The Piano Sonata by

Jean Barraqué Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué (17 January 192817 August 1973) was a French composer and writer on music who developed an individual form of serialism which is displayed in a small output. Life Barraqué was born in Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seine. In 1931 ...

, composed between 1950 and 1952, is a significant serial composition, from the period of avant-garde composition in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

shortly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It is a large piece, lasting around forty minutes according to the score, but ranging from 30 to 50 minutes in recordings attended by the composer. It is in a single movement divided into two connected sections, roughly equal in length.

Influences

The densely dissonant polyphonic texture of the work resembles the Second Piano Sonata of

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

, a work Barraqué knew well. In performance, however, the overall impact is quite different from anything of Boulez, and has often been claimed (e.g. by ), to be akin in spirit to the late sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven. In its turn, Barraqué's Sonata spurred his pupil Bill Hopkins to compose his cycle of ''Etudes en série'' (1965–1972, 1997), which develops some of Barraqué's serial techniques, and its scale, but has its own musical characteristics.

Structure

Paul Griffiths has written of the music of the sonata: "contrasts of themes or keys are replaced by other polarities, in particular between perceptions of notes as sounds (acontextual, as if heard alone) and as tones (part of the unfolding of a serial form), between freedom and fixity in the registral placing of notes, between pulsed and pulseless rhythm and between sound and silence. In his preface to the composition Barraqué drew attention to another opposition, between a 'free style' of motifs and chords in easy flow and a 'strict style' of intensive, quasi-automatic process acknowledging the total serialism of the time. Compulsion, embodied in the strict music, may seem to spur protest in the free passages. But protest is compromised by having to be voiced in the same language, based on the same series." has also noted: "The overall structure was based on juxtaposing a fast movement with a slow one of equal weight. But as the fast movement built up, slow sections were increasingly introduced, and the slow movement contained some fast ones, so that there was a balance of contrasts within the work as a whole. The piece closed in unison in a mediating tempo with a twelve-tone row, whose basic form determined the pitch structure of the whole work."

Performance history

The sonata was recorded commercially by

Yvonne Loriod Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen (; 20 January 1924 – 17 May 2010) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod. Biography Loriod ...

between 28 and 30 October 1957 and issued in 1958. This recording was made in the presence of the composer, and from the manuscript, which was corrected and modified by the composer during the sessions. It was not given its first performance in public until 24 April 1967, when the Danish pianist

Elisabeth Klein Elisabeth Klein (23 July 1911 – 11 October 2004) was a Hungarian-Danish pianist. Biography Elisabeth Klein was born in Trencsén (now Slovakia) and lived in Budapest, Hungary from the age of 3. At any early age she demonstrated a strong apti ...

played it in a recital in Copenhagen, seemingly unaware that she was in fact giving the world première. The Sonata was subsequently recorded commercially by

Claude Helffer Claude Helffer (18 June 1922 – 27 October 2004) was a French pianist. Early life Helffer was born in Paris, and began piano lessons at the age of five and from the age of ten until the outbreak of World War II he studied with Robert Casa ...

in 1969 and

Roger Woodward Roger Woodward (born 20 December 1942) is an Australian classical pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. Life and career Early life The youngest of four children, Roger Woodward was born in Sydney where he received first piano lessons ...

in 1972, both also in the presence of the composer. A concert recording from 1972 by Francoise Thinat, prepared with the composer, has also been released on CD. The new critical edition of the Sonata by Heribert Henrich was given its first performance from an early draft, in 2012 in Berlin, by

Nicolas Hodges Nicolas Hodges (born 1970, in London) is a pianist living in Germany. Early years Nicolas Hodges was born into a musical family. His mother sang in the BBC Singers, including under Boulez in works by Nono. His father was a keen amateur musician, ...

. The concert also included the world premiere by Hodges of Barraqué's juvenile piano works and songs. The new edition was given its first recording by

Jean-Pierre Collot Jean-Pierre or Jean Pierre may refer to: People * Karine Jean-Pierre b.1977, White House Deputy Press Secretary for President Joe Biden 2021- * Jean-Pierre, Count of Montalivet (1766–1823), French statesman and Peer of France * Eugenia Pierre ...

in 2018, release 2019 (see Discography).

Published editions

The Sonata had been published by Aldo Bruzzichelli,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

in 1966; the rights have since transferred to Bärenreiter-Verlag of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

. The original edition is rife with notational errors, and some performers (particularly Henck) made extensive corrections.Henck (1997) In 2019 however, the long-awaited critical edition by Heribert Henrich was published by Bärenreiter. *Jean Barraqué, ''Sonate pour piano''. Aldo Bruzzichelli Editore, Florence. 1965. *Jean Barraqué, ''Sonate pour piano''. Kassel, Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1993: BA 7284. (reprint of Bruzzichelli edition) *Jean Barraqué, ''Sonate pour piano'', critical edition by Heribert Henrich. BA 11416 (2 vols). Kassel, Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2019. ISMN 979-0-006-56760-7

Discography

recorded 28 and 30 October 1957, issued on LP Vega C 30 A 180 in 1958. CD reissue as part of ''Yvonne Loriod – The Complete Vega Recordings 1956–1963'' DECCA 48170692, 2019. *

Released on LP Valois MB 952, 1969. (Never rereleased on CD) *

Recorded 27–29 October 1972, released on LP EMI EMSP 55 (1973) and LP Unicorn-Kanchana UNS 263 (1979) (with a sleeve note by Bill Hopkins). CD reissue on Celestial Harmonies 13325-2, 2014. * Francois Thinat Concert recording 25 February 1972, issued on CD FY Solstice SOCD 315/6, 2015. *

Chen Pi-hsien Chen Pi-hsien (; born 15 November 1950) is a Taiwanese-German classical pianist. She has received honors at several international piano competitions. She teaches at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and lives in Germany at present. Biography C ...

Released on CD Telos Records tls 006, 1997 * Stefan Litwin Recorded 13–16 October 1997, released on CD cpo 999 569–2, 1998 *

Herbert Henck Herbert may refer to: People Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herber ...

Recorded July 1996, released on CD ECM 1621, 1999 *

Jean-Frédéric Neuburger Jean-Frédéric Neuburger (born 29 December 1986) is a French pianist, organist, and composer. His repertoire extends from Bach to Barraqué and the works of his own contemporaries. He was born in Paris on 29 December 1986. When he was eight year ...

Concert recording 14 January 2011, released on CD Mirare MIR 145, 2011. *

Released on CD Winter & Winter 910 257–2, 2019 Woodward worked extensively with Barraqué before his recording. There are photographs, some of which were reproduced in the booklet of Woodward's CD, showing Barraqué and Woodward in two different settings, one working together at a desk and the other one working together in a recording studio with Woodward at the keyboard and Barraqué standing near, talking. Woodward's notes on his recording tell the story in great detail.

Notes

Sources

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