Post WW2 piano

Posted by: DJH on 07 December 2003

I recently managed to compile a catalogue of my music collection, and realised how much time I'd been spending on post WW2 repertoire, mainly string quartets and piano music, the latter the subject of this thread. These are the pieces that I think are important in this period - mainly the high avant garde in the 50's - and I'd be interested in how others respond to this music, often seen as "difficult".

Boulez Structures, Piano sonatas 1 - 3

These pieces are quite possibly amongst the most uncompromising and iconoclastic music written, which with hindsight is still indebted to Debussy and Messiaen.

Stockhausen Klavierstucke

Remarkably accessible and often sensual music, quite different from Cage, however.

Cage Music for Changes, Etudes Australes

Most people know the Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, but these pieces are quite different, in their cool but relentless unfolding.

Barraque Sonate pour piano & Hopkins Etudes en serie

I've classed these two together, partly because Barraque was Hopkins' teacher, but mainly because of their common nihilism. Barraque's Sonata has long periods of silence in the second section, leading to a point in which "each of the twelve notes gets picked off one by one". Hopkins' music seems to anticipate its own disappearance or evaporation - I've never heard anything quite like it before.

Messiaen Catalogue d'Oiseaux, La Fauvette des Jardins

I should include Vingt Regards sue l'Enfant Jesus and Visions de l'Amen, but my view is that the Catalogue d'Oiseaux is the central piece in all of Messiaen's work, in much the same way as Beethoven's late string quartets (and it is certainly as profound). The contrast with his contemporaries is striking - where Boulez confronts and destroys in order to create, Messiaen affirms and celebrates in order to transform. (Just compare the central section of La Fauvette des Jardins to the second book of Boulez's Structures - the music springs from the same source, but has a completely different effect.) Where Barraque and Hopkins write music of genius which leads to nothing, Messiaen finds a path to sustain faith and belief. La Fauvette des Jardins is possibly the most extended piece of lyrical affirmation of the transforming power of the imagination written in the twentieth century.
Posted on: 07 December 2003 by herm
David,

you could try to get Elliott Carter's Night Fantasies. There are a couple recordings out and about, and it could be right up your alley.

It's late Carter (1980) and it's supposed to be modelled on Schumann's Kreisleriana.

Herman
Posted on: 08 December 2003 by DJH
quote:
Originally posted by Nick Lees:
All I ask for is a bit of a tune here and there, and to not come away with the impression that I'm listening to a 300lb gorilla playing the piano wearing boxing gloves.


Nick; can I recommend the Naxos disc of Austbo playing Messiaen's La Fauvette des Jardins? (I think it's volume 4 in the series.) At worst, you're down only a fiver or so if you don't like it - but you will, trust me!

Herman; didn't we touch on Carter's piano music last week? It's good stuff, but I think that the pieces I have listed above are of a different order.

I completely agree on the Shostakovich. Can I also mention Xenakis' Evryali as another essential piece.
Posted on: 08 December 2003 by Todd A
A discussion of post-war piano music with no mention of Prokofiev’s Ninth Sonata? Unthinkable!

As much a fan of post-war music as I am, even I have to admit that piano music has suffered. Perhaps the relative dearth of pianist-composers has caused or contributed to or caused this, but it is quite apparent to me. Look at the first half-of the century and compare that to the second half, and the drop in volume of great piano music is unmistakable.

That written, Messiaen is probably the best post-war composer for the piano, and his best work is the Vingt Regards. The Catalogue has much to commend it, but it lacks the unified power of the Regards. Indeed, I rate the Regards as one of the greatest piano compositions yet written.

Beyond Messiaen, there are really only two works (or groups of works) that I consider on par with the greatest piano works of prior epochs: Boulez’s Second Sonata and Ligeti’s series of Etudes. They both broke new ground (and in the case of Ligeti, continue to do so) and carried on the tradition of great virtuosic writing. Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano are high quality works, and though I listen to them occasionally, they have begun to lose their grip on me.

I’ve yet to hear Rautavaara’s or Dutilleux’s solo piano music, but beyond these two, I can’t see many great piano composers out there today. (Maybe Rzewski? Anyone?) Carter’s piano music just doesn’t not excite me much, quite in contrast to his orchestral and chamber music. Ned Rorem’s Second Sonata is a nice throwback piece, with plenty of attractive music, but strikes me as something of a trifle, and DSCH’s solo piano music has yet to fire my imagination. (Stockhausen just plain sucks.)

Now, post-war chamber music, that’s something else.


"The universe is change, life is opinion." Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Posted on: 08 December 2003 by DJH
Comparing Vingt Regards and Catalogue d'Oiseaux is like comparing Ulysses with Finnegans Wake - there is no winner (although I have always preferred the Wake). The one thing that the Catalogue most certainly does not lack, however, is unifying structure. Take the fourth book, La Rousserolle Effarvatte, for example, which follows a meticulously narrated 24 hour cycle. Even more than Vingt Regards, it has an overarching palindromic structure which holds the individual books together, and which brings you back transformed to the place you started - that is the power of this music, which does not sit comfortably within the Germanic virtuosic tradition. For the best part of a century, neither did Beethoven's late quartets.

For some reason, I have not found Ligeti's Etudes to be that compelling - my fault, I'm sure, and I shall probably try again this evening. The same would apply to Prokofiev, except more so.

Stockhausen's output may be variable, but the best of it, which includes the Klavierstucke does not suck!

Perhaps we should start a less narrow thread on modern chamber music - some great music has been written in the last two decades which needs a wider audience - Kurtag, Dillon, Ferneyhough, to mention only three. I should have included Kurtag's Jatekok in my original list.