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Popular Piano Pieces, Volume 1 By the time of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 -1791), whose D major Rondo opens the present collection, the pianoforte, or...

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Popular Piano Pieces, Volume 1

By the time of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 -1791), whose D major Rondo opens the present collection, the pianoforte, or fortepiano as it was then known, had begun to win enormous popularity. There was a growing market for piano music and for piano lessons, both of which Mozart was able to supply during his last ten years of uneasy independence in Vienna.

Of the great classical composers identified with Vienna, Franz Schubert (1799 - 1828) was the only native of the city. The son of a schoolmaster, trained to follow his father's trade, for which he showed no ability, he lived his short life in the company of friends, whom he entertained with his songs and compositions, never occupying any official position in the musical establishment. The G flat major Impromptu, published some thirty years after Schubert's death, is the third of a group of four, its title probably the choice of the publisher, who facilitated its performance by transposing it into G major, thus avoiding the black notes that terrify the timid amateur.

Carl Maria von Weber (1786 - 1826), the honorific "von" apparently the invention of his father, was the cousin of Mozart's wife Constanze and was brought up by his father, a dilettante who for some years ran a travelling theatre-company, to emulate his distinguished relation by marriage. Weber was a very good pianist, but was to win still further renown as the creator of the first German Romantic opera, "Der Freischuetz", and as an adept in the new art of orchestral conducting. Invitation to the Dance is a programme piece, depicting the approach of the dancer, the lady's initial hesitation, the man's insistence, their dancing, his thanks, her reply and their parting.

In Paris Chopin came to know the Hungarian-born pianist Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886), although at first he disapproved heartily of the latter's Bohemian behaviour. Liszt, much more of a showman than Chopin ever could be, was to win a reputation as the greatest pianist of his day, a reputation he retained after his virtual retirement from the concert platform to direct music in Weimar, and later to divide his time between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, where he was regarded as a national Hungarian hero. The third Liebestraum is a transcription for piano of a song by Liszt, a setting of a poem by the radical German banker-poet Ferdinand Freiligrath, "O lieb solang du lieben kannst", advice that Liszt was to follow until the day of his death.

Anton Rubinstein (1829 -1894) had hoped for practical support from Liszt, but was never to receive it. He was to rival Liszt as a pianist and to win a position for himself in Russia, where he was encouraged to set up the first Conservatory of Music, in St. Petersburg.

Prolific as a composer, writing, in the words of his brother Nikolay, enough music for the two of them, Rubinstein is all too well remembered by the Melody in F.

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) was among the younger generation of Russian composers to benefit from Rubinstein's Conservatory. Trained in law, he was among the first students, and on completing his studies joined the staff of the Moscow Conservatory, under Rubinstein's brother Nikolay. Tchaikovsky may be bet1er known for his remarkable and colourful writing for the orchestra. Nevertheless he wrote a number of piano pieces, including a musical calendar, The Seasons, twelve pieces, one for each month of the year. The Barcarolle takes the listener boating in June.

Antonin Dvorak (1841 - 1904), no great pianist himself, is better known for his achievements in larger forms. The most important of Bohemian nationalist composers in the later nineteenth century, he was to spend a few years in the United States as Director of the National Conservatory in New York. It was in America that he sketched the famous Humoresque, later written up in the tranquillity of his native Bohemia in 1894.

Zdenek Fibich (1850 - 1900) has travelled less well, although his name may be joined to those of Smetana and Dvorak, leaders of Bohemian nationalism in music. His Poem is taken from a set of Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences, published in 1894.

In Norway it was Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907) who was a pioneer of nationalism, although his early outlook was influenced by the predominantly Danish culture of his class and by his training in Leipzig. He was an able pianist himself and, as a composer, a master of colourful harmonies, shown admirably in the two Lyric Pieces here included, from ten such sets published throughout his life.

Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) represents another form of musical nationalism. Born in Hungary, he had his schooling in Bratislava and his musical training at the Conservatory in Budapest, and showed immense interest in the scientific collection of folk music, which he carried out in Hungary and in neighbouring regions and countries. The Romanian Folk-Dances of 1915 demonstrate the astringency with which Bartok was able to treat the material he collected, his piquant harmonies setting off the melodies in a new light.

