Paul Dukas - Piano Sonata (1900) {Duchâble}

Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 - 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-known work is the orchestral piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice (L'apprenti sorcier), the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works. Among these are the opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue, his Symphony in C and Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, the Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau (for solo piano), and a ballet, La Péri.
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Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (1899-1900)
Dedication: Camille Saint-Saëns
I. Modérément vite-expressif et marqué (0:00)
II. Calme, un peu lent, très soutenu (11:17)
III. Vivement, avec légèreté (21:32)
IV. Très lent (29:44)
François-René Duchâble, piano
In the first decade of the 20th century, following the immense success of his orchestral work The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Dukas completed two complex and technically demanding large-scale works for solo piano: the Piano Sonata, dedicated to Saint-Saëns, and Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau (1902). In Dukas's piano works critics have discerned the influence of Beethoven, or, "Beethoven as he was interpreted to the French mind by César Franck". Both works were premiered by Édouard Risler, a celebrated pianist of the era.
In an analysis of the work in The Musical Quarterly in 1928, the critic Irving Schwerké wrote:
The Sonata is classical in structure and in four movements, connected more by mutual formal perfection and nobility of thought than by cyclic procedures. The first movement … is built on two sharply contrasted themes, developed according to the sonata-form. The Andante is in the direct line of the great slow movements of Beethoven, and a supreme example of the grandeur attainable by modern technic [sic] working in this inspired form. The agitated Scherzo, with its unexpected fugal conclusion, is followed by the heroic Finale, comparable in breadth and majesty to the Stairway of Honour of the Palace of Versailles. By the vastness of its proportions, the quality of its writing, the power of its developments, and by its luminous lyricism, the Sonata in E flat minor is unrivalled by any other composition of this type. It transcends the piano, the factor that has retarded comprehension of it being its own magnitude.

[@vicb4901]

What an inner struggle transposed to musicality; it sounds like Jacob's wrestling with the angel...

[@ChristovanRensburg]

Love your analogy. I’m a longtime fan of this sonata. It is said to be modelled after Beethoven and beneath the surface one can see that, perhaps bearing out your statement if one thinks about the way Beethoven is typically characterised.

[@jgutiermusica]

¡Fantástica y compleja sonata! Muy bien interpretada por Duchâble.

[@markbrown6978]

Bartje Bartmans, my gosh what a grace gift you are!

[@notaire2]

Wunderschöne und detaillierte Interpretation dieser spätromantischen und perfekt komponierten Klaviersonate im gut analysierten Tempo mit klar artikuliertem doch elegantem Anschlag und mit künstlerisch kontrollierter Dynamik. Der zweite Satz klingt besonders schön und echt bezaubernd. Im Kontrast klingt der dritte Satz echt lebhaft und auch beweglich. Endlich kommt der letzte Satz voller Schwergewichtigkeit und zugleich Eleganz. Faszinierend vom Anfang bis zum Ende!

[@hvewj]

Most underrated composer of all time

[@ChristovanRensburg]

Hyperbolic statement apart, I get what you’re saying nonetheless. Perhaps due in part to his relative small (surviving) output, like that other great composer being overlooked by many, Taneyev.

[@JoelLeBras]

@@ChristovanRensburg Which Taneyev ? Sergei I presume ?

[@steveegallo3384]

Outstanding brilliant rarity.....Thank you so much.....now from Mexico City (Hurricane drove me out of Acapulco!)

[@valerieheinderyckx4506]

J'adore, merci infiniment. ❤

[@SOBIESKI_freedom]

What a gem. Thanks for posting it for us to serendipitously discover. Life is that much richer for it.

[@antoniaezac4653]

What an amazing piece! I cried in the finale-this syncopated theme grips you in the gut. It has a jazzy touch, magically combined with a Beethoven-inspired structure and pianistic moves. Even more miraculously, the accelerated last bars sound like a nod to Schumann's triumphantly mad leaps in the coda of his op. 17!!

[@kingconcerto5860]

When I saw Marc-Andre Hamelin perform this live, he finished the final movement and when he stood up during the applause he had tears pouring out of his face. I've been to dozens of concerts in my life, I've never seen such an intimate, emotional performance before; and I've certainly never seen the pianist start crying before the piece was finished- the fact that it was Marc-Andre Hamelin performing this masterpiece of a piano sonata in an extremely small venue (Koerner Hall, Toronto) was absolutely surreal.

