Playing the opera at the piano. An example from Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana"

Playing the opera at the piano is a practice  that requires specific skills: in particular it is a matter of rendering the idea of the original version for orchestra, limiting itself to the piano only. Obviously, it is not a question of "imitating" the sound of the orchestra, but rather to "evoking" it through choices of piano instrumentation and instrumental timbre appropriate to the effect we intend to simulate.

Let's take an example, from Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" (1890) and specifically the orchestral introduction to the choir "Gli aranci olezzano".

The piano reduction that is usually used is the classical one, made by Leopoldo Mugnone for the original Sonzogno edition of 1891. We note that already in the first exposition of the main theme the melody doubled in octave, while the left hand performs an accompaniment which requires continuous jumps between the bass and the internal parts.

Subsequently, in correspondence with the first entry of the choir, the writing is even more massive, especially in the left hand.

It is not possible to make excessive simplifications to "facilitate" the piano part, because this would preclude the effect of evoking the orchestral sound: it is not possible, for example, to play the melody with single keys, avoiding the doubling of octave and the filling in agreements in some moments of support. In fact, if we look the orchestral score, we note that initially the theme is given to all the strings, with doubling of octave between violins (first and second in unison, plus the oboe 1) and violas and cellos. The effect is already vigorous and well sustained in sound, as can it easily seen when listening.

In the following ripresa, at the entry of the choir, the orchestral writing becomes even more massive, with the entry of all the winds (including the blaring trumpets), arranged even on three octaves, while the accompaniment is marked by percussion and tuba (in addition to the basses of the strings and winds) and in particular with the heavy chords of the trombones.

All this cannot be achieved with a light and chamber sound, but with a powerful and massive sound, although always soft and never strained. The suggestion of orchestral sound must accompany the sonorous idea of the pianist, ready to accompany even a large choir, in this festive and luminous page that does not yet predict the imminent tragedy what will be told in the opera.

We can hear a beautiful orchestral performance, conducted by the author himself in 1940 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, at this link.

The vocal style at the piano in Chopin Nocturnes

The Nocturne is one of the most typical forms of piano music of the nineteenth century and the Romantic music. In this kind of composition the musician writes for the piano keyboard thinking ideally expressiveness that is typical of the human voice. 

The romantic Nocturne-form was born, with the Irish composer John Field (1782-1837), but the word was in use in the eighteenth century: But at that time it indicated the musical entertainment of the evening, he could hire the gallant tones of serenade, or those more generally worldly of the fun (the most famous example is "Eine kleine Nachtmusik", "a little night music", by Mozart).

In the nineteenth century, with marvelous examples of Field and then with the Fryderyk Chopin masterpieces (1810-49), the Nocturne becomes the expression of a romantic vision of the world: the night, the darkness become the metaphorical place of desire to exceeding the limit, the soul expand to the dimensions of the dream and the irrational. 

We listen to the most famous of the Chopin Nocturnes, op. 9 n. 2 in E-flat Major. Click on the following link: Chopin, Nocturne op. 9 n. 2.

Consider the rhythm of the music: it is a time 12/8, ie a slow pulsation that inside provides a ternary subdivision. More artifices of musical writing are directed to evade and counter any idea of rhythmic rigidity or excessively regular scan: some indications urge the search for phrasing and emotionally moving rhythmically elastic.

The vocal style, as I said at the beginning, is the reference model for the construction of the melody: it is a song (given to the right hand), supported by an accompaniment (left hand), this latter as important and ample, as subordinate and functional to the maximum expansion of lyrical singing. Therefore, it is precisely the same thing that happens when a singer's voice is accompanied by an instrument (for example, the piano itself).

Amples bounds toward the high notes determine the lyricism of this song, we might imagine given to a lyric-coloratura soprano, that is characterized by clear timbre, brilliant of acute and vocal agility.

This agility is made pianistically from Chopin through ornaments and grace notes, that elude the regularity of the musical phrase and culminate in the vaporous, iridescent concluding cadence.

The piano performance requires a piano touch that knows how to satisfy the infinite nuances of sound in his right hand, while the left supports the low harmony and accompanied with a large extension chords.

A delicious physical wellbeing envelops the performer in playing this piece, which really makes us exceed the boundaries of materiality, evoking our deepest sighs.

YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/NicolaSfredda

The art of piano accompaniment in vocal chamber music

A piano student can discover a particular vocation, specializing in vocal chamber music.

British pianist Gerald Moore (1899-1987) has gone down in history as one of the most famous pianists in the genre of Lieder.

In his book "The Unashemed Accompanist" describes the value and meaning of this particular artistic activity. His conclusion is that the pianist in vocal chamber music must have all the deposit of human feelings, an inexhaustible source of poetry, fire and romanticism, that is a heart. In other words: it is necessary, but not sufficient, to have a good instrumental technique; we need to hear the poetic value of musical art.

A wonderful example is given by the Lied by Franz Schubert An die Musik (To Music), with text by Franz von Schober:

Du holde Kunst, in wieviel grauen Stunden,
Wo mich des Lebens wilder Kreis umstrickt,
Hast du mein Herz zu warmer Lieb entzunden,
Hast mich in eine beßre Welt entrückt!

Oft hat ein Seufzer, deiner Harf' entflossen,
Ein süßer, heiliger Akkord von dir
Den Himmel beßrer Zeiten mir erschlossen,
Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür!

You, gentle art, in how many gray hours,
when the pain of living I attacked,
with your warm love you have turned the heart,
sending into ecstasy in a better world!

Often a sigh, left your magic harp,
a sweet, holy accord received from you,
It opened the sky for a better time,
oh sweet art, I thank you for it!

The piano "sing", just like the human voice: it happens in the introduction (the song is given to the lower part of the piano, played by the left hand) and then in the final phrase of the two verses piano (at the upper part, on the right hand).

A wonderful example of this interpretative art of the Lied is given by the same Moore, for example in the famous performance of 1957 with soprano Victoria de Los Angeles.