3rd Concert

Wed 13.9

Our third concert explores two pieces with a unique colour and structure Schubert's fantasy for four hands and Ravel's Trio and ends in a stream of light and freshness with Schumann's piano quartet. Schubert's fantasy as well as Ravel's trio both seem to be written with the sonata form in mind and both go in great lengths to explore the possibilities and musical textures of the instruments they were written for. Schubert wrote his fantasy only months before his death and Ravel a week before going to WWI's battlefield. The element of urgency as well as the nostalgic, heartbreaking and introvert melodies speak of the inner thoughts of these composers. Finally Schumann's piano quartet with its structural clarity and classical forms with offer the needed release from the previous tension and lead us to the end of the festival in a mostly cathartic way.

Franz Schubert - Schubert Fantasy for Four Hands

20'

Vassilis Varvaresos - Piano
Alexia Mouza Arenas - Piano

Maurice Ravel - Ravel Piano Trio

28'

Titos Gouvelis - Piano
Andreas Papanikolaou - Violin
Angelos Liakakis - Cello

Robert Schumann - Schumann Piano Quartet

28'

Vassilis Varvaresos - Piano
Faidon Miliadis - Violin
George Demertzis - Viola
Angelos Liakakis - Cello

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Concert
Works

CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017

Minoa Chamber Music Festival - Franz Schubert - Fantasy for Four Hands

Franz Schubert

Fantasy for Four Hands

F MINOR D.940 OP. 103

A few months before his death, between January and April 1828, Schubert wrote his last fantasy in Vienna, dedicated to his student Karoline Esterházy. In this piece he is unmistakably reaching out to his first ” Wanderer” fantasy composition, but this time he abandons the explosive bravura for an almost elegiac and deeply haunting theme. For some, this refined and ingeniously articulated piece is his way of approaching a musical farewell or statement. Schubert wrote more four-hand piano music than any other great composer, and while all of them are examples of a truly skilled composer, the F minor fantasy is considered by many to be one of his greatest works in general. While the four distinct but pauseless sections of the work resemble the form of a typical Sonata, Schubert’s masterful transitions create an illusion of a completely coherent and contiguous musical piece of striking beauty where everything flows inevitably from what precedes.

A sublime breath of hope and sadness that, as Eduard von Bauernfeld recorded in his diary, was performed by Schubert himself along with his friend and also composer, Franz Lachner in a memorable duet in 9 May of the same year of his death.

MOVEMENTS

I. Allegro molto moderato
II. Largo
III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
IV. Finale. Allegro molto moderato

Minoa Chamber Music Festival - Maurice Ravel - Piano Trio

Maurice Ravel

Piano Trio

A MINOR

This brilliant specimen of a Piano trio was written by Maurice Ravel in 1914, shortly before he temporarily abandoned life as a musician. While the initial progress on the Trio was slow, the sudden outbreak of WWI spurred on Ravel to finish the work so that he could enlist in the army on time. A few days after France’s entry into the war, Ravel wrote again to Maurice Delage: "Yes, I am working on the Trio with the sureness and lucidity of a madman." By September he had finished it, writing to Igor Stravinsky, "The idea that I should be leaving at once made me get through five months' work in five weeks! My Trio is finished.”

The Piano Trio in A minor is in a way a Sonata for three players, rich in the harmonic and textural innovations Ravel had accomplished in the prewar years, but ultimately, and very possibly more significantly, composed around balanced, quintessentially Neoclassical patterns. The importance of this work can also be seen in the way he reconciled the contrasting sonorities of the piano and the string instruments. By making extensive use of the extreme ranges of each instrument, tonically spacing the piano between the cello and the violin and by employing coloristic effects such as tremolos, glissandos and arpeggios, he achieved a total clarity in texture and instrumental balance.

MOVEMENTS

I. Allegro molto moderato
II. Largo
III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
IV. Finale. Allegro molto moderato

Minoa Chamber Music Festival - Robert Schumann - Piano Quartet

Robert Schumann

Piano Quartet

E FLAT MINOR, OP.47

Schumann’s musical creativity, unlike those of other major composers, operated in extremely narrow ranges of repertoire at various times in his life. The Piano Quartet is the result of what would become his “chamber music year” in 1842. After producing three string quartets and a piano trio, Schumann took advantage of his acquired fluency and experience in the genre and wrote his innovative Piano Quintet and the Piano Quartet both in the same key. Both pieces relate to some extent and for some musicologists they can even be understood as compositions written simultaneously.

Despite its smaller ensemble, the Piano Quartet is a more intimate example of absolute clarity and concision with traits that seem to reflect Schumann’s mode of production. It is a concentrated and highly integrated composition that manages to naturally incorporate all the key features of Classical chamber music. Melody, counterpoint, motivic development, heart-felt song, quicksilver scherzo, and even fugue come together for a rich composite that pays tribute to Schumann’s ardent study of the masters: Haydn, Mozart and especially Beethoven.

MOVEMENTS

I. Sostenuto assai - Allegro ma non troppo
II. Scherzo: Molto vivace - Trio I - Trio II
III. Andante cantabile
IV. Finale: Vivace