Recently I’ve been watching some reruns of “Frasier” starring Kelsey Grammer as radio talk host Frasier Crane. In the opening episode for Season 3, Frasier has to deal with a powerful new boss, Kate Costas (played by Mercedes Ruehl) who has some problematic (to Frasier) ideas to improve his show.
At one point, Kate and Frasier argue over Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra”: Kate: Anyway, your ratings are very good. But I still think we can do better. Any ideas? [Kate takes items out of box and goes to put them on a shelf] Frasier: How to improve my show? That is a tall order. Uh. Oh, wait, you know, I was thinking of playing classical music before my intros. Let's say, perhaps, uh, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra in D Minor. Kate: It's too highbrow. I mean, I love classical music, but to most people it's a big snore. Oh, incidentally, Bartok's Concerto is in C. Frasier: Are you sure? Kate: Positive. I put myself through college working at a classical station. Let's talk about advertising. You've got a great face. I want to see it on t-shirts. I want to see it on park benches. I even want to see it on Frisbees. Everybody in Seattle should be tossing it, wearing it, sitting on it! Frasier: Wonderful. You know, I hate to nitpick, but I'm certain that concerto's in D. I was a music minor at Harvard. Kate: It's in C. It was commissioned by Serge Kosivinsky in 1943 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and since then it's been recorded over thirty times. Each time in C. Frasier: Well, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm right. Interestingly enough, maybe both of them were wrong? Bartok said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way, and according to information on Wikipedia, the piece is in F minor (HERE). Others say that there is no key signature – that the piece “shifts keys” – and that nowhere does it state that it’s in C, D, or F minor. The concerto has five movements: I. Introduzione. Andante non troppo II. Giuoco delle coppie. Allegretto scherzando III. Elegia. Andante non troppo IV. Intermezzo interrotto. Allegretto V. Finale. Pesante – Presto The first movement opens very slowly and quietly with sustained notes in the low strings, and they are soon joined by tremeloes in the violins and violas. The mood is very ominous, if not Hitchcockian (i.e., Bernard Herrmann-esque). About two minutes in, the full orchestra adds to this tense tone, and though there are some lighter passages here and there, the mood throughout most of the movement is characterized by suspense and angst. The heavy tone of the concerto lightens in the second movement both in rhythm and melody in a playful scherzando. The mood isn’t joyous and light, per se, but it is a whimsical and wry piece. The featured woodwinds are wonderful. The third movement is much quieter and solemn at the start. The notes from the YouTube video state that “Bartok described the keystone third movement, ‘Elegia,’ as a ‘lugubrious death-song,’ in which unsettled ‘night music’ effects alternate with intense, prayerful supplications” – and there are, indeed, moments of intense desperation before the movement reaches its much calmer conclusion. The fourth movement opens with some cunning and clever rhythms as the time signature alternates between 2/4 and 5/8, koon followed by some spirited and mischievous passages. The movement even includes satiric treatment of the march theme from Shostakovich’s “Leningrad” Symphony. Bold French horns open the finale, and then the strings take off in a burst and blur of energy. It isn’t until about 144 measures in or so before the orchestra seems to take a breath. Soon, they’re off again, until they reach “un poco meno mosso,” “a little less motion.” At this point, the orchestra begins a fugue-like section, building on a theme introduced by the strings. Soon, though, they’re back to “Tempo I” followed by a short “tranquillo” section, and then a race to the conclusion. As one comment below the YouTube video states, Bartok’s Concerto is “a work of exhilarating color and syncopated rhythm."
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Each week I'll listen to a classical piece I've never heard before, and then I'll report out my thoughts. First up, for the week of 11/22/20, I'll listen to Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 1. UPDATE: I've now listened to the piece a few times, once without the score (below left) and other times with an abbreviated score (below right), and I have rated the concerto a gold light saber. Continue scrolling to see my comments. As you can see from my rating above, I enjoyed Bartok’s concerto. However, I’m not sure the piece will be to everyone’s liking – especially to those new to classical music – as the composition is not a lyrical piece where one can easily hum a melody from the work. Instead, the most precise term I can use to describe Bartok's concerto is “percussive,” as Bartok emphasized the percussive nature of the piano with a relentless striking and pounding of the keys. Like most concertos, Bartok’s piece is in three movements, and in usual fashion, the first is fast, the second is slow, and the third is faster than the first. Bartok’s three movements are marked as follows:
I've played some short piano pieces by Bartok in the past, and they were not the usual fare, so to speak. They were a bit -- quirky? I remember one piece had no specific key signature – well, no sharps or flats were noted – but as the treble clef played in the key of “C,” the bass – with Bartok's use of various flats – was in another key. Plus, Bartok shifted rests and beats on the bass line, so that at times, it seemed as though each line had different time signatures. Bartok’s concerto had similar characteristics but to a much greater degree. Plus, there was significant use of dissonance through the use of note clusters – groups of notes that in standard lines of music “don’t mesh.” Think of color schemes that don’t blend; however, somehow Bartok made the discord work. Below left: Note clusters of two adjacent notes. Below right: Note clusters of three or four adjacent notes. The concerto opens somewhat dramatically with timpani and some very low notes on the piano, followed by a bold line of brass (outlined in red, below right) which repeats at times throughout the movement. It is, perhaps, the closest thing to a “lyrical line” in the movement. Below left: One repeat of the brass line on the piano (at 4:04 in the YouTube version with the abbreviated score). Below right: Another example occurs (at 4:43). At times there was a definite march-like beat. You can actually tap your foot. At other times, Bartok shifted time signatures and beats and rests so that the piano, orchestra and solo instruments seem to slip out of coordination. Think of a group of shaky waiters trying to balance stacks of plates and drinks on several trays while listing to the right or left, adding or skipping a step in an attempt to maintain balance. Bartok has everyone like those waiters, careening about simultaneously as the movement advances very quickly and erratically. To be honest, it is quite impressive how the conductor, the orchestra, and the pianist keep it all together.
The second movement, which I loved, is a much slower and measured piece. Its relentless throbbing suggested bewilderment at times, perhaps confusion, but nothing disillusioned or bleak. Instead, to me, it seemed more contemplative and introspective, a construct of metacognitive dissonance. At one point, the piano accompanies the orchestra with a hypnotic pulse where the right hand plays on beats two and three (below left with the red arrows) and the left hand plays on beats three and one (below left with the purple arrows). The inherent tension and dissonance swells with impelling force not by way of a quickened tempo but through crescendo and an escalation of more intense note clusters on the piano (below right). The third movement begins immediately after the second with an all out assault on the notes on the piano. The attack, though, does not convey that things will gyrate out of control due to mounting intensity. Instead, the advance suggests a charge of purpose and force.
The final movement is layered with parallels to the first – its rhythms, its motifs, its brisk chromatic runs, its ebb and flow of tension. Again, the movement is characterized by ferocity, but not despair. The piece culminates with rhythm against rhythm, structure against frenzy, and piano against orchestra. The energy and emotion of the final movement builds and recedes, shifts and accelerates, and swells and surges like a pulsating murmuration of birds swooping and swirling in the sky. Be sure to pay attention, though, because the piece rushes to an abrupt end. The first time I listened to this concerto, I was not watching the score -- I was just listening -- and the end caught me quite off guard. It was as if Bartok was speaking, and he just stopped mid |
A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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