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Feeling tired? Need to unwind? Then how about some gentle, soothing piano music? Welcome to the Episode 4 of the Fourth Series in the Relaxing Piano Playlist! In this episode, I perform for you music by Rameau, Ilyinsky, Debussy and more.
00:30 - James Quinn
Hello and welcome to Episode 7 of Series 4 in the Relaxing Piano Playlist, with your host, James Quinn here at the piano, thank you very much for joining me. In this episode, you’re going to hear a short number of pieces featuring a wide range of composers, covering the Baroque, the Romantic and the 20th Century periods.
The first piece you will hear is from a new composer added to the series in the form of the French Baroque composer Jean Phillippe Rameau. Born on 25 September in Dijon, and died before the age of 81 in 1764, he would later become a well regarded musical theorist and dominant composer for Opera as well as a noted composer for the Harpsichord alongside another French composer, Francois Couperin. The piece you will is a piano arrangement of The Arts and The Hours from his last opera Les Boreades. This arrangement is inspired from the recent recording by the Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olaffson.
The next piece that you will hear is by another new composer added to the series from the Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Marcello. Born in Venice on the 1st of February 1673 and died on the 19th of June 1747, he was a contemporary of Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi. He composed numerous works ranging from Violin Sonatas, arias, canzonettas and cantatas. The piece that you will hear is perhaps his best known work, the Concerto for Oboe and Strings in D minor, which was later given its moment in the sun by the composer J.S Bach who would go on to make an arrangement of this piece for the Harpsichord. From this you will hear the slow movement set to the speed of Adagio.
We then return to some familiar composers for our next set of pieces from the Romantic period. The first of these is from the Polish composer, Frederic Chopin. In this instance you will his second Nocturne in F Sharp Major which he wrote in a set of 3 Nocturnes that he dedicated to the German composer Ferdinand Hiller, which he published in 1833 as Op.15.
The next piece is from another returning composer in the form of Ignace van Paderewski, where you will a standalone piece called Elegy, which he composed in 1884, published as Op.4.
Our penultimate piece from this period comes from another return of the Russian composer Alexander Ilyinsky, and in this instance you will hear a piece which he named Reverie, which comes from a short cycle of 6 Piano Pieces, that he published in 1904 as Op.17.
The last piece that you will hear is from the 20th Century French composer, Claude Debussy, where you will hear one of his second set of 12 Preludes. In this instance, you will the Prelude that he entitled as ‘Bruyeres’ which when translated means Heather. According to his good friend, pianist Marguerite Long, it recalls the smell of sea mist mixed with coastal pines. The fact that he had spent a number of summer holidays in the coastal towns of Normandy, this certainly seems to portray the picturesque landscape quite intimately.
So to recap, here is the order just once more: The Arts and The Hours from Les Boreades by Rameau, Mvt 2 from Oboe Concerto in D minor by Alessandro Marcelo and arranged by J.S Bach, Nocturne No.2 in F Sharp Major Op.15 by Chopin, Elegy Op.4 by Paderewski, Reverie Op.17 by Ilyinsky, and finally Prelude No.5 ’Bruyeres’ by Debussy.
So sit back, relax, and I hope that you all enjoy the music. Thank you.