Staccatissimo.

Diatonic scale on C, staccatissimo.  Play (help·info)

In musical notation, staccatissimo (plural: staccatissimi or the anglicised form staccatissimos) indicates that the notes are to be played extremely separated and distinct, a superlative staccato. This can be notated with little pikes over or under the notes, depending on stem direction, as in this example from Bruckner's Symphony No. 0 in D minor:

Alternatively it can be notated by writing the word "staccatissimo" or the abbreviation "staccatiss." over the staff. A few composers, such as Mozart, have used staccato dots accompanied by a written instruction staccatissimo when they mean the passage to be played staccatissimo.

See also[link]

• Slur (music)
• Popcorn (instrumental)

Literaur[link]

• Philip Farkas: The art of French horn playing. Alfred Music Publishing 1956, ISBN 0-87487-021-6, p. 51 (online copy at Google Books)

v t e Musical notation and development Staff Bar & bar line Clef Da capo Dal segno Key signature Ledger line Musical mode Musical scale Rehearsal letter Repeat sign Time signature Transposition Transposing instrument Notes Accidental Flat Natural Sharp Dotted note Grace note Note value Beam Note head Stem Pitch Rest Tuplet Interval Helmholtz pitch notation Letter notation Scientific pitch notation Articulation Dynamics Ornament Trill Mordent Grace note Portato Accent Legato Tenuto Marcato Staccato Staccatissimo Tie Slur Fermata Tonguing Development Cell Coda Exposition Figure Harmony Hook Lick Melody Motif Ossia Ostinato Period Phrase Recapitulation Repetition Rhythm Beat Meter Tempo Theme Tonality Atonality Related Braille music Chord chart Figured bass Graphic notation Lead sheet Eye music Neume Tablature List of musical symbols

Charles-Valentin Alkan, c. 1865

Charles-Valentin Alkan^[a] (pronounced: [ʃaʁl valɑ̃tɛ̃ alkɑ̃]) (30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso and teacher. Although early in his life he was socially active and good friends with prominent musicians and artists including Eugène Delacroix, Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin, he gradually withdrew from the concert platform after 1848, and he lived a reclusive life in Paris until his death.

Biography[link]

Life and career[link]

Alkan had a reputation for being asocial, and rarely performed in public after 1848. This is one of only two known photographs of him.

Alkan was born Charles-Valentin Morhange on 30 November 1813 at rue des Blancs-Manteaux in Paris to Alkan Morhange (1780–1855) and Julie Morhange née Abraham.^[1] He was the second of six children, one elder sister and four younger brothers, and his father supported the family as the proprietor of a private music school in Le Marais, the Jewish quarter of Paris. At an early age, he and his siblings adopted their father's first name as their last (and were known by this during their studies at the Conservatoire de Paris and subsequent careers). His brother Napoléon became professor of solfège at the Conservatoire, his brother Maxim had a career writing light music for Parisan theatres, and his sister Céleste was also a pianist.

Charles-Valentin Alkan spent his life in and around Paris. His only known excursions were a concert tour in England in 1833/1834, and a brief visit to Metz on family matters in the 1840s.

Alkan was a child prodigy. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of six, where he studied both piano and organ. He was a favorite of his teacher, Joseph Zimmermann, who also taught Georges Bizet, César Franck, Charles Gounod, and Ambroise Thomas. At the age of seven, he won a first prize for solfège and prizes in piano, harmony, and organ. At the age of seven-and-a-half he gave his first public performance, appearing as a violinist; his first performance as a pianist took place at the age of twelve when he performed several of his own compositions in a concert in a private home.^[2] His opus 1 dates from 1828, when he was 14 years old.

In his twenties, he taught and played concerts in elegant social circles, and was a friend of Franz Liszt, George Sand, and Victor Hugo. By 1838, at just 25 years old, Alkan had reached the peak of his career. He often performed with Chopin, and was famed as a virtuoso rivaling Liszt, Sigismond Thalberg, and Friedrich Kalkbrenner. Liszt once stated that Alkan had the finest piano technique of anyone he knew.^[3] At this time, (which coincides with the birth and childhood of his presumed son, Élie-Miriam Delaborde), he withdrew into private study and composition for six years, returning to the concert platform in 1844. In the 1840s, he lived next to Frédéric Chopin,^[4] and after Chopin died in 1849, many of his students transferred to Alkan.

