I am currently writing a paper on Amy Beach's most influential piano works and this piece is absolutely stunning! It is amazing to read about how genius she was and yet she is so little performed or talked about today. Thank you Joanne Polk and Kirsten Johnson for your extensive beautifully performed works of Amy Beach!
Thank you so much for this great work. I am 86, and this is my first hearing. I have listened to her symphony, and piano concerto. Your notes are excellent, so is Ms. Polk, the performer. Best regards.
She drew from the best of romanticism and modernism. The nerve and the energy under great control, the flowing but dialogic harmony place her dead square between Beethoven and Chopin for piano technique. Her tonality and fingerings identify her as American, several of her works are quintessentially American,my favorite being her unique but unexcitedly titled "Quartet for Strings," which is QUITE interesting. I compare Amy Beach favorably with Florence Price for spirit, though their moods and rigors are quite different.
It's a lot to digest, but I wish that in the more expressive variations, the pianist would pick a tempo and base her rubato off of that instead of playing every measure in a different tempo. In Variation 5, an expressive variation, she plays in tempo and it comes off beautifully. But by the middle of the piece, things go awry. Made me seasick.
With all due respect to a great piece of piano music: Could it be that the problem also lies in the piece itself? No doubt, it is beautifully written from a pianistic point of view and packed with interesting harmonic twists. But precisely when the variations aren't anymore on the first melody, but on two or three other ones that are built on more "exotic" (Bulgarian) scales and are somewhat harder to be embellished with Lisztian fireworks (= the variations after n° 5) - precisely from that moment onward the melodic flow sometimes seems to hesitate and to steer into dead-end phrases (ending in a rall. or an organ point), as if the composer felt less comfortable with this musical material.
From what I see, the whole reason for the split is so the LH (left hand) melody can be brought out, so the LH accompaniment is put on the 3rd staff. The 2nd and 3rd staff are both play by the LH, though - entirely possible.
I am currently writing a paper on Amy Beach's most influential piano works and this piece is absolutely stunning! It is amazing to read about how genius she was and yet she is so little performed or talked about today. Thank you Joanne Polk and Kirsten Johnson for your extensive beautifully performed works of Amy Beach!
Thank you so much for this great work. I am 86, and this is my first hearing. I have listened to her symphony, and piano concerto. Your notes are excellent, so is Ms. Polk, the performer. Best regards.
Masterful. Thank you for a prefect introduction to Amy Beach's music
The Great Amy Beach!!!
Non la conoscevo. Interessante, devo cercare altro
Beautiful and superb music!
She drew from the best of romanticism and modernism. The nerve and the energy under great control, the flowing but dialogic harmony place her dead square between Beethoven and Chopin for piano technique. Her tonality and fingerings identify her as American, several of her works are quintessentially American,my favorite being her unique but unexcitedly titled "Quartet for Strings," which is QUITE interesting. I compare Amy Beach favorably with Florence Price for spirit, though their moods and rigors are quite different.
Nice video, beautiful piece.
Very interesting piece! I'm gonna listen to it a bunch more.
Simply wonderfull.
First time I have heard this piece, and a delight it is. Voting "like" and subscribing.
Thank you. I quite enjoy the fifth variation (7:18).
Благодарствую, соскриншотил!
Var 6
O Maiko Moya 11:33
Coda (Nasadil) 12:14
Magnificent!
Very interesting!
❤
It's a lot to digest, but I wish that in the more expressive variations, the pianist would pick a tempo and base her rubato off of that instead of playing every measure in a different tempo. In Variation 5, an expressive variation, she plays in tempo and it comes off beautifully. But by the middle of the piece, things go awry. Made me seasick.
With all due respect to a great piece of piano music: Could it be that the problem also lies in the piece itself? No doubt, it is beautifully written from a pianistic point of view and packed with interesting harmonic twists. But precisely when the variations aren't anymore on the first melody, but on two or three other ones that are built on more "exotic" (Bulgarian) scales and are somewhat harder to be embellished with Lisztian fireworks (= the variations after n° 5) - precisely from that moment onward the melodic flow sometimes seems to hesitate and to steer into dead-end phrases (ending in a rall. or an organ point), as if the composer felt less comfortable with this musical material.
Wait, is that some Alkan reference in Marcia funerale?
maybe i could be wrongbut it seems to me to note some Rachmaninov's influence.
How can anybody play measures 135-142 without three hands?
From what I see, the whole reason for the split is so the LH (left hand) melody can be brought out, so the LH accompaniment is put on the 3rd staff. The 2nd and 3rd staff are both play by the LH, though - entirely possible.
lower and middle staff both played with LH