself in a sense, but you …

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Bach’s “O Lamm Gottes, Unschuldig,” BWV 618: Canon Alla Quinta

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Typically, a musical canon involves a melodic line which is imitated by one or more voices after a set duration, resulting in a magical contrapuntal layering. In the chorale prelude for organ, O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (“O Lamb of God, innocent”), BWV 618, Bach expanded on this idea by creating a canon “alla quinta” (“canon at the fifth”). Unlike a canon in unison, the voices are set a fifth apart. In this …

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Barber’s “Excursions”: A Celebration of American Musical Vernacular

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Completed in 1944, Excursions, Op. 20 was Samuel Barber’s first published work for solo piano. Using traditional compositional forms such as the rondo and theme and variations, its four brief movements venture deep into American musical vernacular. Barber referred to the collection as “nothing but bagatelles.” He wrote, These are ‘Excursions’ in small classical forms into regional American idioms. Their rhythmic characteristics, as well as their source in folk material and their …

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Debussy’s “Hommage á Rameau”: A Dreamy Remembrance of the Baroque Sarabande

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For Claude Debussy, the ghost of French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) loomed large. An innovative composer of opera and harpsichord music, Rameau’s influential 1722 Treatise on Harmony earned him the nickname, the “Isaac Newton of Music.” In 1903, Rameau’s 1737 opera, Castor et Pollux, was performed in Paris. Debussy, in the audience, was heard to exclaim, “Long live Rameau, and down with Gluck!” Hommage à Rameau is the second piece in Book …

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Handel’s Minuet in G, HWV 434/4: Alexander Malofeev

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Handel’s haunting and melancholy Minuet in G, HWV 434/4 is a frequent encore of Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev. Following a virtuosic tour de force such as Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, the simple, sensuous melodic lines of the Minuet pull listeners into a magical space. This music originated as the fourth movement of Handel’s Keyboard Suite in B-flat major, HWV 434, published in 1733. It was revived by pianist Wilhelm Kempff. This performance, featuring …

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Rachmaninov’s Elegie, Op. 3, No. 1: Gary Graffman

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Sergei Rachmaninov was 19 when, in 1892, he composed his set of five solo piano Morceaux de fantasie (“Pieces of fantasy”). The collection was dedicated to Anton Arensky, Rachmaninov’s harmony teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. It includes the famous Prelude in C-sharp minor, with its allusion to the Bells of Moscow. Shortly after publication, the young composer gave a copy to Tchaikovsky, who commented on the quality of the work. The set begins …

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