Czech Chamber Music Society • Daniil Trifonov

Waltzes, selections (20')

Frédéric Chopin

Dance stylisations are certainly a dominant feature of the 19th-century piano literature, but they do not represent anything all that revolutionary, having precedents in the dance suites of the Baroque, which contained treatments of the era’s popular dance forms. However, with the growing aspirations of various nations for independence, the selection of dances placed greater emphasis on the music’s ethnic character. Czech examples include Dvořák’s furiants and Smetana’s polkas. In the case of Frédéric Chopin, the composer’s polonaises and mazurkas demonstrate his interest in Polish dances, but because the composer had made his home in Paris, his sources of musical inspiration assumed a more cosmopolitan character. That is one reason why he was so strongly affected by the fashionable trend of the Viennese waltz that was sweeping its way across all of musical Europe with such force that the dance became domesticated in many places; the word waltz had begun to refer to most dance music being written in 3/4 time.

Today, 18 of Chopin’s waltzes are available to us, although the composer wrote many more of them. Some have been lost, and we know about others only indirectly from various materials, or the sources are in private hands. The selections on today’s programme are framed by two waltzes that were found in the composer’s estate, had not been published during his lifetime, and were therefore designated as posthumous: E major and E minor, both dating from ca. 1829—1830. The Waltz in F minor, Op. 70, No. 2 is from 1855. Two of the waltzes from his Op. 64 (No. 1 in D flat major and No. 3 in A flat major) date from 1847. In particular, Waltz No. 1 in D flat major has become exceptionally popular. The composer called it the Waltz of the Puppy (Valse du petit chien), but it later became known as the Minute Waltz, although that was not intended to indicate the composition’s length. The Waltz in A minor is the second of three published as Op. 34 in 1838 under the title Grandes valses brillantes. Apart from some small exceptions, the composer dedicated these waltzes to noblewomen to whom he was giving piano lessons or who belonged to his circle of friends. Chopin was able to imbue even this originally small-scale dance form with the attributes typical of all of his piano music—the innovative use of the piano’s timbral possibilities, sophistication of piano technique, and that invention and daring, especially in the realm of harmony, which served as a model for generations of his successors.

Piano Sonata No. 12 in F major, K 332 (25')

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an excellent player of keyboard instruments, and his legacy contains works for solo piano as well as music for piano four-hands and for two pianos. The list of his solo piano compositions mainly contains sonatas as well as rondos, variations, menuets, fantasies etc. The Sonata No. 12 in F major, K 332, was probably composed in 1783 along with three other sonatas (no. 10 in C major, K 330; no. 11 in A major, K 331; no. 13 in B flat major, K 333) comprising a group of works associated with Mozart’s first years in Vienna, where he moved permanently in 1781. The actual composing of these work is usually said to have taken place in Vienna or Salzburg, but even Paris is possible.

At the beginning of the 1780s, Mozart also wrote a series of piano concertos in which he played the solo parts, and which represented a major source of his income. The composer also used his sonatas when giving piano lessons, and he strove to make them entertaining for both performers and listeners. The strictures of sonata form were no obstacle—here, too, the freedom of Mozart’s creative spirit is triumphant, in this case supported by the success of an edition of the sonatas quickly published by Artaria (1784). The first movement of the Sonata in F major (Allegro) follows the pattern of sonata form while surprising us with many details—daring modulations in the development section and new themes that arrive contrary to what is customary. Even the simpler A-B-A-B form of the second movement (Adagio) beginning in B flat major permits plenty of harmonic excursions, including some into minor keys.

The third movement (Allegro assai) is also in sonata form, but again it is full of daring excursions into related and more remote keys along with virtuosic technical elements that make this one of Mozart’s most difficult piano compositions.

Daniil Trifonov

piano

Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov is a solo artist, champion of the concerto repertoire, chamber and vocal collaborator, and composer. Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, his performances are a perpetual source of wonder to audiences and critics alike. He won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo Album of 2018 with Transcendental, the Liszt collection that marked his third title as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist.

In 2024/2025, Trifonov undertakes season-long artistic residencies with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Czech Philharmonic. A highlight of his Chicago residency is Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with incoming music director Klaus Mäkelä, and his Czech tenure features Dvořák’s Concerto with Semyon Bychkov at season-opening concerts in Prague, Toronto, and at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Trifonov also opens the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra’s season with Mozart’s 25th Piano Concerto under Andris Nelsons; performs Prokofiev’s Second with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen; reprises Dvořák’s concerto for a European tour with Jakub Hrůša and the Bamberg Symphony; plays Ravel’s G-major Concerto with Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Alan Gilbert; and joins Rafael Payare and the Montreal Symphony for concertos by Schumann and Beethoven on a major eight-city European tour. In recital, Trifonov appears twice more at Carnegie Hall as part of two U.S. tours, with a solo program and with violinist Leonidas Kavakos. Due for release in fall 2024, My American Story, the pianist’s new Deutsche Grammophon double album, pairs solo pieces with concertos by Gershwin and Mason Bates.

Trifonov’s existing Deutsche Grammophon discography includes the Grammy-nominated live recording of his Carnegie recital debut; Chopin Evocations; Silver Age, for which he received Opus Klassik’s Instrumentalist of the Year/Piano award; the best-selling, Grammy-nominated double album Bach: The Art of Life; and three volumes of Rachmaninov works with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, of which two received Grammy nominations and the third won BBC Music’s 2019 Concerto Recording of the Year. Named Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the Year and Musical America’s 2019 Artist of the Year, Trifonov was made a “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government in 2021.

During the 2010/2011 season, Trifonov won medals at three of the music world’s most prestigious competitions: Third Prize in Warsaw’s Chopin Competition, First Prize in Tel Aviv’s Rubinstein Competition, and both First Prize and Grand Prix in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition. He studied with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music.