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Reicha Rediscovered Vol.3

£13.88

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Label: Chandos

Cat No: CHAN20194

Barcode: 0095115219423

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 8th January 2021

Works

Reicha, Anton

L'Art de varier ou 57 variations pour le piano, op.57

Artists

Ivan Ilic (piano)

Works

Reicha, Anton

L'Art de varier ou 57 variations pour le piano, op.57

Artists

Ivan Ilic (piano)

About

For this his third volume of works by Antoine Reicha, the pianist Ivan Ilić turns to one of the composer’s most extraordinary works, L’Art de varier, op.57. ‘The Art of Variation’ consists of fifty-seven variations on a theme (that the number of variations match the opus number is not a coincidence) and was composed in 1802–03, at the beginning of the six-year period which Reicha spent in Vienna, where he studied with Haydn and re-kindled his previous friendship with Beethoven. The set is remarkable for its scale and invention. Ivan Ilić describes the work as the missing link between Bach’s ‘Goldberg’ Variations and Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations, which was certainly influenced by Reicha’s work.

The recording was made at Potton Hall in Suffolk, on a Steinway Model D grand piano.

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Thème. Andante
2

Variation 1
3

Variation 2
4

Variation 3
5

Variation 4
6

Variation 5
7

Variation 6
8

Variation 7
9

Variation 8
10

Variation 9
11

Variation 10
12

Variation 11
13

Variation 12
14

Variation 13
15

Variation 14
16

Variation 15
17

Variation 16. [Andante] - Allegretto
18

Variation 17. Tempo I
19

Variation 18
20

Variation 19
21

Variation 20
22

Variation 21
23

Variation 22
24

Variation 23
25

Variation 24
26

Variation 25
27

Variation 26. [colla destra e sinistra]
28

Variation 27
29

Variation 28
30

Variation 29
31

Variation 30
32

Variation 31. Marche funèbre. Un poco più lento
33

Variation 32. Un poco allegretto - Adagio - Allegretto - Adagio - Allegretto - [etc.]
34

Variation 33. Tempo I (Tempo maggiore)
35

Variation 34
36

Variation 35
37

Variation 36
38

Variation 37
39

Variation 38
40

Variation 39. [colla destra e sinistra]
41

Variation 40. Minuetto col suo tempo giusto
42

Variation 41. Tempo I (Tempo maggiore)
43

Variation 42
44

Variation 43. [colla destra e sinistra]
45

Variation 44. [colla destra e sinistra]
46

Variation 45. [colla destra e sinistra]
47

Variation 46. Andante - Allegretto - Andante
48

Variation 47. Tempo I (Tempo maggiore)
49

Variation 48
50

Variation 49
51

Variation 50
52

Variation 51
53

Variation 52. Gavotte
54

Variation 53
55

Variation 54
56

Variation 55
57

Variation 56. Fuga
58

Variation 57. Presto

Europadisc Review

A close friend and contemporary of Beethoven, Anton Reicha (1770-1836) is a fascinating figure in classical music of the early nineteenth century, whose music – with the exception of his popular wind quintets – is still far too little known to audiences. Born in Prague, he moved via Bavaria and Swabia to Bonn, where Beethoven was a fellow student, and they were colleagues in the court orchestra. From Bonn (under attack from Napoleonic forces), Reicha went first to Hamburg and then Paris, before moving in autumn 1802 to Vienna. There he renewed his acquaintances with both Haydn and Beethoven, subsequently describing his friendship with the latter as ‘like Orestes and Pylades’. In 1808 he settled permanently in Paris, where, having already struggled to make his mark as a composer in German-speaking markets, he increasingly devoted himself to music theory. As professor of theory and composition at the Paris Conservatoire, he counted Berlioz, Gounod and Liszt among his pupils. In later years, César Franck was a private pupil.

From fairly conservative Classical beginnings, Reicha’s own music took on an increasingly theoretical aspect, with particular interests in counterpoint and fugue. Although composed during his early Viennese years, Reicha’s L’Art de varier (‘The Art of Variation’), op.57, has a decidedly didactic aspect. It is comprised of a carefully-constructed theme and no fewer than 57 variations which offer a kaleidoscope of pianistic and compositional techniques, ranging from the technically easy and musically straightforward, via the more difficult and exploratory, to the positively virtuosic – not in any ‘progressive’ order, however, but seemingly to maximise the sense of extreme diversity. Written at the same time as Beethoven’s more modestly-scaled (but still ground-breaking) opp. 34 and 35 variations, there is evidence of some cross-fertilisation of ideas. Still more interesting, however, is the anticipation of Beethoven’s much later ‘Diabelli’ Variations, not to mention the pianistic sound-worlds of Chopin, Schumann, Alkan and Liszt. Notwithstanding the relative lack of an overarching ‘sweep’ in the visionary manner of Beethoven, this is still music way ahead of its time, straddling the worlds of Baroque fugue and dance, Classical salon, Romantic character-piece and virtuoso étude.

As a guide to the hidden depths and delights of L’Art de varier, one could scarcely ask for a better guide than the Serbian-American pianist Ivan Ilić, himself based in Paris and with a background (like Reicha) in mathematics as well as music. This is volume three of his series ‘Reicha Rediscovered’ on the Chandos label, which (together with an entirely unrelated but complementary series of recordings on Toccata) is steadily revealing to listeners the world of Reicha’s lesser-known works. Ilić’s earlier releases have focussed on more étude-based pieces; by devoting volume three to a single 87-minute (!) work in all its glory, Ilić pays the greatest tribute yet to Reicha’s fertile, cerebral but also hugely engaging creative gifts. And he rises magnificently to the pianistic challenges of the more technically demanding variations, with their cascading runs, parallel fingering and hand-crossing, while imbuing even the apparently simplest movement with a tenderness and inwardness that is powerfully affecting. The range of touch, tone and dynamics he displays throughout the disc are reason enough to put it top of the wish-list for pianophiles.

Performed on a Steinway Model D in Potton Hall, Suffolk, the sound as captured by producer/engineer Jonathan Cooper does ample justice to both Ilić’s fabulously dexterous playing and Reicha’s boldly ambitious scope and inventiveness. Whether you sit down to experience this extraordinary work in one sitting or take it in stages, this is a real ear-opener of a disc, a true revelation of music that deserves to be known by a far wider audience than simply musicologists and other specialists. Bravi to all concerned!