It has been a little over a year since my last opportunity to write about the Italian pianist Pina Napolitano. I tend to follow her as faithfully as possible to keep up with the repertoire she has organized around the Second Viennese School composers Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern. My last encounter with her took place early in November of last year, not long after the release of the album Kammerkonzert: Music of Arnold Schoenberg. However, what has particularly interested me in her recordings is the series of releases entitled Brahms the Progressive, which has that late nineteenth-century composer “rubbing shoulders” with all three of those Second Viennese School composers.
In the past two volumes, the composer that received the most attention was Webern. Indeed, in the second volume Webern’s Opus 24 three-movement “Concerto for Nine Instruments” joins the piano with flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, and viola. This serves as a “warm-up” for Brahms’ Opus 83, his second piano concerto in B-flat major. The contrast could not be greater, but one might argue that the note-by-note impressions of Webern prepare the ear for the rich diversity of phrases in Opus 83.
The first volume, on the other hand, suggests an overall structure of “boxes within boxes.” It both begins and ends with two late collections by Brahms, the Opus 118 and Opus 119 Klavierstücke compositions. Opus 118 is followed by two short Webern pieces, while Opus 119 is preceded by his brief “Klavierstück – Im Tempo eines Menuetts” and the Opus 27 “Variations.” These, in turn, enclose the “core” of the album, Alban Berg’s Opus 1, a single-movement solo piano sonata.
Pina Napolitano at her keyboard performing with violinist Franco Mezzena (photograph by Tommaso Tuzj, courtesy of Odradek Records)
Having performed both solo and with orchestra, Napolitano has devoted her third album to duo performances with violinist Franco Mezzena. Brahms now accounts for his two late violin sonatas, Opus 100 in A major and Opus 108 in D minor. These are separated by Schoenberg’s first appearance in this project, his Opus 47 “Phantasy for violin with piano accompaniment.” He also introduces the album with a 1928 sonata fragment. This is only about four and one-half minutes long, which is also roughly the duration of the concluding selection, Webern’s Opus 7 set of four pieces, each somewhat longer than a single minute.
Personally, I was particularly glad that Napolitano finally brought Schoenberg into her fold, so to speak. After all, “Brahms the progressive” was the title of an essay that Schoenberg wrote. It began as a radio talk that he gave in 1933. He then revised that script in to the essay that now can be found in Style and Idea, a collection of fifteen essays edited and translated by Dika Newlin. The essay version of “Brahms the progressive” was completed in 1947. With such a rich background, I can only wonder with no shortage of anticipation where the concept of “Brahms the progressive” will next lead Napolitano.
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