Solo Keyboard

Schumann’s “Widmung”: A Love Song Adapted by Liszt

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In September of 1840, Robert Schumann presented a collection of 26 songs, composed the previous spring, to his beloved Clara as a wedding gift. The cycle, Myrthen, Op. 25, contains intimate musical ciphers and codes which had personal meaning to the couple. Myrtle flowers, referenced in the title, are associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Based on a poem by Friedrich Rückert, the opening song, Widmung (“Dedication”), begins with the lines, …

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Henry Cowell’s “The Banshee”: Haunting Sounds From Inside the Piano

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If you listen to Henry Cowell’s The Banshee without the benefit of seeing how the sound is being produced, you might never guess that it is music written for the piano. In fact, it is a piece which requires no piano bench, bypasses the ivories all together, and moves inside the piano to reveal a haunting new sonic landscape. At the time of its completion in 1925, The Banshee, and other works by Cowell, …

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Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A-flat Major, BWV 886: Lofty and Sonorous

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While recording the second book of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier as part of its All of Bach initiative, the Netherlands Bach Society chose twelve locations around the Dutch city of Utrecht. The Prelude and Fugue No. 17 in A-flat Major, BWV 886 was recorded on a top floor of the high-rise seat of Utrecht’s Provincial Council. Christine Schornsheim, the outstanding German harpsichordist who performs the entire Book II set, found the location, …

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Michael Torke’s “Chancel” (“Sessions, 3 A.M.”): The Virtue of Simplicity

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Chancel is the third single to be released from Sessions, 3 A.M, the latest album by the American composer, Michael Torke. The complete recording will be available in November. Recorded last May at the Samurai Hotel Studio in Queens, New York, Sessions, 3 A.M features a collection of fifteen brief and atmospheric pieces for solo piano which are performed by the composer. The excerpts that are currently available suggest the magical, nocturnal vibe of an …

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Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5: Summoning Mysterious Forces

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Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5 arrived amid a six day burst of creative energy in December of 1907. In a letter, the composer’s wife, Tatyana Schloezer, reported, Sasha has already managed… to compose a fifth sonata!!! I don’t believe my ears, it is unbelievable! The sonata flowed from him in a kind of stream. […] What you have heard is nothing, the sonata is unrecognizable, it cannot be compared with anything. …

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Schumann’s Blumenstück in D-Flat Major: Vladimir Horowitz, Live in 1966

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Robert Schumann described his Blumenstück (“Flower Piece”) in D-flat Major, Op 19 as “variations, but not upon any theme,” adding that “everything is interwoven in such a peculiar way.” Indeed, the brief solo piano piece unfolds in a series of dreamy episodes through which runs a common thematic thread. Following its initial statement, the opening episode fades into the background, and it is the second section of the piece which recurs as …

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André Watts Plays Gershwin: “The Man I Love,” “That Certain Feeling”

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On a Sunday afternoon recital at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall in 1976, the late André Watts placed the piano music of Gershwin and Schubert side by side. A reviewer at the time noted that it was the habit of both composers, when at parties, to take a seat at the piano and dazzle attendees with their most recent music. The music of George Gershwin remained a staple of Watts’ repertoire. An …

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