Gilding the Lily? Additions to Classic Pieces

What do Edvard Grieg and Ignaz Moscheles have in common? Aside from being European composers of the second half of the nineteenth century, they both felt certain classics of the solo piano repertoire could use a supplemental second piano. Grieg wrote a second piano part to three Mozart piano sonatas, and Moscheles practically rewrote 10 preludes from the Well-Tempered Clavier, conceiving of
a duet of 2 pianos (instead of solo harpsichord or clavier) with changes of tempo and affect rather anachronistic to the original pieces. Instead of recoiling from these pieces in horror like a good musicologist and pianist, however, I confess to approaching them with good humor and perhaps glee. What could be more “interesting” at least, than revisiting familiar Classical pieces through Romantic eyes? Here I take a look at Grieg’s version of the C major Sonata K.545, and Moscheles’ take on the first WTC prelude.

Grieg

In my freshman year at UNH, I actually convinced a friend (and better pianist than I) to perform one of the Mozart duet movements with me at a benefit concert. We chose the first movement of the so-called “Sonata Facile” in the hopes that it would be, you know, facile. Heh. Grieg brings an interesting palette to Mozart’s ubiquitous sonata, which in some ways fits very well and sometimes, at certain chords, takes the music on a wild tangential ride. The gestures in the second piano make a huge difference in the flow of the piece. After the first big cadence, where the first piano (soloist, really) plays quasi-trills and then the second theme now in G, Grieg adds a simple gesture – the Ds above and below the second theme, presented as a pick up and third beat and doubled in both hands for a range of 4 octaves – which changes this development section into something much more dynamic. The somewhat static beginning of this section (in the soloist) is thus propelled forward by Grieg’s second piano, until both rest somewhat when the soloist begins the arpeggio sequence. Much of Grieg’s additions do have this effect of additional forward motion, and this effect is especially prominent at the cadences, which are generally intensified by the added texture.

Overall, personally even though Grieg definitely does not strike an authentic sound for Mozart, his rendition of this piece is compelling and enjoyable. Provided, that is, that you see it as a creative rendition and not as a sacrilege against canonical works. I’m all for music being preserved authentically, but the material sometimes can grow in new hands.

Grieg’s version is available at IMSLP. Here is a recording of Martha Argerich playing the first movement referenced above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqQY6-Bvz1s&feature=related

Moscheles

In order to really hear this piece, I copied both the original C major prelude and Moscheles’ addition into Sibelius. The tempo here is even more of an egregious change than anything Grieg did to Mozart, in my opinion, as he marks this prelude as 126 bpm Allegro Maestoso. Here again the second piano punctuates and accentuates the flow of the original harmonies, skewing this piece from the original sound much more than with the Mozart. Moscheles follows the harmonies much more closely, however, and though dissonances look in the score to be emphasized, this is done in a way which is fluent in the overall harmonic style. As a piano piece, the score is much less interesting than the Grieg; new melodies are drawn out of Bach’s framework, but the 2 hands mostly double each other exactly. This strikes me as odd, because Moscheles mostly wrote virtuosic “brillant” pieces for piano, except for the dual intent of this arrangement: the pieces of opus 126b are the 2 piano versions, and opus 126 is for cello obbligato. Every recording I could find on Naxos or YouTube of these revisited preludes features a cello, and here the reworking suddenly makes sense. Bach + Moscheles for 2 pianos sounds unidiomatic and overly Romantic, but for cello and piano, the tempo is eased (this may be a performance decision, in which case I applaud their taking liberties with Moscheles’ liberties) and the piece slips fluidly into the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria vein - not historically accurate but at least sympathetic to authentic feeling.

The score I reference is available at the Sibley Music Library collection. https://urresearch.rochester.edu/institutionalPublicationPublicView.action?institutionalItemId=4100
Several of the preludes with cello obbligato are at YouTube (such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSRHpy6uhPo&playnext=1&list=PLD6AE5D4561EC73F2), but the C major itself appears only at Naxos (cello version only).