The Name You Trust for Classical Music

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD DUKAS: Piano Sonata / Variations on a Theme of Rameau

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Music AND Flowers. The Perfect Gifts.

Spend $50 or more on NaxosDirect and we'll give you a $10 coupon for 1800Flowers.com family of stores. Offer ends Feb. 12th. Need suggestions? Click here

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

Wind Band

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Special Offers:

Free MP3 Downloads

Catalogs

Internship Opportunities

Celebrating Black History

Grammy Winners on Sale

Masters of American Music

Valentine�s Day Special

Clearance

Penguin Guide

200 Essential Recordings

Recently Released

Upcoming Releases

SACD

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD
        Pop/Rock Concert

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Video Librarian Reviews

Labels

Naxos Label

        Naxos American Classics
        Naxos Best Of...
        Naxos Box Sets
        Naxos Cinema Classics
        Naxos Classics
        Naxos DVD
        Naxos DVD-Audio
        Naxos International
        Naxos Jazz
        Naxos Limited Edition
        Naxos Milken Archives
        Naxos Night Music
        Naxos Opera
        Naxos Orchestral
        Naxos Special Release
        Naxos Wind Band Classics
        Naxos World

Composers

Conductors

Ensembles

Orchestras

Choirs

Artists

Instruments

Producers

DUKAS: Piano Sonata / Variations on a Theme of Rameau

Home

Classical Music

Instrumental

DUKAS: Piano Sonata / Variations on a Theme of Rameau

View large image

Total playing time: 01:15:12

$8.99 (CD)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Link to this CD Link to this page

Paul Dukas (1865-1935) Complete Piano Music Paul Dukas was born in Paris on 1st October 1865 and died there on 17th May 1935. Although his catalogue of...

Read more about this recording

Paul Dukas (1865-1935)

Complete Piano Music

Paul Dukas was born in Paris on 1st October 1865 and died there on 17th May 1935. Although his catalogue of published works is small, it is of the highest quality, consisting essentially of one overture, Polyeucte, one symphony, one symphonic scherzo (the immortal L'apprenti sorcier), one choreographic poem, La Peri, one opera, Ariane et Barbe-bleue, and four piano works, two occasional pieces written in memory of two great masters, Haydn and Debussy, and two others now considered key compositions of both their genre and their time, the Sonata in E flat minor and the wonderful "Rameau" Variations. Dukas's respect for music, his audience and himself resulted in extreme, and at times excessive self-criticism and censorship. Far from damaging his inventive capacity, however, his exacting standards brought him enlightenment and stimulation, hence the dense textures, the imagination and the subtlety to be found in even his shortest works.

The Prelude elegiaque of 1909, composed around the letters H-A-Y-D-N to mark the centenary of Haydn's death for the Revue de la Societe Independante de Musique, is a leading example of those monuments created by classical composers to pay homage to one of their own. Its calm, vibrant and full sonorities reveal an affection and admiration for the composer of The Creation as well as for all that he represented in terms of inventiveness and balance. Dukas used words as well as music to praise Haydn in his Chroniques musicales. In fact ever since 1904 he had been describing his fellow composer as "pure of heart, a genius, a creative spirit and a natural, with faith in the absolute expressive value of music".

In similar fashion, from the very first notes of La Plainte, au loin, du faune (1920) we are left in no doubt of Dukas's love, veneration even, for the work of Debussy. His grief at his friend's death is expressed here through the sorrowful chromaticisms and great simplicity of this sombre, noble and unpretentious work which recreates the powerful, sensual harmonies of the Prelude � l'apr�s-midi d'un faune.

The great Sonata in E flat minor is composed on a grander scale altogether. Dedicated to Saint-Sa�ns, it was first performed in Paris's Salle Pleyel on 10th May 1901 by Edouard Risler. It followed the sweeping Symphony in C and L'apprenti sorcier of 1896-97 and is acknowledged to be one of the twentieth century's greatest works for piano. While certain influences can be glimpsed - Beethoven, Liszt, Franck - the sonata is really the reflection of Dukas's own classical and aesthetic thinking, as marked by refined emotion and a discursive density requiring absolute concentration on the part of both the listener and the performer. Nothing is superfluous here, everything is significant.

