I’ve chosen six of these knucklebusters as exemplars. This was the heyday of Chopin’s waltzes, mazurkas and polonaises, of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, of Brahms’ intermezzi and capriccios.Īnd when there were sonatas, they went big. These were short catchy pieces sometimes singly and sometimes strung together in a suite, such as Schumann’s Carnivale or Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons. There were less ambitious works written, and the standard for most of the 19th century was the character piece, not the sonata. Franz Liszt began the practice, but the long, knucklebusting piano sonata was established. You could say that Beethoven seems to have presented a challenge to all those who came after him: how to live up to his example.Īnd the example he gave was for a longer, more complicated sonata - a kind not to be played by prosperous daughters of the middle class after dinner, but by traveling virtuosi giving piano recitals to a paying public. The 19th century saw fewer piano sonatas, but much bigger and more difficult specimens.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |