Conservatorium of Music
Thursday Concert Class
Thursday Concert Class
| Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 54 | Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) |
| I. Allegro Affettuoso | |
| Timothy Kan, Piano | |
| Konrad Olszewski, piano | |
| The Concerto starts with a flurry of consecutive chords which leads to the core theme of the entire concerto. This dream like, fantastical theme continually transforms throughout the first movement. | |
| Three pieces for flute solo | Pierre-Octave Ferroud (1900 - 1936) |
| 1. Bergère captive 2. Jade 3. Toan-Yan, la Fête du Double Cinq | |
| Wil Rigby, Flute | |
| Pierre-Octave Ferroud was a french composer of the early 20th centry and was a contemporary of Francis Poulenc. The Three pieces for flute solo were written during 1920-1922 as induvidual works, not initially as a set of pieces. All movements, but particulary the 2nd and 3rd movements are evocative of the era's interest in chinese culture utilising a pentatonic scale motif commonly seen in chinese music. | |
| Sonata for Trumpet and Piano | Eric Ewazen (1954 - ) |
| I. | |
| Adrian Meyer, trumpet | |
| Konrad Olszewski, piano | |
| Eric Ewazen has fast gained a name as a composer of brass music and an established place in brass players' repertoire. His Sonata for Trumpet and Piano was commissioned and is dedicated to the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) and was first performed by Chris Gekker with Ewazen at the piano at a meeting of the ITG at Indiana University in the United States on May 30, 1995. Ewazen and Gekker had often worked together and Ewazen reports that he could hear the sound of Gekker's trumpet in his mind while composing the Sonata. Ewazen quite obviously has faith in the traditional elements of music: melody and tonality. | |
| Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, op.52 | Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849) |
| Ian Mercado, Piano | |
| Ballade no. 4 in F minor, op. 52 is the last ballade out of the 4 that Chopin composed. It was written during his late years and it is among his greatest works as it captures a huge range of human emotions and expressions through the musical ideas. According to Robert Schumann, this Ballade was inspired by Adam Mickiewicz's poem, 'The Three Budrys', which tells of three brothers sent away by their father to seek treasures, and the story of their return with three Polish brides. | |
| Piano Concerto No. 1 | Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) |
| I. Allegro maestoso II. Quasi Adagio III. Allegretto vivace-Allegro animato IV. Allegro marziale animato | |
| Anastasia Tionadewi, Piano | |
| Konrad Olszewski, piano | |
| Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 has a powerful and majestic chatacter throughout. The orchestra introduces the main theme of the piece with a powerful motif, which is then continued by a powerful octave passage on the piano, spanning 4 octaves. That initial theme recurs several times, which leads to the gloriously placid second movement. Then comes a dancing third movement in which the triangle plays a surprisingly central role. The concerto ends with a muscular fourth movement in which the themes from previous movements return. | |
| Prelude and Fugue in D-flat, Opus 87 No. 15. | Dmiti Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) |
| Xiao-Xiao Kingham, Piano | |
| Shostakovich joined together many kinds of preludes with his fugues: chants and fugues, pastorals and fugues, inventions and fugues. But this pairing of a waltz and a fugue is the most unlikely. The waltz is a brightly colored and slightly sarcastic piece which, for all its modulations and chromatic inflections, is thoroughly grounded in its key. The fugue that follows is anything but grounded; instead, demented might be a better description. Through this exhilarating and almost ironic work, Shostakovich seems capable of putting together any combination of movements to form a cohesive pair. | |
| Ramble on Love from Der Rosenkavalier | Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) |
| Arranged by Percy Grainger | |
| Xiao-Xiao Kingham, Piano | |
| The Australian pianist and composer Percy Grainger was notable for writing piano paraphrases, many of which he labelled “rambles,†presumably to indicate the meandering pleasure he took in wandering through the musical meadows of other composers’ works. His most elaborately wrought of these is based on the love duet between Sophie and Octavian n the final scene of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier This piece was completed shortly after the suicide of his mother, from despair at rumours of incest. As someone who was considered to be his constant companion, Grainger, devastated at her death, dedicated the work to her. | |
| Gaspard de la Nuit | Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937) |
| III Scarbo | |
| Tian Tian Lan, Piano | |
| Scarbo presents a diabolical exploration of almost all the sonorities available on a modern day piano, and demands a high level of virtuosity, encompassing explosive toccatissimo passages to grand sweeping melodies. Listen out for the repeated note theme which permeates throughout the piece. | |