Retrospective 1: Carl Banner, piano
House Concert at BannerArts, Saturday December 9 at 7:30 pm
Program Notes:
Bach Partita #3 in A minor
I started working on this Partita very early on, maybe 12 years old - I can’t remember when exactly, but it was my idea to start working on the Partita that I liked the least, so that I wouldn’t spoil my favorites by the tedious work that was required at the time. As it turned out, I never really graduated from #3, but kept slogging at it through thick and thin, eventually realizing that playing it on the piano was almost impossible. I always liked Badura-Skoda’s recording, which was apparently done in a cathedral with infinite reverb - which should have given me a hint. Anyway, I finally evolved an approach that I liked, that fits my ear, hand and piano. (Oh yes, I brought this Partita to my 1983 FMMC audition, at which I was rejected, the panel of piano teachers finding it “unconscionable to pedal in Bach” - Gould’s revolution had apparently taken firm hold in piano world!)
Mozart Sonata in Bb, K. 333
I first heard this Sonata played by a fellow student when I was 13. She played it beautifully in a way that I still remember, but have given up trying to emulate. One key advantage that she had, which I did not understand at the time, was that her Steinway had a cracked sounding board and was in a heavily carpeted room, which gave it a soft and tinkly sound. I have learned to throw blankets over my closed instrument, in order to reduce the excessive volume and slow tonal decay that makes Mozart so hard to play on contemporary pianos.
Chopin Ballade #2 in F
This piece, dedicated to Robert Schumann, has always intrigued me. I am not sure I ever had a lesson on it, but I brought it to my Curtis audition, which was unsuccessful. I was 19. Serkin’s only comment: perhaps I was a composer? (To “play like a composer” was a serious insult!). Horszowsky did not say a word. I once found a nineteenth century commentary on this piece, which described it as a programmatic composition, in which a knight on horseback encounters a girl in the forest, and 'ravishes' her. It is unquestionably a musical reference to violent loss of innocence, and one can only wonder what relation it might have had to Chopin’s early life experience.
Chopin Ballade #3 in Ab
The early nineteenth century was a time of horse and buggies, and that rhythm is clearly represented in this piece. It is a generally smiling and gentle Ballade, an ode to innocence, love and nature. I always loved this piece, and don’t think I ever brought it to a teacher, probably a fortunate thing, given its fragility.
Schumann Papillons, Op. 2
If you pedantically follow the directions in the score of this work, you are lost. Partly because the composer (like many others) tends to exaggerate tempos, dynamics, and moods; and partly because Clara’s editorial suggestions are not particularly helpful. In any event, over many years of pounding the stones of the imagined difficulties of this piece, I gave up and started playing it “like music”, as if I had written it myself, and evolved a way of performing it that satisfies my own aesthetic. Papillons is a fountain of exuberant ideas, sketched rapidly without too much serious thought about structure, modulation, or music history. Really, this is Schumann at his best.