In 1848 he faced a major disappointment when he was passed over for the position of head of the piano department in the Conservatoire upon Zimmermann's retirement; Alkan expected, and lobbied strongly for, the appointment, but Daniel Auber, the head of the Conservatoire, replaced Zimmermann with Antoine Marmontel, a former pupil of Alkan. Deep disappointment arising from this incident may account for his reluctance to perform in public thereafter. He was appointed organist at the Paris Temple in 1851, but resigned the post almost immediately, and apart from two concerts given in 1853, he withdrew, in spite of his early fame and technical accomplishment, into virtual seclusion for some twenty-five years.^[5]

In a letter to Ferdinand Hiller in 1861, Alkan wrote:

I’m becoming daily more and more misanthropic and misogynous…nothing worthwhile, good or useful to do… no one to devote myself to. My situation makes me horridly sad and wretched. Even musical production has lost its attraction for me for I can’t see the point or goal.

Despite this, Alkan had a circle of friends and continued to compose and publish. The German-Scottish musical academic Frederick Niecks, several days after being sternly denied access by Alkan's concierge, found Alkan at Erard's. Niecks describes the meeting, saying, "the reception of me was not merely polite but most friendly." He also continued his correspondence with Hiller^[6] and with the Spanish pianist and composer Santiago Masarnau whom he had befriended in Paris and to whom he had dedicated his opus 16, "Trois études de bravoure".^[7]

Jack Gibbons writes of Alkan's personality:

Alkan was an intelligent, lively, humorous and warm person (all characteristics which feature strongly in his music) whose only crime seems to have been having a vivid imagination, and whose occasional eccentricities (mild when compared with the behaviour of other 'highly-strung' artistes!) stemmed mainly from his hypersensitive nature.^[4]

In his last decade Alkan emerged to give a series of 'Petits Concerts' at the Érard piano showrooms, which featured music not only by himself but of his favourite composers from Bach onwards. He was occasionally assisted in these concerts by his siblings. Those attending included Vincent d'Indy.

There are periods of Alkan's life about which little is known, other than that he was immersed in the study of the Bible and the Talmud. It appears from his correspondence with Ferdinand Hiller that Alkan completed a full translation into French of both the Old Testament and the New Testament, from their original languages. This has been completely lost, as have many of Alkan's compositions. Amongst the missing works are some string sextets and a full-scale orchestral symphony, which was described in an article in 1846 by Léon Kreutzer, to whom Alkan had shown the score.^[8]

Delaborde[link]

Alkan did not marry, but the pianist Élie-Miriam Delaborde (1839–1913) is generally believed to have been Alkan's son. Some have sought significance in the fact that Delaborde was the maiden name of the mother of Alkan's friend (and sometime lover of Frédéric Chopin) George Sand. Delaborde was taught by Alkan in his youth and performed and edited many of Alkan's works. Like his father, he was a notable pédalier player. After Georges Bizet's death, his widow Geneviève (daughter of the composer Fromental Halévy) had an alliance with Delaborde; indeed there exists the application for registration of a marriage between them,^[9] which was never carried out. Interestingly Delaborde, who was a passionate athlete, may have been indirectly responsible for Bizet's death, which followed a swimming competition between the two, as a result of which Bizet caught a chill.^[10] Delaborde married late in life, and is not known to have had any children.

Death[link]

Tomb of Charles-Valentin Alkan, Montmartre Cemetery, Paris.

Alkan died in Paris on 29 March 1888, at the age of 74. For many years it was believed that his death was caused by a bookcase falling on him in his home, brought down as he reached for a volume of the Talmud from a high shelf. This apocryphal tale, which may have been circulated by Delaborde, is argued against by Hugh Macdonald, who reports the discovery of a contemporary letter by his concièrge explaining that Alkan had been found prostrate in his kitchen, under a porte-parapluie (a heavy coat/umbrella rack), after his concièrge heard him moaning. He had possibly fainted, bringing it down on himself while grabbing out for support. He was reportedly carried to his bedroom and died later that evening.^[11] The story of the bookcase may have its roots in a legend told of the Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Asher, known as 'Shaagat Aryeh', rabbi of Metz, the town from which Alkan's family originated.^[12]

Alkan was buried on 1 April (Easter Sunday) in the Jewish section of Montmartre Cemetery, Paris, not far from the tomb of his contemporary Fromental Halévy.