The sonata has a four-movement design. The opening Moderement vite is constructed on two themes, the first, anxiety-laden, in E flat minor, the second, more serene, in C flat minor, and uses regular sonata form, exposition, development and recapitulation. The second movement, Calme, un peu lent, tr�s soutenu, also has two themes. It takes its substance not from the opposition of motifs but, much more subtly, from their complementary nature, in a stunning lyrical progression stemming from ornamental variation and the double so beloved of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century composers. After these melodies in flowing contrapuntal phrases, the third movement, Vivement, avec leg�rete, acts as a bithematic scherzo which is then added to and enlivened by a third motif, briefly treated in fugato. The finale, in E flat and 4/4 time, is rhythmical and wonderfully "orchestrated". Without going as far as a Franck-like cyclical form, Dukas allows the opening scheme to reappear: a magnificent culmination to this dazzling work, free from any weakness, be it in tone, thought or writing, whose grandiose conclusion broadens the details of the opening bars into a supreme dimension.

The Variations, Interlude et Finale triptych completed in February 1902 and again first performed by Risler, on 23rd March 1903 at the Societe Nationale de la Musique, constitutes a different challenge, that of constructing new and impressive material from the basis of the smallest musical fragment. Once more demonstrating in his music the analysis championed in his critical writings, Dukas chooses a theme of disarming simplicity from Rameau. Then he applies some of his own views, for example, that true music can free itself from earlier writing and instruments (in this case the harpsichord). Finally, he does away with time as the spirit of an age in order to tend towards the universal and the intemporal in a fabulous adventure.

The first seven variations are essentially melodic. No. 1 is characterized by the use of counterpoint, No. 2 by its rhythmic strength, while in Nos. 3 and 4 the theme switches between bass and soprano, from one hand to the other; in No. 5 we hear modulating polyphony, No. 6 uses an echo effect and No. 7 has a leaping, skipping melody. There is a livelier feel to the final four variations. No. 8 is in arpeggios, No. 9 has a gigue rhythm, No. 10 that of a sarabande, and No. 11 unfolds in a very peaceful atmosphere. Then comes the dreaming Interlude, a moment of calm between the earlier tension and the great surge of the Finale, where the principal motif divides, first syncopated, then magnified, until the two reunite in the final apotheosis. This superb and powerful tribute to Rameau illustrates the extent of Dukas's desire for Apollonian clarity. After the density of the Sonata, his creation has become refined, achieving the very quintessence of music, and of the classical spirit, freedom.

Benedicte Palaux Simonnet

English version by Susannah Howe

Disc 1

Piano Sonata in E flat minor

(more info)

Composed by: Paul Dukas
Chantal Stigliani, piano
Recording date: 18-22 February 2002

Moderement vite - 11:36
Calme - un peu lent - tres soutenu - 10:43
Vivement, avec legerete - 9:51
Tres lent - anime - 14:24

La Plainte, au loin, du faune

(more info)

Composed by: Paul Dukas
Chantal Stigliani, piano
Recording date: 18-22 February 2002

La Plainte, au loin, du faune - 5:18

Variations, Interlude et Finale sur un theme de Rameau

(more info)

Composed by: Paul Dukas
Chantal Stigliani, piano
Recording date: 18-22 February 2002

Theme menuet - 0:30
Variation 1: tendrement - 0:36
Variation 2: assez vif tres rythme - 0:36
Variation 3: sans hate delicatement - 1:32
Variation 4: un peu anime avec legerete - 0:32
Variation 5: lent - 1:27
Variation 6: modere - 0:58
Variation 7: assez fig - 0:33
Variation 8: tres modere - 1:00
Variation 9: anime - 0:28
Variation 10: sans lenteur bien marque - 0:48
Variation 11: sombre assez lent - 2:33
Interlude - 2:39
Finale (var. 12): moderement anime - 4:37

Prelude elegiaque

(more info)

Composed by: Paul Dukas
Chantal Stigliani, piano
Recording date: 18-22 February 2002

Prelude elegiaque - 4:31

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

FREE SHIPPING on orders
of 5 items or more!

Earn Naxos Rewards Points by opening an account and buying your favorite music today! Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Dukas, Paul

Artist(s):
Stigliani, Chantal

Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 747313205325
Item Number: 8557053
Release Date: Aug 1, 2003