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Howard Shelley - Howard Ferguson: Piano Sonata & Partita '1990

Howard Ferguson: Piano Sonata & Partita
ArtistHoward Shelley Related artists
Album name Howard Ferguson: Piano Sonata & Partita
Country
Date 1990
GenreClassical Piano
Play time 00:44:19
Format / Bitrate Stereo 1420 Kbps / 44.1 kHz
MP3 320 Kbps
Media CD
Size 145 mb
PriceDownload $1.95
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Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 8: I. Lento – Allegro inquieto
02. Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 8: II. Poco adagio
03. Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 8: III. Allegro non troppo – Allegro
molto ma non presto – Lento
04. Partita, Op. 5b: I. Grave – Allegro pesante
05. Partita, Op. 5b: II. Allegro un poco agitato
06. Partita, Op. 5b: III. Andante un poco mosso

Throughout his career, Howard Ferguson has been blessed with distinguished
interpreters of his music: Myra Hess, Harold Samuel, Jascha Heifetz, and
Kathleen Ferrier, for instance, whose devotion to it bears witness to its
quality. And although composition forms the backbone of his work, Ferguson has
made similar distinctive contributions to British musical life as a performer,
teacher, and musicologist.
He was born in Belfast in 1908. As a thirteen-year-old he was heard playing at
the Belfast Musical Competitions by Harold Samuel who persuaded his parents to
let the boy come to London to study with him. Later, on entering the Royal
College of Music, he worked at composition with R O Morris and conducting with
Malcolm Sargent while continuing to study privately with Samuel. On leaving the
RCM he divided his time between composition and playing chamber music, and began
to be known as a composer with the publication of his Violin Sonata No 1, op 1
(1931) and his Octet, op 4 (1933). During World War II he was associated with
Myra Hess in organizing the daily chamber music concerts at the National
Gallery; in those years too he formed long-lasting duo partnerships with Denis
Matthews and Yfrah Neaman. From 1948 to 1963 he taught composition at the Royal
Academy of Music where his pupils included Richard Rodney Bennett, Susan
Bradshaw and Cornelius Cardew.

By the early 1960s Ferguson felt that he had said all he had to say as a
composer and made the courageous decision to stop writing. Since then he has
devoted himself to musicology, producing among other things scholarly editions
of early keyboard music and the complete piano works of Schubert.

Since he was always a slow worker his compositions are comparatively few; yet
within the nineteen opus numbers the level of inspiration is consistently high.
Apart from those already mentioned, his works include the orchestral Partita, op
5a (1935-6, heard in its piano version, op 5b, on this record), the Piano
Concerto, op 12 (1950-51), the Piano Sonata, op 8 (1938-40), the Five
Bagatelles, op 9 (1944), the Second Violin Sonata, op 10 (1946), a song cycle
Discovery, op 13 (1951) and, crowning his output, two choral works: Amore
langueo, op 18 (1955-6) and The Dream of the Rood, op 19 (1958-9).

Ferguson's personal idiom was present from his earliest works and may be
described as twentieth-century Romantic. All his works are underpinned by a firm
Classical structure, both formally and harmonically. In general, the thematic
material is derived from small groups of notes and, within movements, ideas are
closely knit. Frequently, a theme heard at the beginning of the work acts as a
motto that returns to give a cyclic quality to the whole.

This practice is well exemplified by the Piano Sonata, a work of tragic
grandeur, which consolidated Ferguson's reputation at the beginning of the
1940s. Dedicated to the memory of his friend and mentor Harold Samuel, it is
arguably his most personal statement. A stark Lento introduction with sombre
dotted rhythms sets the mood and originates much of the material. At the core of
the Sonata is the tension arising from the semitonal relationship of the opening
notes D flat—C natural; from it derives the all-pervading dissonance of a
major seventh followed by a minor ninth heard initially in the underlying
harmony. So far the tonality is obscure; the introduction closes on C, the
dominant of the home key which is firmly established in the first subject of the
troubled, chromatic 'Allegro inquieto' which follows.

During the extension of the first subject an anacrusic rhythmic figure of three
quavers emerges to become a prominent thematic factor in the movement as a
whole; for instance, it is incorporated within the second subject (Poco meno
mosso) and appears extensively in the development. The development itself begins
mysteriously, as over a rumbling quaver movement in the bass the first theme is
heard dolente in augmented rhythm. A truncated recapitulation leads to a long
coda where the bass quaver figure of the development returns, but this time in
combination with ideas from the introduction. The music dies down to end on a
semitone fall from G flat to the tonic F; it is not a resolution, however, but a
question mark.

