Christ Church Cathedral
A collaboration with the Chopin Society
Mélisande McNabney, fortepiano
The concept of fantasy has a long history in music, and keyboard instruments are its main conduits. In the 18th century, composers were not only performers, but improvisers who would deploy their creative spirit for the public in real time by extemporizing on the keyboard. Inspired by this free form, and alongside fantasias by CPE Bach, Mozart, Koželuch and Beethoven, she adds her own improvisations which brings an introspective and expressive force to the programme. This concert will be played on EMV’s 1819 Graf copy by Paul McNulty which was acquired in 2021. The programme culminates with Beethoven’s Sonata quasi una Fantasia, op. 27 (later nicknamed Moonlight Sonata). The connection between Beethoven and Graf dates from a letter of 1816, in which Beethoven indicated his wish to own a Graf piano, and in 1825 Graf loaned Beethoven a four-string instrument.
This concert is generously sponsored by Anona Thorne & Takao Tanabe
There will be a post-concert talk with Mélisande McNabney hosted by Suzie LeBlanc, C.M.
PROGRAMME
Mélisande McNabney (b. 1983), according to C.P.E. Bach
Improvisation: an exercise on the scale
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, Wq 119.7
Mélisande McNabney, according to C.P.E. Bach
Improvisation: free fantasy and modulation (C minor to F-sharp minor)
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Fantasia in F-sharp minor, Wq 67
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Modulating prelude from F major to E minor, K deest, excerpt from F major to C major (transc. by Mélisande McNabney.)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fantasia in C minor, K 475
INTERVAL
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Four Preludes, K 284a
Preludes Nos 1 & 2 from C major to E-flat major
Leopold Koželuch (1747-1818)
Prelude (Capriccio) in E-flat major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Four Preludes, K 284a
Preludes Nos 3 & 4 from E-flat major to C major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fantasia in C minor, K 396 (completed by Maximilian Stadler)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata Quasi una fantasia op. 27 no. 2 ‘Moonlight’
PROGRAMME NOTES
Improvised, elusive and unbound by conventional form, although sometimes captured on paper, the fantasia never fails to captivate and intrigue. Its status is ambiguous, straddling the frontier between a skillfully composed work and an evanescent inspiration. Composers in the 18th century were not only performers, but also improvisers. Their keyboard improvisations were what made their talent shine before the public—much more than performances of their own sonatas or other written works. There have survived numerous accounts of how, in real time, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Mozart and Beethoven enthralled audiences with their improvisations. What a privilege it would have been to hear Bach, Mozart or Beethoven improvise! One can only dream…
Nevertheless, this improvisational practice of the 18th century has left us with vestiges just waiting to be explored. The great fantasias of C. P. E. Bach and Mozart are obviously the ideal starting point, but we also have access to other documents of interest, for example, several fragments of Mozart’s manuscripts, unmeasured or modulating preludes dedicated to pupils or to his sister Maria Anna (affectionately nicknamed Nannerl). We can also examine the cadenzas of C. P. E. Bach and Mozart as well as the ornamentation added to certain editions intended for the public at large. C. P. E. Bach himself devoted the last chapter of his famous Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments to the art of improvisation, the focus of which is the free Fantasia. For at least a century, improvisation has no longer been the usual practice of classical musicians. However, striving to emulate the sound and musical character of former periods, historically informed performers are now bringing it back to life. My improvisations are in line with this approach.
It was thanks to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Essay that I began to improvise on the fortepiano. The first exercises Bach presents in his chapter on improvisation allow the novice improviser to explore different harmonizations of the scale. To open the recital, I will play a summary of my daily exercises in each key—a routine I use to maintain a certain fluidity of execution: harmonized scales in the manner of C. P. E. Bach, pedal points, modulations, and a few melodic lines to connect everything.
C. P. E. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C Minor, Wq. 119/7 is reminiscent of his father J. S. Bach’s famous Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903. Although to a lesser extent, it features the same declamatory scales and arpeggiated chords. The grand fugue, despite its sustained style, remains cantabile and expressive throughout. The dramatic left-hand octaves at the last recapitulation of the subject in Bach son’s fugue certainly echo the last bars of the father’s fugue. This Fantasia and Fugue is usually categorized as a work for organ, but there is no such indication in C. P. E. Bach’s personal catalogue. It lends itself well to any of the usual keyboard instruments of the time, such as the fortepiano.
The following improvisation makes a modulating connection between two works. Following the instructions of C. P. E. Bach, it is built on a previously elaborated harmonic structure that provides a basis for improvised scale lines, figurations and melodic material.
Composed in 1788, the Fantasia in F-sharp Minor, Wq. 67 is one of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s last works, and one of his most poignant. In another version of the same work but with violin accompaniment, he wrote as a subtitle, “C. P. E. Bachs Empfindungen,” that is, “C. P. E. Bach’s Sentiments,” which suggests that the work was somewhat of a musical testament.