A myth also circulates about an alleged obituary of Alkan, cited as fact in Ronald Smith's biography of the composer and since widely quoted, credited to the magazine Le Ménestrel, beginning with the words "Alkan is dead. He had to die in order to prove his existence." No such obituary appeared in Le Ménestrel and none has been located to date in any other contemporary journal.

Alkan's sister Céleste is also buried in his tomb at Montmartre.

Technique[link]

Alkan's remarkable technique is evidenced by the technical and physical demands of his compositions; however, this technique was not at the expense of musicality, as exemplified by his more sensitive pieces (e.g. his Op. 22 Nocturne in B and several of his Esquisses). Recalling Alkan at his mid-sixties with "skinny, hooked fingers" in an empty room with an Erard pedalier playing Bach, Vincent d'Indy said, "I listened, rooted to the spot by the expressive, crystal clear playing." Alkan later played Beethoven's Op. 110 sonata, of which d'Indy said:

What happened to the great Beethovenian poem—above all, the Arioso and the Fugue, where the melody, penetrating the mystery of Death itself, climbs up to a blaze of light—I couldn't begin to describe. [The performance] affected me with enthusiasm such as I have never experienced since. This was not Liszt—less perfect technically—but it had greater intimacy and was more humanly moving...^[4]

Another account of his playing, this one by a pupil of Liszt and Alkan towards the end of his life, recalls how Alkan's performance retained "an extraordinarily youthful quality despite his appearance, which was frail and older than his years."^[4]

Music[link]

Alkan's Erard grand piano pédalier, now in the Musée de la musique, Paris

Like Chopin, Alkan wrote almost exclusively for the keyboard, although in Alkan's case this included the organ and the pédalier (a piano with a pedal board), of which he was a noted exponent. Some of his music requires a dazzling virtuosity, calling for extreme velocity, enormous leaps at speed, long stretches of fast repeated notes, and the maintenance of widely-spaced contrapuntal lines. Such examples of his music have been reviewed as "ferociously" and even "impossibly" difficult. ^[4] The pianist Marc-André Hamelin has said:

The aspect of Alkan that is most apparent when people who don't know him listen to him for the first time is that his music is difficult to play... But in a way, I wish that it did not take a formidable technique ... the great musical worth of Alkan's music makes it worthwhile to master those difficulties.

Alkan's notable compositions include the Grande sonate Les quatre âges (Op. 33), depicting the Four Ages of Man, and the two sets of études in all the major and minor keys (Op. 35 and 39, respectively). The opus 39 collection contains the Symphony for Solo Piano (numbers four, five, six and seven), and the Concerto for Solo Piano (numbers eight, nine and ten). The Concerto takes nearly an hour to play. Number twelve of Op. 39 is a set of variations Le festin d'Ésope ("Aesop's Feast").

Extract from 2nd movement of the Alkan's sonata Les quatre âges, showing a typically complex musical texture.

Amongst a variety of other works, Alkan also composed programmatic pieces, such as Le chemin de fer ("The Railroad", Op. 27) which may be the earliest composition giving a musical picture of a steam train.

Alkan's chamber music compositions include a violin sonata, a cello sonata, and a piano trio. One of his most bizarre pieces is the Marcia funebre, sulla morte d'un Pappagallo ("Funeral march on the death of a parrot", 1859), for three oboes, bassoon and voices.

