Tamara Anna Cislowska

Friday, 27 April at 8pm

"She is a stunning pianist and undeniably a musical genius"
Newcastle Herald

"There are few pianists of any age who play with the degree of excellence that Tamara Anna Cislowska showed"
Sydney Morning Herald

"Tamara Anna Cislowska, an outstanding talent by any measure, is a born artist"
Live Entertainment Magazine

"A perfect combination of artistry and virtuosity"
The Strad

"A true artist"
The Times, London

"Powerful octaves, cracking tempi and fearless assaults on some of the most technically demanding passages in the romantic repertoire earned her a prolonged and enthusiastic ovation and the demand for two encores"
Adelaide Advertiser

"Tamara Anna Cislowska shaped the piano masterfully with feather-light runs and an incredibly varied touch."
Darmstadter Echo

"She is a dynamic performer with a flawless technique and searing intensity."
The Irish Times

"Some artists are born musicians, others have to do it the hard way. Tamara Anna Cislowska is a born artist. Her phrasing was exemplary and her dynamic range astonishing."
Live Entertainment Magazine

"Cislowska was like a warrior demolishing every foe, every challenge, with irresistible purposefulness and superior force."
Adelaide Advertiser

"I cannot recall a pianist so at one with the instrument as is Tamara Anna Cislowska."
Brisbane Courier Mail

Programme

MOZART – Fantasia in C minor, K 475

SCHUBERT – Drei Klavierstücke, D 946, no 1 in E flat minor, no 2 in E flat major

BEETHOVEN – Bagatelles, op 126, no 1 in G major, no 2 in G minor, no 3 in E flat major

BEETHOVEN – Fantasia in G minor, op 77

INTERVAL

MOZART – Fantasia in D minor, K 397

MOZART – Siciliano in D minor, K6 15u

SCHUMANN – Fantasie in C major, op 17

About the Artist

Tamara Cislowska is one of Australia's most acclaimed and recognized pianists. She has performed across five continents in repertoire spanning three centuries. She has been widely acknowledged for her technique and musicianship. Her varied repertoire creates innovative and thrilling programmes that combine virtuosity with insight. As a recording artist, Tamara has received ARIA nominations and critical acclaim. Her six solo albums have featured in the classical charts and been praised for their craftsmanship and originality.

Tamara was the youngest pianist to win ABC Young Performer of the Year and was named 'Sydney's Finest Performer' by City of Sydney Council. She also received the David Paul Landa Memorial Scholarship for pianists and the Freedman Fellowship from the Music Council of Australia. Tamara has won international prizes in London, Italy and Greece.

She is a frequent guest of orchestras and festivals worldwide including Pierre Cardin's Festival in Lacoste, the Kurt Weil festival in Germany and the Canberra International Music Festival. As a recitalist she has performed at the Purcell Room in London, the Frick Collection in New York, the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House and the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as well as the Myer Bowl and the Domain.

Tamara has recorded five solo albums for Artworks, has made discs with the Sydney Symphony, New Zealand Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras for ABC Classics, Chandos and Naxos. Her last concert for the Society was a solo recital of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, the recording of which she released as a CD in collaboration with the Sydney Mozart Society and 2MBS FM.

Programme Notes

MOZART – Fantasia in C minor for solo piano, K 475

Mozart published his fantasia in C minor (K 475, written in May 1785) and his sonata in C minor (K 457, written in October 1784) together in 1785 as Opus XI. Indeed, the works are usually performed together. However, as Alfred Einstein writes, this fantasia "is unique because no other piece by Mozart contains such strongly contrasted ideas in so short a space. It is also the only one of Mozart's solo fantasias that is quite satisfactory when played as a single work, for the others "sound like preludes" to other music.

The fantasia contains five sections: adagio, allegro, andantino, più allegro and tempo primo. With the exception of the andantino, the work is written in common time. The opening of the adagio is rather foreboding, but this gives way to the pensive mood that permeates the rest of the work. You will hear a pair of marvellous run in the final two bars of the allegro before the andantino starts in 34 time. In the final section, the introductory adagio returns relentlessly to round off the whole work.

Mozart dedicated the pair of works to his pupil Therese von Trattner, second wife of a book printer and publisher in Vienna.

