Sara Davis Buechner performs parts of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata No. 8, Opus 13 in C minor, exploring the influences and origins of stile patetico in the Grave and Adagio Cantabile, the origins of the theme from the Adagio, and more.

It’s springtime here in sunny Southern California, where I have spent the past week surrounded by imposing mountains, lovely desert flowers, cacti, and golf courses, while adjudicating the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. Today being the jurors’ one day off amongst many long days of listening to wonderfully talented young pianists from all over the world, I am enjoying a chance to ruminate on all things bright and fresh, as befits the end of winter — warmer weather, birdsong and foliage, baseball, and of course the renewal of all things artistic and spiritual in general.

The Piano Competition here is named after Virginia Waring, wife of bandleader Fred Waring and known well in her earlier days as half of the celebrated Piano Duo-Team of Morley & Gearhart. The full orchestral sound of two pianos played in perfect sync was a winner in the days of early radio, and fabulous two-piano teams dotted the American musical scene of the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s — think of Vronsky & Babin, Pollack & Lawnhurst, Bartlett & Robertson, Gold & Fizdale. The repertory of many such teams traversed the classic and popular musical canon, and it’s a delight to re-visit that charming heritage. I had not known previously of Virginia Morley and Livingston Gearhart, but discovered via their historic recordings that they were among the very best of the bunch. Hearing their renditions of works by Bach, Debussy, Liszt, Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen and others has given me a true burst of Spring Fever.

Here are two selections properly in keeping with the new season, Vernon Duke’s evergreen “April in Paris,” and “With a Song in my Heart” (from the Richard Rodgers musical “Spring is Here”) — as performed by Virginia Morley and Livingston Gearhart ca. 1949. Do note the impressionist chord structure and clever references to Maurice Ravel’s “Scarbo” (final movement of the piano suite “Gaspard de la Nuit”) throughout the “April in Paris” arrangement — just a small example of how well-versed musicians of the mid-twentieth century were, and how much trust they put in the cultural literacy of the audiences they entertained.

April in Paris (Morley & Gearhart)

With a Song in My Heart (Morley & Gearhart)

Franz Joseph Haydn’s final sonata for the piano, in E-flat major (it is numbered either 52 or 62 according to various sources) is, in my own estimation, one of the most sweepingly complete artistic statements by any creative person possible. One hears in its audacious and virtuosic gestures the astonishingly virility and bold imagination of an old man eternally youthful. The scalar passagework is clearly influenced by the power of the new instruments that Haydn saw and played on, during trips to London; the harmonic adventures he takes his listeners on are sparked both by the new music of his own time and his own willingness to try new sonic combinations; and the innermost reflection of the second movement but a memento of a life spent largely in the quiet remove of Esterhazy, allowed and encouraged to ruminate musically with a heart and mind of incomparable genius. A man of humility, perception, humor and remarkable insight, Franz Joseph Haydn is a great composer whose sensitive humanity shines forth in every note of this unforgettable and brilliant work.

I had a wonderful time performing Leonard Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” this past weekend with the Florida Orchestra, on the opening concerts of their 2012-13 season. They’re a terrific group of musicians, and I was thrilled to be able to play the Bernstein with them three times, in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg. Conductor Stuart Malina did a magnificent job, and the whole group played with gusto, emotional commitment and great energy. We got a lovely review in the Tampa Bay Times too, which I’ve attached below.

The fondest memento of those concerts, one that I shall always treasure, is this caricature of myself playing the “Masque” movement of the Bernstein, essayed in superb style by violinist Oleg Geyer, longtime member of the orchestra. He seems to have captured my own manic style inimitably, down to the bouncing on the piano bench which occurs as one zips through the honky-tonk barroom section of the piece. I particularly like the way that my hands look as big as my head.

Playing “The Age of Anxiety” was indeed a workout! of the musical kind — the best there is.

Tampa Bay Times review

The young Leonard Bernstein.

I have never been much of an exerciser, yet I find myself making more time for it these days, especially when travelling. Airline travel particularly wears out and dehydrates the body. I’m thankful that more hotels are installing fitness rooms, although sometimes with sound systems or huge screens featuring ghastly, noisy dribble intended to distract one from the aches and pains of pumping muscles. This morning in the West Palm Beach Embassy Suites Hotel, I was fortunate to have an exercise room all to myself. So I brought my own laptop and cranked up a recording of the piece I am playing later this week with the Florida Symphony – - Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony no. 2, “The Age of Anxiety.”

It’s a programmatic work, based on the epic (novel-like) poem of W.H. Auden, about Man’s search for God and / or meaning in life. The work has an incredible, classically dramatic arch, which builds after a searchingly introspective opening, through a series of brilliant variations, to a grand and jazzy climax entitled “Masques,” where the pianist really flies around the keyboard. “Masques,” ingeniously scored for piano and percussion, is followed by a soothing coda containing some of Bernstein’s most affectingly lyrical music.

Not at all to bring such an exalted masterpiece down to an appallingly base level, but my goodness is this the perfect score for a 30-minute workout. That’s not surprising, in that the dramatic arch form which reaches its emotional climax about 2/3 of the way through is used over and over again in poetry, prose, the theater, and music. Almost any score by Beethoven or Bartók features such a construct. But to have it perfectly laid out with fetching rhythms in a half-hour, while pumping away on a bike – - well, that was a bit of physical serendipity. May I recommend that to one and all: The Age of Anxiety Workout. Maybe I’ll make an exercise video out of it.

“Soloist Buechner brings authenticity to Anxiety”
from the Tampa Bay Times, October 11, 2012:

http://www.tampabay.com/features/performingarts/article1255541.ece

Pianist Sara Davis Buechner lectures on, and demonstrates Bohuslav Martinů’s Fantasy and Toccata which was dedicated to Rudolf Firkušný. Read the review of Buechner’s performance of the Martinu Fantasy and Toccata in The Martinu Revue (PDF), printed in the Czech Republic.