Solo Keyboard

“The Star-Spangled Banner”: The National Anthem as Arranged by Rachmaninov and Stravinsky

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On September 14, 1814, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key penned the words that would later form the National Anthem. The defining image of the poem was the sight of the U.S. flag, with its fifteen stars and strips, flying defiantly above the Fort following the battle. The triumphant image was central to the …

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Balakirev’s “Islamey”: A Spirited Dance from the Caucasus Mountains

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It was a trip to the Caucasus Mountains that inspired Russian composer Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) to write Islamey: Oriental Fantasy, one of the most technically challenging works ever conceived for solo piano. In a letter, Balakirev commented on the spirited folk music he heard there, as well as the natural beauty of the region, which lies at the intersection of Europe and Asia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: …the majestic …

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Remembering Alfred Brendel

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Alfred Brendel, the Czech-born Austrian pianist, writer, composer, and lecturer, passed away on Tuesday (June 17) at his home in London. He was 94. Largely self-taught after the age of 16, Brendel followed a unique path to the top. As a teenager, he was already an author and an exhibited painter. At the age of 14, in the final days of the Second World War, he dug trenches in Yugoslavia. In 1949 …

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John Adams’ “China Gates”: The Hypnotic Patter of Rain

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For American composer John Adams (b. 1947), the inspiration for the solo piano work, China Gates, came on an endlessly rainy day in San Francisco during the winter of 1977. Adams recalls the gentle, hypnotic patter of the rain hitting the roof of his cottage near the Pacific Ocean. This natural counterpoint gave rise to the repetitive patterns of China Gates, a brief companion composition to Adams’ Phrygian Gates, composed during the same period. “Gates,” …

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Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 849: “Holy of Holies”

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The 19th century commentator, Hugo Riemann, described Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849 as the “holy of holies.” The phrase, found in the Hebrew Bible, refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle, where the Shekhinah (God’s presence) appeared. The fourth piece from Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 849 is solemn, meditative music filled with wrenching melancholy. The Prelude is a loure, a French Baroque dance which resembles …

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Copland’s Piano Variations/Orchestral Variations: Unrelentingly Organic

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Unlike the traditional “theme and variations,” Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations do not unfold as a frolicking and far-reaching episodic journey. Instead, they are unrelenting, declamatory, and haunting. The seven-note theme, equally reminiscent of Arnold Schoenberg’s tone rows and Bach’s C-sharp minor Fugue from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 849), permeates the entire work in a way which makes it feel severely organic. While Beethoven and Schubert improvised variations on a theme as a …

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Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543: “The Great”

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It was during his youthful tenure in Weimar (1708-1713) that J.S. Bach composed the “Great” Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543. Only a few years earlier, the 20-year-old Bach walked north 200 miles to Lübeck to hear the celebrated organist, Dieterich Buxtehude, and “to comprehend one thing and another about his art.” The influence of Buxtehude’s style, along with the Italian music of Corelli, can be heard in BWV 543, …

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