Musically, many of his ideas were unconventional, even innovative. Some of his multi-movement compositions show "progressive tonality" which would have been familiar to the later Danish composer, Carl Nielsen (for example, Alkan's sonata Les quatre âges begins in D major and ends in G-sharp minor). He was rigorous in avoiding enharmonic spelling, occasionally modulating to keys containing double-sharps or double-flats, so pianists are occasionally required to come to terms with unusual keys such as E-sharp major, enharmonic equivalent to F major, and the occasional triple-sharp.^[b]

Influence[link]

Alkan seems to have had few followers. The claim that Ernest Fanelli was Alkan's pupil at the Conservatoire^[13] is mistaken, as Fanelli came to the Conservatoire in 1876, long after Alkan had left it. However, Alkan had important admirers, including Franz Liszt, Ferruccio Busoni, Anton Rubinstein, Egon Petri and Kaikhosru Sorabji. Liszt said that Alkan had the finest piano technique of anyone he knew.^[14] Rubinstein dedicated his fifth piano concerto to him. Busoni ranked Alkan with Liszt and Chopin as a master of the pianoforte étude in his preface to the first volume of the collected edition of Liszt's pianoforte works. In the first half of the twentieth century, when Alkan's name was still obscure, Busoni and Petri included his works in their performances. Sorabji published an article on Alkan in his book Around Music.^[15] Sorabji promoted Alkan's music in his reviews and criticism, and his sixth and final symphony for piano solo, completed in 1976, includes a section entitled Quasi Alkan.

Alkan's organ compositions were known to César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns and others and their influence can be traced in the French organ school up to the present day. They have only recently been recorded, however; the English organist Kevin Bowyer is committing all of them to disc for the British label Toccata Classics.

For much of the 20th century, Alkan's work seemed forgotten, but was steadily revived. The English pianist Ronald Smith in particular championed his music through performances, recordings, a biography and the Alkan Society of which he was president for many years. Works by Alkan have also been recorded by John Ogdon, Raymond Lewenthal, Jack Gibbons, Egon Petri, Mark Latimer, Stephanie McCallum, Alan Weiss, Steven Osborne and Marc-André Hamelin, amongst others. Ronald Stevenson has composed a piano piece Le festin d'Alkan (referring to Alkan's Op. 39 No. 12) and the composer Michael Finnissy has also written piano pieces referring to Alkan, e.g. Alkan-Paganini, no.5 of The History of Photography in Sound. Marc-André Hamelin's Étude no. IV^[16] is a moto perpetuo study combining themes from Alkan's Symphony, Op. 39 No. 7, and Alkan's own perpetual motion étude, Op. 76 No. 3. It is dedicated to Averil Kovacs and François Luguenot, respectively activists in the English and French Alkan Societies. As Hamelin writes in his preface to this étude, the idea to combine these came from the composer Alistair Hinton, the finale of whose Piano Sonata No. 5 (1994–95) includes a substantial section entitled "Alkanique".

On 25 April 2009, BBC Radio 3 dedicated a 45 minute program to Alkan's life, presented by Piers Lane and with contributions by John White and David Conway.^[17]

Selected recordings[link]

	Concerto da camera No. 2 in C-sharp minor Performed by Feofanov, Dmitry (piano) Razumovsky Symphony Orchestra Stankovsky, Robert (Conductor) Courtesy of NAXOS
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

This list comprises a selection of some significant premiere and other recordings by musicians who have become closely associated with Alkan's works. A comprehensive discography is available at the Alkan Society website.^[18]

• Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39 – played by Ronald Smith (piano). Recorded 1977. EMI, SLS 5100 [3 LPs] (1978), partly reissued EMI Gemini, 585 4842 (2003)
• Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39 and other works – played by Jack Gibbons (piano). Recorded 1995. ASV, CD DCS 227 [2 CDs] (1995)
• Concerto, Op. 39, nos. 8–10 – played by John Ogdon (piano). Recorded 1969. RCA, LSC-3192 [LP] (1972). Great British Pianists, 4569132 (1999)
• Le festin d'Esope (Op. 39, no. 12) and other works – played by Raymond Lewenthal. Recorded 1966. RCA LM 2815 [LP mono], LSC-2815 [LP stereo]; BMG High Performance Series 633310 (1999)
• Grande sonate, Op. 33 – played by Marc-André Hamelin (piano). Recorded 1994. Hyperion, CDA669764 (1995).
• 11 Pièces dans le style religieux, et un transcription du Messie de Hændel, Op. 72 – played by Kevin Bowyer (organ). Recorded 2005. Toccata TOCC 0031 (2007)
• Sonate de concert, Op. 47, for cello and piano – played by Steven Osborne (piano) and Alban Gebhart (cello). Recorded 2008. Hyperion CDA67624 (2008).
• Piano Trio, Op. 30 – played by Trio Alkan. Recorded 1992. Naxos, 8555352 (2001)