In Mozart’s time, it was customary to improvise a prelude to establish the key of a work or to ‘prelude’ from one key to another during a recital to avoid shocking the listener’s ears. This was a widespread practice until concert pianists gradually began to abandon it in the 19th century. There are, however, a few precious examples of this type of improvisation, up until Dinu Lipati in 1950. Mozart himself did not write such preludes for his own use, but he wrote some down for his sister Nannerl (who could not improvise) so that she could memorize them and pretend to improvise when performing. Robert Levin’s research has shown that Mozart wrote his Modulating Prelude in F Major/E Minor, K. deest and Four Preludes, K. 284a for that purpose. I use these preludes here as Nannerl might have used them for her recitals, arranging or transposing excerpts and separating sections in order to create a pleasing tonal progression. Few in number, Mozart’s fantasias were all composed after he acquired his Anton Walter pianoforte around 1782. It is tempting to think that these sometimes introspective, sometimes extremely expressive works exploring all the registers and technical or expressive possibilities of the fortepiano were born of Mozart’s encounter with his new instrument. His Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475 is a work of great depth and breathtaking dramatic intensity. As it happens for select visionary works, Mozart’s K. 475 spoke to the next generation and inspired the Romantics. Could that be the work to which Eugène Delacroix was referring in his journal on June 29, 1853? “The memory of Mozart’s fantasia, a solemn work of, at times, heart-wrenching depth, and whose title is lighter than the character of the piece implies.”
I present Fantasia in C Minor, K. 396 here in the version completed by Maximilian Stadler in 1802. Initially intended to be a work with violin, it was left incomplete by Mozart: only two pages from 1782 survived, with the first notes of a violin entry at the very end of the fragment. Constanze Mozart carefully preserved the incomplete manuscript, and there is every reason to believe that she herself entrusted Stadler with the task of completing the work and having it published. The published Fantasia was a resounding success, but the story of this famous manuscript fragment does not end there… It continued to circulate and eventually fell into the hands of none other than Goethe. It was precisely those two pages of Mozart’s manuscript that the young Mendelssohn, who had come to visit the renowned man of letters, was asked to sight-read at only 12 years of age.
Leopold Koželuch, a Bohemian pianist and composer who settled in Vienna in 1778, enjoyed great success in his time; he was even more popular than Mozart. In 1790, Gerber’s Lexicon described him as “unquestionably the favourite living composer of both the young and old.” Charles Burney described his style as “easier than that of Emanuel Bach, Haydn, or Mozart, it is natural, graceful, and flowing, without imitating any great model, as almost all his contemporaries have done.” Koželuch’s Prelude in E-flat Major was published in 1798 with two other preludes under the title Trois préludes ou Caprices, Op. 45. Koželuch wrote the following on the first page: “These three Caprices must be executed with the dampers raised all along.” In modern piano, this would refer to playing the entire piece with the sustain pedal pressed down. The resulting ghostlike resonance, where sounds can resonate for a long time and intermingle without detracting from the clarity of the discourse, is one of the great advantages of the fortepiano. On a modern grand piano, with all its resonance and sustaining power, the effect is impossible to reproduce. Ludwig van Beethoven uses the same pedaling effect in his famous Sonata ‘Quasi una Fantasia’ op. 27 no. 2, known as the Moonlight Sonata. Just below the movement indication Adagio sostenuto, Beethoven writes: “Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino” (“This whole piece ought to be played with the utmost delicacy and without damper[s].”) This striking pedal effect must have contributed to Carl Czerny’s impression of the first movement, which he describes as “a ghost scene, where out of the far distance a plaintive ghostly voice sounds”. The middle movement offers a respite of pure charm, before the unbridled frenzy of the final Presto Agitato.
- Notes by Mélisande McNabney
Mélisande McNabney, keyboards
Mélisande McNabney performs keyboard music of all periods, on harpsichord, piano and fortepiano. In August 2015, she received the third prize at the International Competition Musica Antiqua in Bruges, Belgium. Very active on the concert scene, Ms. McNabney is regularly invited as a soloist in series such as Série Jacques Dansereau at Bourgie Hall or with distinguished ensembles including Les Violons du Roy, Montreal Bach Festival Orchestra, Les Idées heureuses, the Theater of Early Music and Ensemble Caprice.
She is a member of Pallade Musica and ensemble Les Songes, with whom she took part in numerous tours of Canada and the USA. In January 2019, she released her debut solo album, Inspirations : D’Anglebert, Forqueray, Rameau which received 5 Diapasons from the famous French magazine.In addition to her performing activities, Ms. McNabney is also a researcher in the field of performance practices and has presented at conferences such as the Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music in Birmingham, UK.She is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory where she studied harpsichord, continuo and fortepiano under Bob van Asperen and Richard Egarr. In 2017, she received a Doctorate degree at McGill University under the guidance of Hank Knox and Tom Beghin.
