FROM DARKNESS TO RICHNESS: New Zealand pianist John Chen’s programme for the second of Musica Viva’s autumn series of concerts at Tiromoana is made up of works by Handel, Chopin and Dukas. Picture supplied
Works by Handel, Chopin and French composer Paul Dukas make up New Zealand pianist John Chen’s programme for the second concert in the Musica Viva’s autumn series.
Handel is known mostly for his choral and orchestral works but his keyboard output is no less excellent, says Chen in his programme
notes.
The “dark and plaintive moods” suggested in the 18th century German (later British) composer’s Suite no. 8 in F minor, a work Chen will play next week, are a feature of Baroque tuning systems, says the pianist.
One composer suggested Chopin had “simply bound together four of his most unruly children” in the Polish composer and virtuoso pianist’s Sonata no. 2 in Bb minor, often referred to as the Funeral March.
“Time has ,however, been kind to this sonata, and today it is one of Chopin’s most enduringly popular works,” says Chen. The harmonic language in Dukas’s 1900 work, Sonata in Eb minor, is “quite complex, slightly more adventurous than his contemporaries”, says Chen. “Typical of Romanticism are this sonata’s extended melodies and overlapping phrases. Texturally, the sonata is even more rich and dense than other late-Romantic piano sonatas, but there are more fragile arpeggiated passages and sections with layered textures that parallel Impressionism.”