SCHUBERT – Drei Klavierstücke, D 946

The first two pieces, in E-flat minor and in E-flat major, respectively, were written in May 1828, six months before Schubert's early death. The third, in C major, may have been written earlier. The whole set was published posthumously, in 1868, in an edition by Johannes Brahms. What is not clear, however, is whether these pieces actually constitute a cycle or were, if fact, arbitrarily united by Brahms; the third piece was written on different paper sheets than the first two. Some have even suggested that the works are merely sketches awaiting a full fleshing-out. All three are in rondo-like dance forms.

No 1 in E-flat minor

The first Klavierstück is in three-part A-B-A rondo form. The rather agitated main section (A), an allegro assai, is in 24 time although, as it is largely in triplets, the effect is like 68 for much of the time. It soon moves to E-flat major. A tranquil trio section (B) in B major follows. This is an andante in alla breve time. [As originally written, the piece had two trio sections, this one in B major and a second in A-flat major, an andantino in 24. Schubert crossed out the second trio, but some pianists include it in performances.] A remarkable moment in this first Klavierstück is the transition from B back to A, in which the triplet figures played ppp give the impression of a spectral anticipation of the opening of the A section.

No 2 in E-flat major

This is the most commonly heard of the set and is a highly lyrical piece, and very long if all repeats are observed. It is intended to have a five-part rondo form (ABACA). The first appearance of the main section and both trios are each in two sections, each repeated once. The main section (A) is a simple, demure melody in E-flat major; an allegretto in 68 time. The first trio section (B) is violent, stormy and agitated and written in C minor (and C major). The second trio (C) is in A-flat minor in 44 time).

The great pianist Myra Hess eliminated the C section in her performances, claiming that this movement also worked best with only one contrasting episode, but the music contained in the section is beautiful enough to merit inclusion.

BEETHOVEN – Bagatelles for solo piano, op 126

A bagatelle is a short, unpretentious, piece of music – a trifle.

Beethoven wrote three sets of bagatelles for solo piano. They were op 33 (seven bagatelles, 1801-02), op 119 (eleven bagatelles, 1820-22) and op 126 (six bagatelles, 1823-24). In this concert we hear the first three bagatelles from op 126, which was dedicated to his brother Johann van Beethoven. It seems that Beethoven meant the six bagatelles to be played in order as a single work; this can be inferred from a marginal annotation Beethoven made in the manuscript: Ciclus von Kleinigkeiten (cycle of little pieces). And 'little' they are, but only as regards timing. They are short, but they are wonderful music.

No 1 in G major
Andante con moto

Beneath the instruction Andante con moto, Beethoven writes Cantabile compiacerole (singing and pleasing) and, indeed, you will find this first bagatelle soothing, serene and delightful. The piece starts in 34 time but, after the introductory section and a short five-bar development, switches to 24 for nine bars. A gracious run up and down the keyboard in the right hand leads us to the final section of this short (about 3½ minutes), pleasing, bagatelle.

No 2 in G minor
Allegro

The second bagatelle in the set is certainly a contrast. It is in 24 time and the introductory statement (which is repeated) is fortissimo with a four-bar piano section at the centre. The remainder of the piece is marked cantibile, but it continues to move swiftly along. This one is about one minute shorter than the first.

No 3 in E flat major
Andante

Beethoven adds the indication cantabile e grazioso (singing and gratuitous) after the instruction Andante. The E-flat bagatelle is written in 38 time. It is gracious and almost hymn-like.. You will hear a lot of dynamics including, about two dozen bars in, two wonderful, soft, rapid, runs from the bass right up into the treble, back to the bass and up into the treble again. Each of these occupies only one bar and is marked a piacere (to please). The work ends very softly after about 2½ minutes with some marvellous effects in the bass.

BEETHOVEN – Fantasia in G minor for solo piano, op 77

Written in 1809, and followed almost immediately by piano sonatas op 78 in F sharp, op 78 in G and op 81a in E flat (les Adieux), this work is one of Beethoven's rare forays into a form having a much looser structure, featuring many tempo changes, many key changes and many mood changes. It was first published in Leipzig and London in 1810 and is dedicated to Count Franz von Brunsvik, one of Beethoven's Viennese friends..

