Alex Moreno: Solo Piano Recital

‘Deep River’ is a song about crossing boundaries, physical and metaphorical. Through the richness of the music’s textures, its simple yet memorable melody and its contrasting episodes – from serenity to restless drama – the composer suggests both the physical breadth and depth of a great river, and actual and ideological divides between peoples.

‘Deep River’ is one of the best-known spirituals; Coleridge-Taylor first encountered it in a performance by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African-American acapella ensemble, which he heard in concert when they visited London. Coleridge-Taylor sought to integrate traditional African music into the classical tradition, not unlike Brahms and Dvořák in their use of Eastern European and American folk music idioms in their works. ‘Deep River’ is one of 24 Negro Melodies Transcribed for the Piano, which Coleridge-Taylor published in 1905. In general, he did not use entire folk melodies in his compositions, preferring to create fantasies based on the original melody. In ‘Deep River’, the composer uses only the first four bars of the song, and dispenses with the verse-chorus-verse organisation – though fragments of the main melody return throughout the piece.

Deep river, my home is over Jordan;
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.
Oh don’t you want to go to that gospel feast,
that Promised Land where all is peace?
Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground.

Notes courtesy of Interlude

From his student days until the years between the World Wars, Maurice Ravel habitually attended the elegant and stylish salon of Princess Edmond de Polignac (1865-1943). She was an American, whose maiden name was Winnaretta Singer, and she became heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She was also a noted patron of the arts. It was this princess who commissioned Ravel to write his six-minute piano piece, Pavane for a Dead Princess. Ravel played the Pavane for the first time in 1899, and overnight it launched his reputation. The piece became extremely popular, and the composer orchestrated it in 1910.
 
The wording of Ravel’s title was regrettable, and he frequently had to explain that the piece is not a cortège for a recently deceased princess. The real sense of it is actually “a princess out of the past.”
 
Characteristic of Ravel, he grew hypercritical of the piece. In 1912, having to review a concert on which the Pavane had been programmed, he wrote:

I no longer see its good points from such a distance. But, alas, I perceive its faults very clearly: the glaring influence of Chabrier and the rather poverty-stricken form! The remarkable interpretation of this incomplete and unoriginal work contributed, I think, to its success.

Notes courtesy of Dr. Michael Fink © 2023 for RIPHIL

Although French, Milhaud was heavily influenced by jazz and Brazilian music. In 1917-18, he traveled to Latin America and was there exposed to Brazilian dances and rhythms. Each of the dances in this suite is based on a tango or samba rhythm and named after various Brazilian neighborhoods and cities.

The dances can be divided into two groups:

1. The dance rhythm in the left hand is played against a slow, simple melody in the right hand
2. The dance rhythm is the driving force and both hands work together

Aside from the Brazilian-style rhythms and characters, there is one other defining characteristic of this piano suite: Milhaud’s use of polytonality. Polytonality is when there are multiple keys being used at the same time. In these dances, often the right hand has a different key center than the left hand does. This gives a feeling of disjointedness, which... is perfect for the fun style of these dances.

Notes courtesy of A Pianist's Musings

The prelude in C sharp minor was originally one of a five-piece set called Morceaux de fantaisie. Now you’ll find it most often compiled with his other preludes. He actually performed this in his first public concert as a “Free Artist” after graduation from the Moscow Conservatory. The piece is a clear cut ABA form, where the A consists of a thick, chordal texture that sounds like bells with a hauntingly beautiful melody atop and the B section that creates a sense of an anxiety attack fromthe composer. No, maybe he wasn’t conveying an anxiety attack, but the story goes that the inspiration behind the prelude was from a dream he had. The dream was set at a funeral (the A section “bells”), and there “center stage” was a coffin. As Rachminoff approaches to look inside the coffin, he sees himself there inside, where he immediately feels terror and anxiety (the B section “agitato”). Whether or not the story about the dream is true, it is true that he experienced loss of family members at a young age.

Notes courtesy of Philadelphia Piano Institute

One of two pieces in Chopin's Opus 48 collection, the Nocturne in C minor is seen as one of the composer's greatest emotional achievements.

Mournful, stately, and beautiful - in just over six minutes of breathtaking music, Chopin explores the emotional ranges of the piano. The work was composed in 1841 alone with his Nocturne in F sharp minor, and dedicated to one of the composer's favourite pupils, Laure Duperré.

Thanks to the sheer variety between the Nocturnes, with Nos. 1-18 being published within Chopin's lifetime, the pieces have been adopted as a backbone of Romantic piano repertoire. Few, however, are as powerful as the Opus. 48 set. Despite being relatively short, the nocturne's heavy bass notes and solemn melody combine to create an overwhelming sense of despair.

The following set of Nocturnes took slightly longer to compose; the Op. 55 pair was completed between 1842 - 1844. He completed two more sets before he died in 1849, aged 39.

Notes courtesy of ClassicFM

Rondo capriccioso starts with a lyrical introduction then proceeds to the main section Presto leggiero. Mendelssohn interestingly composed this work in reversed order. The work was originally conceived in 1828 as an étude, comprising only the E-minor presto part in scherzo style. Later in 1830, he reworked it by adding the song-like expressive Andante introduction in major as a present for Delphine von Schauroth, a gifted pianist. In a letter to Fanny Mendelssohn, he wrote that he had added some new melodies and passages to the original Presto leggiero, just like adding sauce and mushrooms and he was fairly satisfied with the work. In the 19th century, it was one of the two most famous solo piano pieces of the composer (the other being Variations sérieuses). It appeared very frequently on concert programs of the time, including Mendelssohn’s.

Notes courtesy of Serene Yu