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"Piano Solo"by Albert Sassmann, pianist Like most of the piano compositions on this recording - aside from the Alban Berg Sonata op. 1 - Mozart's Rondo in A Minor K. 511 was written in the last period of the composer's life. Created in 1787, four years before Mozart's death, this piece is one of the rare non virtuoso instrumental Rondi of the 18th century and is notable for its sober, stately rhythms, chromatically inflected melodies, and an overshadowing melancholic mood. The Sonata in A-flat Major op. 110 is one of the famous last three Piano sonatas of Beethoven. It was composed in 1821, when the composer was already completely deaf, and leads the audience into a world of contemplation far removed from worldly concerns, conflicts, tension, and drama. The music proceeds convincingly through a formal structure, which is very much influenced by baroque elements, as the concluding Fugue demonstrates. Chopin's Polonaise in F-sharp minor op. 44 is a unique compositional tribute to his homeland Poland. He took the Polonaise and its other Polish counterpart, the Mazurka, and combined them to create a work of huge dimensions. The principal section is large, alternating two contrasting but related ideas. The technique is virtuoso and spectacular whereas the atmosphere in the Mazurka, which was intended to stand in place of the Trio of the Polonaise, is in contrast, quiet and smooth. The Piano Sonata Op. 1 (1908) was Alban Berg's first published work. One could say it was his compositional "graduate thesis" at the end of his studies with Arnold Schoenberg, the famous inventor of the dodecaphonic system. In this work he combines the traditional classical Sonata form including the exposition of contrasting themes, the development section and the recapitulation, with a continuously shifting harmonic texture that appears to be very much influenced by Wagner, while on the other hand shifting very close at times to atonality. The suite of eight short waltzes "Valses Nobles et Sentimenales" composed in 1911 by Ravel demonstrates the composer's fascination with this particular form. From the compositional point of view it is an interesting example of the tougher, harmonically more adventurous music that Ravel steered toward in his compositions following the war. The mood is somewhat nostalgic, and there are many reminiscences to other famous waltz-composers such as Frederic Chopin, Johann Strauß, and Franz Schubert. The title was to a degree influenced by Schubert's "Valses sentimentales op. 50" and "Valses nobles op. 77". Albert Sassmann's new CD is available from Mainly Opera, click here for details.
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