Notes[link]

References[link]

Sources[link]

Music editions[link]

• Charles-Valentin Alkan. Le festin d'Esope and other works for solo piano. New York: Dover Publications.(1998) ISBN 0-486-40066-2.

Other sources[link]

• The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books, 1993. ISBN 0-02-872416-X
• David Conway (2011). Jewry in Music: Entry to the Profession from the Enlightenment to Richard Wagner, Cambridge University Press, . ISBN 978-1-107-01538-8
• Minna Curtis (1958). Bizet and his world, 1958
• William A. Eddie (2007). Charles Valentin Alkan: his life and his music, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007
• Jack Gibbons (2002). The Myths of Alkan – transcript of a talk given on BBC Radio 3 (retrieved 27.1.2012).
• Hervé Lacombe (2000). Bizet, naissance d'une identité créatrice, Paris, 2000
• Stephan D. Lindeman (1999). Structural Novelty and Tradition in the Early Romantic Piano Concerto. Pendragon Press ISBN 1-57647-000-8
• Jeremy Nicholas (2007). Liner notes, Alkan: Concerto for solo piano; Troisième receuil de chants, Marc-André Hamelin, piano; Hyperion CDA67569.
• Hugh Macdonald(1978). 'More on Alkan's Death'. The Musical Times 129 .
• W. H. Rosar, 'Fanelli, Ernest' in Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press.
• Humphrey Searle (1937). A Plea for Alkan,Music and Letters, vol. 18 no. 3 (July 1937)
• Ronald Smith (2000). Alkan: The man, the music. Kahn & Averill. ISBN 1-871082-73-0. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charles-Valentin Alkan

About Alkan[link]

• Alkan Society website, including complete and regularly updated discography
• Alkan web site of Sylvain Chosson, contains detialed listing of Alkan's works, with some downloadable scores
• "The Myths of Alkan" by Jack Gibbons
• Unriddling Alkan by David Conway
• Alkan-Zimmerman International Music Association
• Pictures of Alkan.

Scores and sheet-music[link]

• Free Alkan scores and manuscripts – site of Sylvain Chosson
• Free scores by Charles-Valentin Alkan in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Kunst der Fuge website: many of the piano works in MIDI files
• Alkan Piano Trio-Discussion of work and soundbites
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net – Free Scores by Alkan
• Free scores by Alkan at the International Music Score Library Project

Performances on the Web[link]

• Alkan's "Allegro Barbaro" on YouTube from Études dans les tons majeurs, Op. 35, No. 5, played by Jack Gibbons
• Menuet from Alkan's Symphonie, Op. 39, No. 6 on YouTube, played by Jonathan Powell
• Last movement of Alkan's Symphonie, Op. 39, No. 7 on YouTube, played by Jonathan Powell
• First movement on YouTube, Alkan's Concerto, Op. 39, No. 8, played by Jack Gibbons
• Trois Andantes Romantiques, Op. 13, No 2 on YouTube, played by Lloyd Buck
• Scherzo Focoso, Op. 34 on YouTube, played by Lloyd Buck

Jack Gibbons
Background information
Born	1962
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Pianist, Composer
Website	Jack Gibbons.com

Jack Gibbons (born 2 March 1962) is an English classical pianist and composer.^[1]

Biography[link]