 The Fantasia opens in common time with two fast descending allegro runs (separated by a pause), one in the treble and one in the base, followed after another pause by a 1½-bar poco adagio episode with triplets in the base, this whole 2-bar opening being played a second time. A 3-bar passage in duple time and a key change leads to a fast descending forte run, played allegro, and turns into a lively passage which ends a piano run down and up the keyboard. Quite an interesting introduction to a seemingly more stable, happy, 68 passage marked allegro, ma non troppo. But this stability doesn’t last, giving way, after another key change, to a fast forte passage featuring series of quintuplets.

Next comes an allegro con brio section in duple time followed, after a key change, to two 4-bar adagio episodes in which a recurring theme is established, separated by a treble downward run (marked pianissimo and leggiermente). This is followed, after a key change, by a short presto fortissimo passage leading to a soft 68 più presto section. A 6-bar adagio episode in duple time, played fortissimo, leads after another key change to a relatively stable allegretto section which eventually leads, via a series of downward runs and a key change, to a soft run down, up and down the keyboard to a few bars of gentle reminiscence. A key change brings us to the concluding section (watch out for the sforzandi) and, finally, a soft adagio episode ends this remarkable work.

MOZART – Fantasia in D minor for solo piano, K 397

This shortest of Mozart's fantasias, of 1782, is written in three sections: andante, adagio and allegretto. The central section forms the major part of the work, the outer sections being little more than an introduction and a coda to it – the simple andante is only eleven bars long. The last ten bars of the D-major allegretto of the work (as we know it) were not written by Mozart, but completed by an unknown person. Albert Einstein remarks that this allegretto is "far too short really to complete the work; the whole piece seems rather the introduction to a D major sonata".

The fantasia opens with broken chords, but it soon turns to what Robbins Landon describes as "tender lyricism that alternates with two other textures, one sad and the other petulant". Bar 23 and bar 34 of the adagio are marked presto, and each contains a formidable run down and up the keyboard; this section is one of contrasting moods. In contrast to the earlier sections, the allegretto, mainly marked dolce, is written in 24 time. It seems amazing what can be packed into a short fantasia!

MOZART – Siciliano in D minor for solo piano, K6 15u

Leopold Mozart spent the seven weeks in London in 1764 with his two young children. While his father was ill and Wolfgang could not play the harpsichord, his son spent time writing music in a notebook. This notebook on which Leopold had written di Wolfgango Mozart a Londra, contained forty-three pieces of music in Wolfgang's own hand. It came to light in the late 1800s. The 'works' were published in 1909. This siciliano was among them. It is listed in Köchel's Sixth Catalogue as no 15.

The siciliano (or siciliana) is a musical style that is written in a slow 68 or 128 time with lilting rhythms, making it rather like a slow jig. It is usually written in a minor key and evokes a pastoral mood. It is often characterized by dotted rhythms. A siciliano is often included within larger pieces of music.

SCHUMANN – Fantasie in C major for solo piano, op 17

The Fantasie in C, op 17, composed in the summer of 1836, is a work of passion and deep pathos, imbued with the spirit of the late Beethoven. Indeed the score is prefaced with the words Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen (fanciful and passionate throughout).

Schumann intended to use proceeds from sales of the work toward the construction of a monument to Beethoven (who had died in 1827) in his birthplace, Bonn. The closing of the first movement of the Fantasie contains a musical quote taken from the last song of Beethoven's only song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte (To the distant beloved), op 98. The original titles of the movements were to have been "Ruins", "Triumphal Arch" and "The Starry Crown".

According to Liszt, who played the work for Schumann, and to whom it was dedicated, the Fantasie should have a 'dreamier' character than many vigorous German pianists tended to give it. Liszt also said, "It is a noble work, worthy of Beethoven, whose career, by the way, it is supposed to represent". According to Hutcheson, "No words can describe the Phantasie, no quotations set forth the majesty of its genius. Suffice it to say that it is Schumann's greatest work in large form for piano solo".

The text of the passage quoted from Beethoven's song is: "Accept then these songs, beloved, which I sang for you alone". Schumann wrote as follows to Clara Wieck, whom he loved and from whom he was separated, "The first movement may well be the most passionate I have ever composed – a deep lament for you". They were married four years later.

Liszt was one of the few pianists capable of meeting the then-unparalleled demands of the Fantasie, particularly the second movement coda's rapid skips in opposite directions simultaneously. He had played the piece to Schumann privately but considered it unsuitable for public performance and never played it in public.