Alban Berg: Klaviersonate op. 1
Johannes Brahms: Variationen über ein Thema von
N. Paganini
a-Moll op. 35
Ludwig van Beethoven:
32 Variationen über ein originales Thema WoO 80
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Englische Suite Nr. 3
Jura Margulis, Klavier
Four composers; four great representatives of their
respective epochs: the program begins with the most
recent work, Alban Berg’s Sonata op. 1, an early
composition that is still bound to classical form and
tonality, but which already contains features of the
coming age. Berg’s sonata is followed by the highly
virtuosic Paganini Variations by Brahms, Beethoven’s
Variations in C-Minor from 1806 and finally, Bach’s
English Suite, No. 3.
Jura Margulis studied with his father, legendary
pedagogue Vitaly Margulis, as well as with Leon
Fleisher. He concertizes throughout the world and has
a professorship at the J.W. Fullbright College at the
University of Arkansas.
This CD presents Jura Margulis with four
outstanding pieces for piano by composers
from four musical epochs. Berg stands
for the dawning of the modern era, Brahms
is the great representative of the late romantic,
Beethoven the genius of the classical age
and Bach the consummate master of the baroque.
Although the works of these composers
remain formally within the conventions
of their time, the compositional details show
that their creators were single-mindedly
searching for new means of expression.
Alban Berg (1885 – 1935)
Sonata op. 1
Austrian composer Alban Berg is considered
to be one of the greatest representatives of
new music in the 20th century. His oeuvre
is situated during the transition from the
late romantic to the modern school that
took place as the atonality of expressionism
– which still retained some semblance of tonality
– evolved into the complete atonality
of the twelve-tone school. Along with Anton
Webern, Berg belongs to the innermost circle
of the Second Viennese School that revolved
around Arnold Schoenberg. Berg saw himself
as a “natural perpetuator of correctly understood,
good old tradition,” although this
continuation can also be understood as the
historically consistent disintegration and fall
of the late romantic tradition as it evolved
into the modern.
Berg’s Piano Sonata op. 1 can be seen as
such a transitional work. It is the only sonata
he ever composed, and it is an early
work from 1909 (not 1907/08, as was long
assumed). Berg wrote it in his student days,
quasi for the conclusion of his regular studies
with Arnold Schoenberg, with whom he
had studied since 1904. Written in B Minor,
the sonata is still bound to classical-romantic
tonality and makes use of the normal sonata
form. Although it pays tribute to “classical
form”, its “emotional penetration and economy
[are very] modern,” according to interpreter
Eduard Erdmann, who wrote about the work
in 1920 in an essay on modern piano music.
Berg takes a number of unconventional formal
approaches. The tonality is expansive,
with whole-tone and often very chromatic
voice-leading; Berg shows a preference for
constructing chords of fourths and there is
a wealth of thematic-motivic variations and
augmented triads, both motivically and harmonically.
By limiting himself to only one
movement, Berg achieves great density. He is
said to have been considering composing a
second movement for it, but nothing suitable
occurred to him. His teacher Schoenberg
supposedly reassured him with the words,
“Then you have said everything there was to
say”.
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Studies for Pianoforte – Variations on a Theme
by N. Paganini op. 35, Book I and II
Technically speaking, this is the most difficult
and hair-raising of all Brahms’ virtuoso piano
works. Inspired by the legendary violinist Paganini,
Brahms took the theme for the variations
from the latter’s Capriccio op. 1 No. 24
in A Minor. Famous pianist Clara Schumann
called this work the “Witches Variations”
and and considered them unplayable at first.
Because they demand the greatest possible
mastery of the instrument, they are often
considered to be a virtuoso salon work, but
as a matter of fact, they offer the pianist a
far more complex interpretational approach.
The prefix to the title, “Studies for Pianoforte”
attests to the original function of this work
as a series of exercises. The Variations were
written in 1862–63 and were first intended
as individual studies that Brahms used as
finger exercises for concert preparation.