Gibbons was born in England. His father is a scientist and his mother a visual artist.^[2] He began his piano studies in Stockton-on-Tees, later continuing in Oxford. He began performing in public at the age of 10. He made his London debut in 1979,^[3] at the age of 17, with an all-Alkan concert that included Alkan's Concerto for solo piano^[2] and Ouverture from Op. 39.^[4] At the age of 20 he won First Prize in the Newport International Pianoforte Competition,^[3] with a performance with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4. In 1984 he made his Queen Elizabeth Hall debut^[5] performing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, Chopin's "Funeral March" Sonata and Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, after which recital The Times wrote that Gibbons "could be Britain's answer to Ivo Pogorelić".^{[6] [7]} Since then Gibbons has played in many prestigious venues and festivals all over the world, as recitalist and concerto soloist.^[8]

For 16 years, from 1990 to 2005, Gibbons gave annual all-Gershwin concerts at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall,^[2] with a gap in 2001 following a near-fatal car accident. These concerts feature Gibbons' own note-for-note reconstructions and transcriptions of the original recorded improvisations and concert works of George Gershwin.^[9] Over the 16 years of his Queen Elizabeth Hall all-Gershwin concerts, Gibbons has given the world premieres of at least 48 reconstructed original Gershwin works.^[7] He has also since 1994 given similar all-Gershwin concerts at New York's Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall.^[10]

In 1992 Gibbons made his recording debut on the Hyperion label (with Constant Lambert's The Rio Grande). The recording was nominated for a Gramophone Award and awarded a Penguin Guide 3-star rosette.^[11] Between 1992 and 1997 Gibbons recorded a 4 CD set of recordings entitled "The Authentic George Gershwin", which won an MRA (Music Retailers Award).^[10] Issued on the British label ASV Gibbons' "Authentic George Gershwin" recordings were described by Classic CD as "a unique testimony to Gershwin's genius".^[12]

In January 1995, in Oxford, Gibbons became the first pianist ever to perform all 12 of Alkan's Douze Etudes dans les Tons Mineurs, Op. 39 in a single concert (the concert was repeated the following year at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London).^[13] The same month Gibbons recorded the work (its first digital recording) for the ASV label, Gramophone describing the recording as "among the most exhilarating feats of pianism I’ve heard on disc".^[14] The same year, on August 27, 1995 Gibbons made his debut at the BBC Prom concerts at the Royal Albert Hall with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the BBC describing Gibbons as "THE Gershwin pianist of our time".^[15] In 1997 Gibbons wrote and presented a feature program for the BBC on George Gershwin in preparation for the centenary of the composer's birth, with actor Sir Ben Kingsley providing the voice of George Gershwin.^[16]

In March 2001, Gibbons was involved in a life-threatening car accident.^[17] Gibbons' accident and recovery were the subject of much media attention from newspapers, television and radio, with features in the Sunday Times, Gramophone, BBC etc.^[8] Michael Church in the Daily Express described Gibbons’ subsequent return to the concert platform as “miraculous” and “gutsy”.^[18] Following his serious car accident, Gibbons has given increasing attention to composing in place of his performing career. After childhood successes as a composer, Gibbons had abandoned his composing for 25 years in favor of performing.^[19] Gibbons' own music has since been performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and recorded by the BBC.^[20][21] Gibbons' output to date (October 2010) includes over 40 songs and choral works (mostly for soprano voice), 20 solo piano works, and two works for string orchestra.

Gibbons' performing career still continues alongside his composing. In March 2007 Gibbons gave the first performance at Carnegie Hall of Alkan's Concerto for Solo Piano, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the work's publication in Paris in 1857.^[22] Gibbons continues to perform in Oxford, where he has been presenting and playing an annual summer piano festival every year without a break since 1988.^[23]

On June 21, 2010 Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia, USA, announced that Jack Gibbons would become the college's Artist in Residence, beginning August 2010.^[24]

Works[link]

List of compositions by Jack Gibbons by category

Orchestral[link]

• Lament for strings, Op. 41
• Serenade for strings, Op. 71

Choral[link]

• Ave verum corpus, Op. 89
• Ave verum corpus, Op. 90
• My heart is like a singing bird, Op. 91
• Christmas Bells, Op. 92

Songs[link]

