Les Adieux - Rudolf Serkin

●★ Rudolf Serkin - Beethoven Sonata Nr. 26『Les Adieux』★●                                                Adagio Allegro                                            Adante espressivo                                            Vivacissiment           ■ Rudolf Serkin(1903~1991) ■     Rudolf Serkin (March 28, 1903 – May 8, 1991), was a Bohemian-born pianist.   ● Life and early career Serkin was born in Eger, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Cheb, Czech Republic) to a Russian-Jewish family. Hailed as a child prodigy, he was sent to Vienna at the age of 9, where he studied piano with Richard Robert and, later, composition with Joseph Marx making his public debut with the Vienna Philharmonic at 12. From 1918 to 1920 he studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg and participated actively in Schoenberg's Society for the Private Performance of Music. He began a regular concert career in 1920, living in Berlin with the German violinist Adolf Busch and his family, which included a then 3-year-old daughter Irene whom Serkin would marry 15 years later. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Serkin performed throughout Europe both as soloist and with Busch and the Busch Quartet. With the rise of Hitler in Germany in 1933, Serkin and the Busches (who were not Jewish but who vehemently opposed the Nazi regime) left Berlin for Basel, Switzerland. In 1933 Serkin made his first United States appearance at the Coolidge Festival in Washington, D.C., where he performed with Adolf Busch. In 1936 he launched his solo concert career in the U.S. with the New York Philharmonic under Arturo Toscanini. The critics raved, describing him as "an artist of unusual and impressive talents in possession of a crystalline technique, plenty of power, delicacy, and tonal purity." In 1937, Serkin played his first New York recital at Carnegie Hall.   ● Immigration to the United States Shortly after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Serkins and Busches immigrated to the United States, where Serkin taught several generations of pianists at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. From 1968 to 1976 he served as the Institute's Director. He lived with his growing family first in New York, then in Philadelphia, as well as on a dairy farm in rural Guilford, Vermont. In 1951, Serkin and Adolf Busch founded the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont with the goal of stimulating interest in and performance of chamber music in the United States. He made numerous recordings from the 1940s into the 1980s, including one at RCA Victor of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1944, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Toscanini. Most of his recordings were made for Columbia Masterworks, although in the 1980s he also recorded for Deutsche Grammophon and Telarc. Serkin admired the music of Max Reger, which he discovered while working with Adolf Busch. In 1959, he became the first pianist in the United States to record Reger's Piano Concerto, Op. 114, with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Serkin was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 and in March 1972 celebrated his 100th appearance with the New York Philharmonic by playing Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1. The orchestra and board of directors also named Serkin an honorary member of the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Society, a distinction also conferred on Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, and Paul Hindemith. In 1986, he celebrated his 50th anniversary as a guest artist with the orchestra. He is also regarded as one of the primary interpreters of the music of Beethoven in the 20th century. Revered as a musician's musician, a father figure to a legion of younger players who came to the Marlboro School and Festival, and a pianist of enormous musical integrity, he toured all over the world and continued his solo career and recording activities until illness prevented further work in 1989. He died of cancer on May 8, 1991, aged 88, at home on his Guilford, Vermont farm. He and Irene were the parents of seven children (one of whom died in infancy),[1] including pianist Peter Serkin and cellist Judith Serkin.[2] They also had fifteen grandchildren. Irene Busch Serkin died in 1998.   ● Awards and recognitions Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963) Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 1978 Kennedy Center Honors (1981) Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance - Mstislav Rostropovich and Rudolf Serkin for Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38 and Cello Sonata No. 2 in F, Op. 99 (1984) National Medal of Arts (1988) ● References ^ Biography and Autobigraphy, p. 262. ^ Short biography of Judith Serkin. A biography, Rudolf Serkin: A Life, by Stephen Lehmann and Marion Faber was published in 2003. ● Beethoven-Sonata N.26 in Eb     『Les Adieux』    First two bars of the piece, indicating the syllables 'Le - be wohl' over the three-note theme Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a, known as the Les Adieux sonata, was written during the years 1809 and 1810. The title Les Adieux implies a programmatic nature. The French attack on Vienna, led by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1809, forced Beethoven's patron, Archduke Rudolph, to leave the city. Yet, there is some uncertainty about this nature of the piece — or at least, about the degree to which Beethoven wished this programmatic nature would be known. He titled the three movements "Lebewohl," "Abwesenheit," and "Wiedersehen," and reportedly regarded the French "Adieux" (said to whole assemblies or cities) as a poor translation of the feeling of the German "Lebewohl" (said heartfully to a single person) (Kolodin, 1975). Indeed, Beethoven had written the syllables "Le-be-wohl" over the first three chords.[1] On the first 1811 publication, a dedication was added reading on the departure of his Imperial Highness, for the Archduke Rudolph in admiration". An average performance of the piece lasts about 17 minutes. The sonata is one of Beethoven's most challenging sonatas because of the mature emotions that must be conveyed throughout it. It is also the bridge between his middle period and his later period and is considered the third great sonata of the middle period. The last movement is technically very challenging.   ● Form Three movements of this sonata originally written in German and French, and the last two movements are described in German because of the unusual tempo. The translation in English shown in italic as below: Das Lebewohl (Les Adieux - The Farewell): Adagio - Allegro Abwesenheit (L'Absence - The Absence): Andante espressivo (In gehender Bewegung, doch mit viel Ausdruck - In walking motion, but with much ｅxpression) Das Wiedersehen (Le Retour - The Return): Vivacissimamente (Im lebhaftesten Zeitmaße - The liveliest time measurements) The sonata opens in a 2/4 time Adagio with a short, simple motif of three chords, over which are written the three syllables Le-be-wohl ('Fare-thee-well'). This motif is the basis upon which both the first and the second subject groups are drawn. As soon as the introduction is over and the exposition begins, the time signature changes to split C (alla breve) and the score is marked Allegro. The first movement oscillates between a turbulent first subject which portrays deep disturbance and a second subject which is more lyrical in nature and gives the impression of reflections. The rhythmic figure of two short notes and a longer note which is used repeatedly in the first subject is developed inexorably through the 'development' section with rich harmonies and discords which are harmonically closer to the later period of Beethoven's compositions than the middle for their intellectual penetration. The movement has a surprisingly long coda which occupies about three-tenths of the movement's length. The coda encompasses both the subjects in a display of powerful mastery over composition. Typically the movement played properly with repeats lasts a little over 7 minutes. The Andante Espressivo is harmonically built on variations of the diminished chord and the appoggiatura. The movement is very emotional and is often played with a lot of rubato. A lot of the subject matter is rhythmically repeated consecutively as well as sectionwise. This seems to be for emphasizing the feelings of uncomfortable solitude with a fear that there will be no return. However there is a return and the second movement leads directly into it with the modulation to B flat major at the end. Typically the movement lasts just under 4 minutes. The finale, also in sonata form, starts joyfully on the dominant, B flat, in 6/8 time. After the startling introduction, the first subject shows up in the right hand and is immediately transferred to the left hand, which is repeated twice with an elaboration of the arrangement in the right hand. Before the second subject group arrives, there's one remarkable bridge passage, introducing a phrase that goes from G flat major to F major, first through distinctive forte arpeggios, then in a more delicate, fine piano arrangement.   ● References Kolodin, Irving (1975). The Interior Beethoven. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-46626-2. ^ http://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/music/m7h.pdf ● External links A lecture by András Schiff on Beethoven's piano sonata op. 81a For a public domain recording of this sonata visit Musopen Piano Sonata No. 26: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project. ● Articles Sonate für Klavier (Es-Dur) op. 81a (www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de) Sonate Characterisque (op. 81) Analysis and commentary by Frederic Horace Clark - Music (Volume 15: Nov 1898 to Apr 1899) edited by W.S.B. Mathews; published by Music Magazine Publishing Company                                                   ■ From Wikipedia ■