George Gershwin (1898 - 1937) may seem an odd man out in such a European collection of composers, in spite of the Russian-Jewish origins of his immigrant parents. He wrote popular songs, stage musicals and made occasional excursions into music that attempted a synthesis of the popular and the classical. The Three Preludes, written in 1936, the year before his death, offer such a compromise, as thoroughly American as can be imagined.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847), privileged in his upbringing as the son of a banker, and grandson of the Jewish philosopher and pioneer of toleration, Moses Mendelssohn, won enormous popularity as a composer and distinction as a conductor. His Songs Without Words, of which he published various collections throughout his life, are short character-pieces, sometimes taking the place of an autograph album entry or a compliment to an admiring hostess. The Hunting Song was written in 1829 and published in London the following year.

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856), whose love affair and subsequent marriage to the pianist Clara Wieck, daughter of his piano teacher, had about it all the romantic interest that parental disapproval and prolonged litigation can produce, began with ambitions as a writer, proceeded as a pianist until injury stopped play, and ended his career in an asylum, after a short period as director of music in Duesseldorf. The set of nine pieces that make up Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) was writ- ten in 1848 and 1849, at a time when depression threatened yet again and political circumstances in Dresden, where he was living, were very uncertain. Clara Schumann found one of the pieces far too morbid for inclusion in her concert performances, but had no objection to The Prophet Bird.

Schumann, as a young critic, had been among the first to recognize the ability of the Polish pianist and composer Fryderyk Chopin (1810 - 1849), greeting his performance with the words "Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!" He later went on to parody Chopin's style in his pianistic parade, Carnaval, something that Chopin never forgave. Of paternal French origin, Chopin was Polish by birth and by persuasion, keenly involved in the sufferings of his country under Russian domination. He was to spend most of his career in Paris, where he wrote the Fantasie-Impromptu in 1835, the first of four such compositions.

Balazs Szokolay

The Hungarian pianist Balazs Szokolay was born in Budapest in 1961, the son of a composer and professor at the Ferenc Uszt Academy of Music and of a mother who is also a pianist. After study in Budapest he took up a West German Government scholarship in Munich, where he spent eighteen months, before becoming a soloist with the Hungarian State Orchestra.

Szokolay has given concerts throughout Western and Eastern Europe since his first appearance at Interforum in 1978 and his 1979 debut at the Salzburg Festival. He has won a number of important prizes in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Germany.

Disc 1

Rondo in D major, K. 485

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Composed by: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wanda Landowska
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Martin Souter, piano
Gesa Lucker, piano

Rondo in D major, K. 485 - 6:02

4 Impromptus, Op. 90, D. 899

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Composed by: Franz Schubert
Gerlint Bottcher, piano
Eva Sukova, piano
Jeno Jando, piano
Elena Bezprozvannykh,
Sviatoslav Richter, piano
Paul Badura-Skoda,
Tzimon Barto, piano
Anton Kuerti, piano
Carol Rosenberger, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Mark Ehrenfried, piano
Martin Souter, piano
Jane Coop, piano

Impromptu in G flat major - 5:42

Aufforderung zum Tanze (Invitation to the Dance), Op. 65, J. 260

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Composed by: Carl Maria von Weber
Alfred Cortot, piano
Artur Schnabel, piano
Ignaz Friedman, narrator
Herbert Schuch, piano
Alexander Paley, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Recording date: 23 November and 2 December 1936

Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65 - 8:17

8 Humoresques, Op. 101, B. 187 (version for piano solo)

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Composed by: Antonin Dvorak
Eva Sukova, piano
Ignaz Friedman, narrator
Steven Mayer, piano
Stefan Veselka, piano
Eduard Laurel, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Recording date: 1 December 1936

Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101, No. 8 - 2:50

Waldscenen, Op. 82

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Composed by: Robert Schumann
Alfred Cortot, piano
Wilhelm Backhaus, piano
Penelope Crawford, fortepiano
Benno Moiseiwitsch, piano
Paul Gulda, piano
Myra Hess, piano
Michael Lewin, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Tobias Koch, piano
Martin Souter, piano
Recording date: 13 May 1941

