The oldest piece of the program is of vocal origin, the lied An Sylvia (To Sylvia), D. 891 written by Franz Schubert, who is regarded as one of the great composers of this genre. An Sylvia is the third and last of a series of lieder dated from July of 1826 and that Schubert based on texts by Shakespeare translated to German. From a very different category, the German composer Carl Boehm outstood due to his great skill to sell and commercialize his extensive production of light-spirited music. He succeeded to the point that the publisher Simrock affirmed once that the money generated by Boehm's musical scores paid for the edition of the works by Brahms. The song Still wie die Nacht (Calm as the Night) was one of his greatest hits.

Equally focused on the human voice but of a public nature absolutely contrasting to the lied, the opera provided a vast material for arrangements. Ranging from the versions for wind ensemble by Mozart and his contemporaries to Liszt's Paraphrases. Both of the pieces from operatic origin in this program come from very successful master works. Carmen (1873 - 74), the last opera written by Georges Bizet and Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni's first opera, premiered in Rome in May of 1890. It is of great interest to observe that while Carmen represents the highest point of Bizet's productions, Cavalleria turned his author into a victim of an extraordinary but premature success, which came to him before he had acquired a wider musical knowledge.

Antonio Bazzini, as well as Pablo de Sarasate and Fritz Kreisler are considered between the most outstanding violin virtuosos in their respective times. Bazzini started his career encouraged by Paganini and was highly admired as a virtuoso performer and composer, among others by Robert Schumann. After his retirement as a violinist in 1864, Bazzini devoted himself to teaching and composing, having Mascagni and Puccini among his students. The scherzo fantastique "La Ronde des Lutins" (The Dance of the Goblins), Op. 25 (originally written for violin and piano) was first published in Milan in 1852. Unlike Bazzini, who stopped writing showpieces to focus in the opera and the classic forms, Sarasate did not attempt to go further than producing music for his own use mainly. Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) was published in 1878 in Leipzig, while Kreisler's Sicilienne et Rigaudon belongs to a series o a few dozens of pieces "in ancient style" which he presented as originals by composers from the 18th century. In this case, Kreisler attributed Sicilienne et Rigaudon to François Francoeur (1698 - 1789), a Parisian violinist member of a family of musicians dedicated to the service of the King's Chamber Music as well as to the Paris Opera. Francoeur himself was also a successful composer. When Kreisler admitted to be the author of all these pieces the critics' opinion was divided between those ones who became indignant and the ones who accepted it as a joke.

From the repertory for piano we can enjoy the Melodya (Melody) by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, outstanding virtuoso and Polish patriot. This piece belongs to the Miscellanea (Miscellany) Op. 16, which includes two legends, a varied theme, a nocturne, a moment musical and a minuet. The collection is dated from 1888, a crucial year for the beginning of Paderewski's international career as a soloist.

In spite of being more disseminated in the version orchestrated by Henri Rabaud, Dolly was composed by Gabriel Fauré in a very intermittent way - in 1894 the Berceuse (Lullaby) and 1896 - 97 as "Six pieces for piano at four hands". The work was composed thinking of the young Hélène (called Dolly) Bardac, whose mother Emma would later become Debussy's second wife.

From Camille Saint-Saëns, former teacher of Debussy, is included Le Cygne (The Swan), a fragment extracted from Carnaval des Animaux (Carnival of the Animals), one of his most popular works. Carnaval is dated from 1886, year in which Saint-Saëns also wrote his Third Symphony, and was originally intended for chamber ensemble.

Concluding the program we leap a whole century until a fruit of the last decade of the 20th century, Idilio (Idyll), in its version of 1997 by Alejandro Corona. Mr. Corona is an outstanding Mexican pianist who has also gained distinction as a pedagogue of the piano and whose wide interests range from classical music to jazz; from Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann to Hindemith, Stravinsky and Bill Evans, just to mention a few of them.

1. The Dance of the Goblins (Antonio Bazzini)
2. Intermezzo Sinfonico (from Cavalleria Rusticana) (Pietro Mascagni)
3. The Swan (from the Carnival of the Animals) (Camille Saint Saens)
4. To Sylvia (Franz Schubert)
5. Calm As The Night (Carl Boehm)
6. Berceuse (Lullaby) (Gabriel Faure)
7. Siciliana et Rigaudon (Fritz Kreisler)
8. Intermezzo (from Carmen) (Georges Bizet)
9. Melody (David Arditti
10. Melody Op16 No2 (Ignacy Jan Paderewski)
11. Gypsy Airs Op20 No1 (Pablo de Sarasate)
12. Idyll (Alejandro Corona)

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 7/17/2011
Eduardo Gonzalez lives in Sinaloa Mexico

Tagged as: Classical, Chamber Music, Schubert

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