Triptych for Violin and Piano

SKU: UT.CH-335

ISBN 9790215326538. 9 x 12 inches.

The Trois airs variés for violin and piano belong to the small nucleus of compositions for this scoring which, in the Catalogo tematico, also includes the Cantabile in D major (M.S.109), the only original manuscript piece for violin and piano recently published in a critical edition, and the Quattro Notturni a quartetto (M.S.15). This ‘triptych’, whose authorship is unknown, is familiar thanks to the nineteenth-century editions Ricordi, Pacini and Hofmeister, the only evidence of the piece which is placed in the Catalogo tematico at n. 3 of the uncertain works (Section V, pp. 346-347), that is, those works whose authorship remains in doubt due to the lack of objectively valid documents. This placing does not categorically exclude the originality of the piece, at least as regards the violin part, and that Gustavo Carulli ‘completed’ them later by adding the piano part. Given that to date there is no evidence to deny Paganini’s authorship of the piece, we rely on the editorial tradition documented by the three publications mentioned above and, of course, on the style of the composition.
Regarding the instrumental aspect, the technical peculiarity is given by the exclusive use of the 4th string which must be transposed one tone above, in all three airs, including the variations. Concerning the piano part composed by Gustavo Carulli, it can only be said that it is simple and functional, aimed at highlighting the violin part, nothing more. Since the piano part is not original, the guitar has been thought of as the ideal instrument (as indeed is proved by Paganini’s considerable musical production for this scoring) to support the violin part and which is better suited to these small but pleasant pieces. In the transposition for guitar, however, the aim has been to include Gustavo Carulli’s musical lesson, where it is convincing, in other cases, however, the preference has been to find different solutions, while trying to remain within Paganini’s ‘style’ also as regards writing for the guitar. The present edition therefore seeks to be a plausible alternative to the previous editions, also in order to make these delightful but forgotten pieces more usable.

SKU: BO.B.3641

These Three Studies for Four-handed Piano were conceived of as a triptych whose unifying principles were to be the first-slow-fast movement order of the classical sonata and a symmetrical arrangement of tonalities with A major occupying the centre (F minor- A major- C minor). The term Studies alludes not so much to the 19th century pedagogical concept of pieces-as-exercises, as to an attempt to extend, investigate and study the possibilities of expression and texture of the piano for four hands.

The First Study is generated out of a single rhythmical motif whose development is modified by the intervention of two contrapuntual passages. A certain difficulty of execution arising from the need to cross hands in both sections of the keyboard conforms, in this case, to the traditional definition of study as an exercise focussed on a specific technical problem.

The second piece might be defined as a study of expression, being the explicit disposition of an ostinato accompaniment and two superior voices in conversation. I cannot help, listening to this study, being reminded of the texture of the slow Largo of Bach's Concerto for 2 violins and the manifest pathos of the Andante of Prokofiev's 2nd Violin Concerto.

The Third Study is an exercise in rhythmical interpenetration in which continual changes of accentuation and metre are combined with passages of a light and mellifluous character.

It is a long-standing ambition of mine to supplement this work with three more triptychs and, so, complete a set of twelve studies for four-handed piano.

SKU: PR.55401096S

UPC: 680160369492.

SKU: PR.554010960

UPC: 680160369485.