• Sonnet: Remember me (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 12
• Phantom of Delight (words by William Wordsworth, Op. 13
• When We Two Parted (words by Lord Byron), Op. 14
• I'll Not Weep (words by Emily Brontë), Op. 15
• Beloved Again (words by Emily Brontë), Op. 16
• Music, when soft voices die (words by Percy Bysshe Shelley), Op. 17
• Echo (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 18
• Sleep Not (words by Emily Brontë), Op. 19
• Why? (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 20
• Epitaph for a child (words by Robert Herrick), Op. 21
• The Garden of Love (words by William Blake), Op. 22
• In The Lane (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 23
• Weep you no more (words by John Dowland), Op. 24
• The Linnet (words by Walter de la Mare), Op. 25
• Roses for the flush of youth (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 26
• The Bourne (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 27
• Among the flowers (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 28
• Love me, I Love You (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 29
• If I Could Shut the Gate (words anon), Op. 31
• Oh What Comes Over the Sea (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 32
• Mariana (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 33
• Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee (words by Emily Brontë), Op. 34
• When I am Dead My Dearest (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 36
• Echo’s Song (words by Ben Jonson), Op. 40
• Once (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 43
• Perhaps (to R.A.L.) (words by Vera Brittain), Op. 47
• A Life Beyond (words by Jack Gibbons), Op. 52
• The Sun Is Set (words by Jack Gibbons), Op. 57
• Sapessi pure! (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 58
• Sing A Song Of Spring (words by Jack Gibbons), Op. 60
• May (words by Christina Rossetti), Op. 61
• A Red, Red Rose (words by Robert Burns), Op. 62
• I Love My Jean (words by Robert Burns), Op. 63
• Cradle Song (words by John Philip), Op. 64
• A Love Alive (words by Jack Gibbons), Op. 65
• Life (words by Charlotte Brontë), Op. 67
• The Parting Day (words by Edith Wharton), Op. 68
• The One Grief (words by Edith Wharton), Op. 69
• How Sweet I Roam'd from Field to Field (words by William Blake), Op. 72
• Longing (words by Matthew Arnold), Op. 73
• The Aspen (words by A.E. Houseman), Op. 74
• Roses (words by Edna St. Vincent Millay), Op. 75
• Lullaby of an Infant Chief (words by Sir Walter Scott), Op. 76

Solo Piano[link]

• Siciliano, Op. 30
• Prelude in A flat, Op. 37
• Tarantella, Op. 38
• Waltz in E major, Op. 39
• Prière, Op. 44
• Song Without Words, Op. 45
• Contredanse, Op. 46
• Song from the Old World, Op. 48
• Waltz in G major, Op. 49
• Music Box, Op. 50
• Lullaby (in memoriam), Op. 51
• Waltz in F minor, Op. 53
• Sarabande, Op. 54
• Waltz in E flat minor, Op. 55
• Prelude in E major, Op. 56
• Shanty, Op. 59
• A New World Song, Op. 66
• Waltz for a musical box, Op. 77
• Waltz in F major, Op. 78
• Nocturne in F sharp, Op. 79
• Melody in F sharp, Op. 80
• Minuetto malinconico, Op. 81
• 7 Esquisses, Op. 82
• Andantino, Op. 83
• Preludio, Op. 84
• Menuetto antico, Op. 85
• Nocturne in D flat, Op. 86
• Menuetto semplice, Op. 87
• Consolation, Op. 88

Chamber Music[link]

• Siciliano for flute and piano, Op. 70
• Siciliano a quattro mani Op. 70a
• Siciliano for flute, cello and piano, Op. 70b

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jack Gibbons Official Website
• Recordings of the music of Gibbons

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Horacio Lavandera
Background information
Born	December 1984 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Occupations	Pianist
Years active	1997–present
Website	www.horaciolavandera.com

Horacio Lavandera (born Buenos Aires, December 1984) is an Argentine pianist,^[1] currently residing in Madrid, Spain. As the youngest competitor at the age of sixteen, he won the International Piano Competition Umberto Micheli, held at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire and in Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He has been invited to perform as a soloist with prestigious orchestras, as well as to offer recitals in America, Europe, and Asia.