Bird as Prophet - 2:30

Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), Book 1, Op. 19b

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Composed by: Felix Mendelssohn Gerald Garcia
Bertrand Chamayou, piano
Benno Moiseiwitsch, piano
Ignaz Friedman, narrator
Jeno Jando, piano
Josef Hofmann, piano
Peter Nagy, piano
Daniela Ruso, harpsichord
Carol Rosenberger, piano
Ian Fountain, piano
Dana Protopopescu, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Mark Ehrenfried, piano
Martin Souter, piano

Hunting Song - 2:16

Liebestraume, S541/R211

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Composed by: Eugen d' Albert Franz Liszt
Rafael Orozco, piano
Xiangdong Kong, piano
Benno Moiseiwitsch, piano
Eva Sukova, piano
Jeno Jando, piano
Walter Rummel,
Israela Margalit, piano
Elena Bezprozvannykh,
Dinara Nadzhafova, piano
Vladimir Bunin, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Jack Richard Crossan, piano
Peter Szokolay, piano
Martin Souter, piano
Jane Coop, piano
Recording date: 1989

Dream of Love, No. 3 - 3:45

Fantasy-Impromptu in C sharp minor, Op. 66

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Composed by: Xaver Scharwenka Fryderyk Chopin Chengzong Yin
Alfred Cortot, piano
Irene Scharrer, piano
Benno Moiseiwitsch, piano
Janina Fialkowska, piano
Eva Sukova, piano
Josef Hofmann, piano
Halina Czerny-Stefanska,
Elena Bezprozvannykh,
Idil Biret, piano
Istvan Szekely, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Eugene Mursky, piano
Pavlos Hatzopoulos, piano
Jane Coop, piano
Recording date: 6 March 1918

Fantasie-impromptu in C sharp minor, Op. 66 - 4:33

Les saisons (The Seasons), Op. 37b

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Performed by: Philadelphia Orchestra
Composed by: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky Olli Mustonen
Conducted by: Christoph Eschenbach
Olga Tverskaya, fortepiano
Antonin Kubalek, piano
Shura Cherkassky, piano
Dmitry Paperno, piano
Eteri Andjaparidze, piano
Eva Sukova, piano
Mischa Levitzki, piano
Lydia Artymiw, piano
Luba Edlina, piano
Terence Judd, piano
Peter Nagy, piano
Ilona Prunyi, piano
Andre Laplante, piano
Ilya Rachkovsky, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Mark Ehrenfried, piano
Benjamin Moser, piano
Recording date: 9-11 September, 1987

Barcarolle - 4:24

Lyric Pieces, Book 3, Op. 43

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Composed by: Percy Grainger Edvard Grieg
Janina Fialkowska, piano
Jeno Jando, piano
Marian Lapsansky, piano
Michael Lewin, piano
Carol Rosenberger, piano
Einar Steen-Nokleberg, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Per Tengstrand, piano
Martin Souter, piano

Little Bird, Op. 43, No. 4 - 1:45
Butterfly, Op. 43, No. 1 - 1:41

Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences, Op. 41

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Composed by: Zdenek Fibich
Jeno Jando, piano
William Howard, piano
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Recording date: 9-11 September, 1987

Poem, Op. 41 - 1:42

3 Preludes

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Composed by: George Gershwin
Richard Dowling, piano
Leon Bates, piano
Georges Rabol, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano

Three Preludes - 5:03

2 Melodies, Op. 3

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Composed by: Anton Rubinstein
Joseph Banowetz, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Martin Souter, piano

Melodie in F - 3:59

Roman nepi tancok (Romanian Folk Dances), BB 68

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Composed by: Bela Bartok
Diana Ketler, piano
Lili Kraus, piano
Jeno Jando, piano
Geoffrey Tozer, piano
Beatrice Long, piano
Kathryn Stott, piano
Balazs Szokolay, piano
Zhou Qian, violin
Recording date: 9-11 September, 1987

Romanian Folk Dances, Sz 56 - 4:36

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Composer(s):
Bartok, Bela; Chopin, Fryderyk; Dvorak, Antonin; Fibich, Zdenek; Gershwin, George; Grieg, Edvard; Liszt, Franz; Mendelssohn, Felix; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus; Rubinstein, Anton; Schubert, Franz; Schumann, Robert; Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich; Weber, Carl Maria von

Artist(s):
Szokolay, Balazs

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099505222
Item Number: 8550052
Release Date: Mar 7, 1988