[@antoniaezac4653]

@@kingconcerto5860 The CD I have of this surreal sonata is by Hamelin, definitely one of the best pianists you could dream of for such virtuosity

[@bartjebartmans]

Are we ignoring the performance of Duchable here? Strange.

[@antoniaezac4653]

@@bartjebartmans Not in the least! I think Duchable is awesome too. I particularly like how he does not rush the tempo in the first movement, creating a wonderful sense of gradation. And his last movement has all the required strength to make it sound like this Beethovenian cathedral !!

[@simonalbrecht9435]

The finale theme is reminiscent of the finale to Franck’s D minor symphony with those syncopations-and I don't mean that in a bad way. Dukas creates a very distinct atmosphere and you can see for example how he may have inspired some of Ravel’s pianism.

[@kingconcerto5860]

I saw Marc-Andre Hamelin perform this live last year, it was the most surreal concert experience of my life.

[@user-lj1sc9bs4t]

後期ロマン派の最高傑作の1つ

[@stacia6678]

26:44

[@petersimon5231]

Mostly, quite difficult to enjoy or understand, sounds too much like that inner fight some mentioned earlier here but I really appreciate the last part, which I find rather good and a lot more musical than the first three.

[@bartjebartmans]

The musical experience is without the knowledge of the creation of a work purely subjective and arbitrary.

[@petersimon5231]

@@bartjebartmans And therefore it is always "purely subjective and arbitrary" as nobody is able to have "the knowledge of the creation of a work" except the creator of the "work" him/herself, even if we accept that a composition is a piece of "work". As we're talking about a work of a deceased composer, this means everybody. So? My experience is just as valid a valuable as yours or anyone else's... Geen basis voor discussie...

[@bartjebartmans]

@@petersimon5231 Waarom begin je dan een discussie? You proof my point. Of course we have knowledge of the creation of the work. It was written for a reason, for somebody, a commission, an event, all kinds of reasons, when studying those one can come to a much better understanding of a work than the usual "I like it, I don't like it. It is beautiful, it is not beautiful". I hope you get my point. This has nothing to do who is right and who is wrong. I read for instance comments about how sometimes the piano parts of Mozart's violin sonatas are much harder than the violin part. When one knows that it was written for people with limited violin skills and Mozart himself acc. them, it makes perfect sense.

[@petersimon5231]

@@bartjebartmans Oh dear! I only wrote down my feelings about this piece - it was you who started a discussion, and without showing why and what you meant other than a highly subjective piece of wisdom. And now you put yourself forward stating you have the knowledge of the creation of the work without so much as a sigh as to what that might be. No wonder: you weren't there, you are not in the mind of the creator, you've only hear what others have written down about it. That's not knowledge. Now, my piece of wisdom to you: Salman Rushdie wrote, not long ago, that history is not only people's actions but also what people forget. Meaning, you can't know what nobody has written down, or did but got lost or destroyed. I stay with my own reflections, you do and feel as you do but down stand everything on its head please. On a side note: I AM NO PROOF of your point, or I DON'T PROVE your point, in correct English. And I don't think music was created to be studied, to be understood better than without it - music has always been written to express the feelings and views of the author to be conveyed to the listeners at once, without - perhaps any, but certainly not with much - intellectualisation. Hope you get my point and don't swell this into an even longer discussion.

[@petersimon5231]

@@bartjebartmans Oh my, oh my. I AM NO PROOF of your point, or I DON'T PROVE you point! Especially because I didn't begin a discussion - I noted my opinion. It was you who started the discussion, apparently without any proof because, although you say (how big-headed!) "Of course we have knowledge of the creation of the work", then you don't show any of it. No wonder: we were not there, not in the head of the composer, not even near him/her so we can't "know" anything first-hand as the composer composes and doesn't - usually - write down what was going on in his mind doing so. What others have written down is only second-hand, outsider's knowledge of circumstances and circumstances are not the work or its "meaning". Besides, as Salman Rushdie wrote in his Victory City not long ago, history is not only what people did but about what people forget - meaning, we can only know as much as was written down and not lost or destroyed afterwards. Music is the composer's history. And anyway, music is created to express the composer's feelings and views and to be enjoyed by others as it is without - possibly any, but at least not much - intellectualisation and speculation. Except if you are a follower of the Liszt-Wagner line, but, ample warning, Liszt is the least enjoyable and memorable when he composed his 'programmed' symphonic poems. And I like Liszt's music in general. So let's put an end to this discussion that you initiated as it leads nowhere, apparently, except that you're probably right about Mozart, but that's not much I suppose.