Biography[link]

Lavandera began studying music at a very early age with his father, a percussionist, who taught him the basics of percussion and music theory. He started piano studies at age seven under pianist Martha Freigido, who graduated from Scaramuzza’s School of Music. Five years later, he furthered his musical training with Maestro Antonio De Raco. He has taken composition and analysis classes with Mrs. Graciela Tarchini, Professor of Musical Analysis and Resident Composer of the University of Buenos Aires. He was also advised by great maestros such as Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, and Charles Rosen. In July 2001 he was awarded a scholarship by the Italian Embassy and the Comitato Nazionale Italiano Musica to take part of a seminary given by Maestro Maurizio Pollini in the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena (Italy). In October 2003, he was awarded a scholarship by Juventudes Musicales de Madrid to take the post-graduate course of Piano Interpretation at the University of Alcalá (Spain), under the guidance of Maestro Josep Colom, with whom he currently studies.

Recordings[link]

His first CD, Debut, was released in 2000 by Testigo. It includes pieces by Mozart, Chopin, Berg, and Ginastera. As an invited soloist of the YOA Orchestra of the Americas inaugural tour in 2002, he recorded Beethoven's Concerto No. 4. His last CD, The three Bs, includes works by Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven. It was recorded live for Testigo during the season of Festivales Musicales de Buenos Aires 2005.

Performances[link]

He has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Filarmonica della Scala, Orquesta de la Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, London Chamber Pleyers, YOA Orchestra of the Americas, Orquestra do Norte of Portugal, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Oviedo, Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Argentina, and the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. He has been under the baton of maestros such as Charles Dutoit, Antonio Pappano, Benjamin Zander, Christopher Wilkins, George Pehlivanian, Anton Nanut, Martin Sieghart, Arthur Fagen, Terje Mikkelsen, and David Murphy.

He has played in the Teatro Alla Scala (Milan), Salle Olivier Messiaen-Radio France (Paris), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Herkulesaal (Munich), Wigmore Hall (London), Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Jordan Hall (Boston), International Piano Festival La Roque d’Antheron, Teatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), Teatro Alpha (São Paulo), Teatro Teresa Carreño (Caracas), Teatro Malibrán (Venice), Auditorio Nacional de Música (Madrid), Auditorio de Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canarian Islands), Auditorio de Galicia (S. de Compostela), Palau de la Musica Catalana (Barcelona), Luzern Saal (Lucerne), Auditorio 'Príncipe Felipe' (Oviedo), Grande Auditório Europarque (Porto), Martha Argerich Festival (Buenos Aires), and the Hamarikyu Asahi Hall (Tokyo).

He has been working with the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen, Marlos Nobre, Esteban Benzecry, Joan Guinjoan, Richard Dubugnon, Guillaume Connesson, Atsuhiko Gondai, and Mauricio Kagel.

Awards[link]

Lavandera has been winning competitions since his youth, including the 10th Competition 'Meeting of Children and Young Musicians' (Córdoba, Argentina), and the Vº Biennial Youth Competition 99/00, the latter including a jury composed of maestros Martin Lovett, Malcolm Binns, and Elizabeth Robson.

In August 2004 he was awarded for his interpretation of his works during his Courses in Kürten (Germany) by the German contemporary composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was selected as an active student in Maestro Maurizio Pollini’s master classes at the Festival of Lucerne 2004 (Switzerland). He was awarded the 'El Primer Palau 2004' (The First Palau) by Orfeó Català Foundation – Palau de la Música Catalana.

Some other awards include Best New Artist in Classical Music at the Vº Awards for Arts and Entertainment, organized by the Argentine newspaper El Clarín, the scholarship of the Fondo Nacional de las Artes (National Fund of Arts, Argentina) and Junior Chamber International prize as one of the outstanding young persons winners 2004 in Argentina in the field of cultural achievements.

At the young age of sixteen, he won the International Piano Competition Umberto Micheli, held at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire and in Teatro della Scala in Milan, playing a diverse repertoire that included pieces from baroque to contemporary music. He was also awarded a Special Prize of the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. The jury included Luciano Berio, Maurizio Pollini, Luis de Pablo, Michel Beroff, Charles Rosen, and Alexis Weissenberg.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• (Spanish) Clarín interview with Horacio Lavandera
• (Spanish) Diario de Cuyo news article on Horacio Lavandera