This course presents a survey of some of the most popular and significant piano music of the Classical and Romantic eras. Classes feature discussion and performance of pieces including Chopin’s mazurkas, preludes, and ballades, as well as Schumann’s “Carnival,” famous works by Mozart and Beethoven, and the virtuoso styles of Liszt and Rachmaninov. This course is an ideal opportunity to gain an enriched understanding of piano music.
Syllabus
Week 1: Haydn, Mozart, Clementi and the reinvention of keyboard style and technique
Haydn: Variations in f minor
Mozart: Munich Sonata and Handel suite
Clementi compared with Mozart, Clementi compared with Beethoven
Week 2: The Piano as Orchestral Proxy
The Sonata becomes symphonic
Beethoven opp. 2,7,106
Schubert: Last three sonatas
Week 3: A New Elegance: Weber, Mendelssohn and Field
Weber: Sonata in Ab
Mendelssohn: Variations Serious
John Field: Nocturne
Week 4: Chopin - Formal Mastery and Harmonic Audacity
Nocturnes and Mazurkas
Chopin’s greatest interpreters
Week 5: Liszt - Prodigality and Ceaseless Innovation
Rhapsodies, Fantasies and the late pieces
Week 6: Liszt’s Antipodes: Schumann and Brahms
Schumann and interiority
Brahms and the virtuosity of anti-virtuosity
Week 7: Piano Music’s Eclipse in the Late 19th Century
French elegance: Faure and Saint-Saëns
French Radicalism: Debussy
Week 8: Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Medtner and the Apotheosis of the Ornamental
Rachmaninoff Preludes (TBD)
Scriabin Preludes (TBD)
Medtner Sonatas (TBD)