In contrast to the turbulence of the Allegro, the `Poco adagio' is the still
centre of the work and is characterised by a serene diatonic theme in D flat
major in its outer sections.

In the centre however (Poco più animato) the shadows return with a theme
which alludes to ideas from the introduction; yet this same theme is translated
to entirely different effect in the coda where it becomes music of benediction
and tranquil acceptance. Furthermore this transformation has an emotional
significance since it is the only moment in the Sonata where the introductory
ideas are not associated with stress.

The harmonic link between the slow movement and finale outlines again the
touchstone of the Sonata's dynamism, that semitonal fall from D flat to C which
is heard in the bass at the end of the former and the beginning of the latter
respectively. As with the first movement, the Finale (Allegro non troppo)
follows a traditional sonata format. Despite its minor tonality the principal
theme is resolute in mood, and combined with its bounding 6/8 rhythms brings a
new sense of purpose to the music.

Soon after, the theme is inverted and remains in this guise for the rest of the
work. The second subject (Molto cantabile) again makes much play with an
anacrusic rhythm; it leads to the development which is primarily concerned with
the inverted first theme and reaches its climax with the rhythm of the theme
alone being pounded out in the bass, pesante and fortissimo. From the 'L'istesso
tempo' which follows with its overt reference to the central section of the
Adagio, and ipso facto the opening Lento, the music gradually reassumes its
mantle of grief which the recapitulation is unable to contain.

During the coda (Allegro molto, ma non presto) fragments from the introduction
are heard amidst rushing pianissimo quavers; they rise to a climax when, with
crushing intensity, the desolate motto theme and the elegiac processional of the
dotted rhythms return. The Sonata ends tersely; the searing semitonal clash is
juxtaposed, F crashes in the bass.

As its name implies, Ferguson's Partita is a collection of movements whose
characteristics arise from the Baroque suite of dances to which he has added the
dimension of Classical symphonic form, and the rich textures of late-Romantic
piano writing. Thus the first movement combines the pattern of the French
overture 'a slow introduction and conclusion framing a fast section' with sonata
form which is the basis of the Allegro. The opening is cast in the dominant of
the overall key of the Partita, F sharp major; its marking, 'Grave', and dotted
rhythms allude to its Baroque predecessors. A purposeful, oscillating theme in
7/8, punctuated by acciaccature provides the main idea of the 'Allegretto
pesante'; tonally, it is ambiguous with its shifting major and minor third. The
contrasting subject is a falling cantabile phrase which during the course of the
movement is combined with the main theme.

Symphonically, the second movement in B minor fills the function of a scherzo
and in Baroque terms it is the French courante. During it, Ferguson exploits the
rhythmic ambiguity of the dance with its six beats in a bar which may be divided
into either three groups of two or two groups of three. The indication 'Allegro
un poco agitato' gives the clue to the mood of the music which is frequently
restless, and as in the Piano Sonata the fall of a semitone plays a significant
role here. The contrasting theme, a wistful little melody in 6/4 accompanied by
a pedal point, forms the basis of the coda and brings the movement to a hushed
but uneasy close.

The slow movement (Andante un poco mosso) is a stately sarabande in the key of
B, whose ceremonial gait is threaded by a pervasive mordent. During the middle
section the music ascends in register; amidst transparent texture, the sarabande
melody is accompanied pianissimo by the mordent decoration and trills to create
a passage of delicate beauty.

Following Bach's precepts in some of his Partitas, Ferguson does not adopt a
particular dance form for the Finale although he suggests that `hints of a reel
may often be lurking around the corner'. From its puckish, scherzando beginnings
a sonata-rondo movement evolves in a mood of boisterous good humour. In the
central episode the tempo slackens to 'Più lento' and at first the music
seems set on a development of the opening idea; however, this is cunningly
transformed into an echo of the second movement theme, then extended and
intensified into a poignant phrase, dolente and cantabile. But this darker mood
does not prevail; the high spirits return and as F sharp major is firmly reached
the momentum gathers and plunges headlong to an exhilarating conclusion.