Faculty pianists Craig Sheppard and Cristina Valdés, faculty percussionist Bonnie Whiting, and Seattle principal timpanist James Benoit perform Béla Bartók's exhilarating and popular Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz. 110, BB 115. Also on the program: Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 and Brahms' Waltzes, Op. 39.
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Program
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448
Johannes Brahms: Waltzes Op. 39, for Piano-Four Hands
Intermission
Béla Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz. 110, BB 115
Program Notes
The Sonata for Two Pianos in D, K.448, dedicated to his pupil Josepha Auernhammer, was one of the first works that Mozart composed upon his arrival in Vienna in 1781, at the beginning of his final decade in the city where he would remain for the rest of his short life, a decade that gave birth to the enormous number of great works that we cherish today. In addition to a voluminous correspondence with his father and friends, the sheer amount and variety of works that Mozart composed in 1781 (amongst which, six violin sonatas, variations for piano and violin, a Serenade for Winds) is staggering, given the move from his native Salzburg and the need to establish himself in a completely new environment.
Mozart composed relatively little in the two-piano idiom, the obvious precedent being the Concerto for Two Pianos in E flat, K.365, written two years previously in Salzburg, where he would have performed it with his sister, Nannerl. The form of the current work is ‘textbook’. The first movement is in simple sonata form, the second movement is in ABA song form, and the third movement is a lively rondo. The general mood, as with so much of Mozart’s music, is bright and cheerful.
Brahms composed the Sixteen Waltzes, Opus 39, in 1865 when he was still living in Hamburg. However, the fact that they were dedicated to the well-known conservative Viennese music critic, Edward Hanslick, attests to his early ties to that city, as Brahms had already been appointed conductor of the Wiener Singakademie in 1963 (he would eventually make Vienna his permanent home in 1872). Although the waltz form was extremely popular in Vienna, influences in Opus 39 point as well to the north German choral tradition that played such a big role in Brahms’s early development, in particular numbers 5, 12 and the well-known ‘lullaby’ of number 15. Brahms subsequently rewrote Opus 39 for two hands, changing the key signatures in a few instances.
Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion was composed in 1937 and premiered in Basel, Switzerland, on January 16, 1938 with the composer and his his wife, Ditta Pázstory-Bartók, performing the two piano parts (its success was such that it was reworked 1940 as a concerto for two pianos and orchestra). A groundbreaking work in its unusual combination of instruments, it caused a sensation in the classical music world that influenced later works in a similar genre by Berio, Crumb and Boulez. In it, the percussion instruments are often given instructions to achieve sounds hitherto unknown. The first movement, with a slow introduction and a richly developed, highly idiosyncratic sonata form, is unusual in that it takes up nearly half the duration of the piece. The element of the tritone, the intervallus diavolus (devil’s interval!) is prominent throughout, the opening F# rumbling in the timpani resolved in the key of C in the final chords of the first movement. One hears many variations on the Dies Irae as well. Often, the rhythmic interaction of the pianos with the percussion, let alone the interaction between the two pianos, is both tricky and exhilarating. The second movement provides an idyllic respite from the tumultuous nature of the first. It is based on Bartok’s interest in the sounds of nature, similar to that evinced previously in The Night’s Music from his Out of Doors Suite (1926) and the inner movements of his first two piano concerti (1926 and 1931). The third movement starts out bright and brisk in the key of C, with the xylophone giving the main theme. A few moments later, a second theme reintroduces turmoil. Later in the movement, this turmoil approaches chaos for all four players – aggressive and even violent. But peace eventually returns. In the final bars, the two pianos play two simple chords, one an altered dominant seventh, the other in the tonic of C, and the snare drum fades off into the distance. There’s even an irony as if, after all the discord, all we are left with is that one final C Major chord!
My own connection to this work is a personal one. Sir Georg Solti turned pages for Ditta Pázstory-Bartók at the world première in Basel in 1938. In 1987, I performed the sonata with Sir Georg, the percussionist Evelyn Glennie (at the start of her meteoric career) and the tympanist of the Philharmonia Orchestra, David Corkhill, at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (UK) and Schwetzingen Castle in Germany. Those two performances still resonate within me, and I’m delighted to be playing the sonata again this evening with my younger colleagues.
—Craig Sheppard, copyright 2022
Artist Bios
James Benoit, a native of Niskayuna, New York, is the Principal Timpanist of the Seattle Symphony. Previously, Benoit was the Associate Principal Percussionist and Assistant Principal Timpanist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and spent three seasons as a section percussionist with the Sarasota Opera.
As an educator, Benoit was on faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Luzerne Music Center. An avid supporter of music in the classroom, he also has worked as a teaching and performing artist with Associate Solo Artists, a non-profit organization that provides artistic interdisciplinary programs to children, teachers, businesses, and social establishments, by giving concerts, masterclasses, and workshops in schools throughout New York.
Benoit received his Artist Diploma from Duquesne University, his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and his Bachelor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music.