The Paganini Variations are not only an
impressive concert piece, but also exceptionally
valuable and illuminating study material
due to their traditional scale, arpeggio, octave,
chord and double-stop studies, as well
as the new polyrhythmic structures, complex
and audacious melody lines, innovative violin
imitations and Hungarian harmonies. In
1865, Brahms completed these pieces in two
books, each with 14 variations and a coda that
made each book a complete master piece.
They contain so much of Brahms’ personal
musical style that they are to be considered
outstanding and representative examples of
his piano literature. To perform this two-part
work as a whole in concert, Brahms allowed
pianist Heinrich Barth in 1880 to combine
the two books into a complete whole. Clara
Schumann also allowed herself to pick some
of the variations from the two books and perform
them. A number of combinations have
been tried since then and a specific practice
has established itself in the course of the 20th
century: the coda from the first book is either
left out, or a dominant cadence in it is used
as a transition to the second book, in both
cases without repeating the theme.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
32 Variations on an Original Theme in
C Minor,
WoO 80 (1806)
The 32 Variations in C Minor were written
in 1806 and are among Beethoven’s 25 variation
cycles for piano. They are extremely illuminating
and find too little consideration
in the typical piano repertoire. As if they
were a compendium of his piano technique,
Beethoven presents musical figures that occur
in many other of his works. The eight-measure
theme in C Minor is introduced with a
descending chromatic bass line; the variation
cycle takes on the format of an extensive passacaglia.
Beethoven thus reaches back for the
great baroque tradition while developing and
extending it forward. The way he handles
the theme is innovative and the compression
characteristic of Beethoven’s compositional
technique. He bundles individual variations
to groups, creating superordinate relationships
among these groups as well. This enables
him to weave the numerous variations
together into a complex fabric, with the individual
variations contributing to the whole. 1
In a procedure that would become groundbreaking,
an independent form evolves. Since
Beethoven, major composers forge variations
to complete master pieces: Schumann’s
Symphonic Etudes, Mendelssohn’s Variations
Sérieuses and Brahms’ Paganini Variations are
classical examples of this.
Johan Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
English Suite No. III in G Minor BWV 808
The designation of the six-part series as
English Suites BWV 806-811 does not come
from Bach and has led to controversies. 2
Just as do the French Suites BWV 812–817
– their “younger sisters” – and the Partitas
BWV 825–830, they follow the form of the
traditional French dance suite. These suites
follow the characteristic Allemande, Courante,
Sarabande, Gigue sequence; in this case,
however, expanded by Bach.
The English Suite No. III in G Minor begins
with a virtuosic Prélude that alludes to
the tutti-soli exchange of the concerto grosso.
Following the classical principle of a stately
Allemande, a lively Courante and a sublime
Sarabande 3, Bach adds a fifth dance movement before the last movement: a two-part
Gavotte. The polyphonic through-composition
of the Gigue serves as a counterweight to
the Prélude. The English Suites are a culmination
of the brilliant aspects of the baroque:
festive splendor, liveliness as well as the completely
typical irrepressible joy. This suite is
characteristic for Bach’s musical composition.
In its detailed working out of traditional
and classic forms, proportionality and clear
structure, Bach achieved the highest possible
degree of musical perfection – one which remains
universally valid to this day.
Irmgard Preisinger
Freiburg, 2009
Translation: Elizabeth Gahbler
1 Adorno considered the theme in Beethoven to
be insignificant, declaring, “The triviality of the individual;
the fact that the whole means everything,
and – as in the conclusion of op. 111 – that one would
swear in retrospect that details occurred that were actually
never there, remains a central concern to any
theory of Beethoven.” (Th. W. Adorno, Beethoven.
Philosophie der Musik. Fragmente und Text, Frankfurt
1993)
2 There is no proof for the assertion of Bach researcher
Nikolas Forkel in 1802 that „the composer wrote
them for a distinguished Englishman“. Another claim
has it that Bach found the model for his work in a collection
of suites from London; the composer of these
was the French-born composer Charles Dieupart.
3 The Sarabande in particular invites a rendering
on the Clavichord. Bach held the great diversity of tone color and sensitive touch of the Clavichord in
high esteem and regarded it to be the most suitable
instrument for the study of his keyboard compositions.