While it seems as if much of the world has moved on from celebrating the "double bicentennial" of the births of Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin to shift attention to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Mahler, today's recital by William Corbett-Jones at Old St. Mary's Cathedral, to begin Piano Month in the Noontime Concerts™ series, offered a coupling of Schumann and Chopin that was as intellectually stimulating as it was emotionally expressive. Schumann was represented by his Opus 12 collection of eight "fantasy" pieces; and this was followed by Chopin's Opus 52 in F minor, the last of his four "ballade" compositions. Each of these works took a different approach to composing on a moderately long time scale, Schumann through a cycle of eight relatively brief pieces embodying different aspects of fantasy and Chopin through one of his longer single-movement compositions, taking the architecture of ternary form as a point of departure and subjecting it to different approaches to prolongation. Emotional expression emerged through Corbett-Jones' command of "performance rhetoric," respecting the architectural framework while always seeking out approaches to phrasing that would escalate the music beyond mere structural competence.
Corbett-Jones further honored both Schumann and Chopin by beginning his recital with the work of a composer who strongly influenced both of then, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He selected K. 455, a composition in which Mozart acknowledged the influence of one of his contemporaries, Christoph Willibald Gluck. This is a set of variations on "Unser dummer Pöbel meint," a comic aria from Gluck's "Turkish" opera, Pilger von Mekka, which applied roughly the same stock narrative form that Mozart had previously used in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. There are ten variations in this collection, making it slightly longer than most variations compositions of that period; and Corbett-Jones explored the hypothesis that at least some of the variations corresponded to the stock characters that had appeared in both the Mozart and Gluck operas. To continue the theme of influence, Pyotr Tchaikovsky was so delighted with this set of variations that he orchestrated it for the fourth movement of his fourth orchestral suite (Opus 61), often known as "Mozartiana," which is also the name that George Balanchine appropriated for his choreographic interpretation of that suite.
This is probably also an appropriate place to note that Corbett-Jones will join violinist Jassen Todorov for a tribute concert to the pianist Carlo Bussotti, who taught at San Francisco State University for 32 years and died in 2002. The program will consist of three compositions:
- The "Devil's Trill" sonata in G minor by Giuseppe Tartini for solo violin with continuo accompaniment
- The B minor violin sonata by Ottorino Respighi
- The Opus 47 A major violin sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven, familiarly known as the "Kreutzer"
This recital will take place on Sunday, September 12, at 3 PM in Knuth Hall in the Creative Arts Building on the San Francisco State campus. Admission is free. Further information may be found by calling 415-338-2467 or by visiting the event page for the concert. In addition, donations are being accepted for the Carlo Bussotti Memorial Scholarship Fund can be made online.
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