Performed by Ana Benavides
I - Etude I in B flat major. Allegro assai: 0:00
II - Etude II in B flat major. Moderato mosso: 3:24
III - Etude III in A minor. Presto risoluto: 8:45
Arriaga composed these three etudes or caprices for piano in Paris, as a prodigious student of the École Royale de Musique et Declamation when he was 16 years old. There he studied violin with Pierre Baillot, harmony with François-Joseph Fétis and counterpoint with Luigi Cherubini. His teachers were soon amazed by his rapid progress and talent, especially for composition.
In 1823, Cherubini, who had just been appointed director of the École the previous year, listening to the Stabat Mater of the young composer asked for the authorship of that work, and when he learned that it belonged to the young Arriaga he said "Incredible. You are the same personification of music." Then, in 1824, Arriaga was appointed professor repetiteur of the class of counterpoint and fugue of Fétis, when only a year before he was a student of said Classroom, and consequently began to be greatly valued by the students, as well as by other faculties within the Conservatory itself.
The etudes or caprices are of a great construction. In the first one there are fragments of deep romantic and syncopated meaning analogous to those that Schumann would use. The second has chords and links that twenty years later used César Franck in his Prelude, chorale and fugue. The third is vivacious and reminiscent of the Italian saltarello, a dance of medieval origin of accelerated rhythm, ending brilliantly.
Picture: Portrait of the composer.
Sources: aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus...
2 авг 2024
