FRYDERYK CHOPIN
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21
PAUL HINDEMITH
Nobilissima visione
(full ballet 1938)
Piano
Giacomo Menegardi
(Venice Prize winner 2023)
Conductor
Wolfram Christ
Opera Carlo Felice Genova Orchestra
The Concert n. Fryderyk Chopin’s Concerto No. 2 in F minor – composed between 1829 and 1830 in Warsaw and dedicated to Countess Delphine Potocka – is actually his first piano concerto, No. 2 in fact referring only to the publication that took place after Concerto No. 1 in E minor (composed a few months later). Each of the three movements formally takes up the classical model, with the first movement Maestoso in sonata form, the Larghetto with its melancholic and elegiac tone and the brilliant Allegro vivace in closing with a main theme inspired by a Polish folk mazurka. This Concerto stands out in Chopin’s catalogue not only as one of the composer’s few orchestral works, but also as singularly expressive of his style in its combination of a unique and unmistakable pianism in the entire Romantic panorama and an orchestral writing particularly akin to it. Chopin was criticised for his symphonic works, in which the orchestral part was considered purely and simply accompaniment, but it must be considered that – although the piano was his expressive medium par excellence – his orchestral writing had a precise and measured direction in terms of dialogue with the piano. Thus the orchestra does not reach astounding levels of timbre or virtuosity, but rather amplifies and accommodates the solo part to the fullest, as is particularly evident in the Larghetto, the most romantic and ‘Chopinian’ moment of the Concer.
Nobilissima visione was born as a danced legend in 1937, when Paul Hindemith decided to compose a ballet following his fascination with Giotto’s frescoes in the Bardi Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. A first full version of the ballet was staged in July 1938 in London, with the composer conducting, while an alternative, abridged version in the form of an orchestral suite was performed at the International Festival of Contemporary Music at Teatro La Fenice in Venice the following September. The ballet is inspired by St. Francis, a central figure in the Bardi Chapel frescoes. The Saint’s life is then recounted in eleven episodes, from his origins to his contrast with the malevolent forces represented in the March by the mercenaries, his encounter with the principles of Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience- allegorically represented by three ladies-and his marriage to madonna Poverty, to his praise of Creation, a reference to the Canticle of the Creatures. The music gathers varied influences, mainly of archaic taste. The usual refinement of timbre is combined with a diatonic musical writing aimed at making the expression of a serene and imperturbable spirituality the protagonist; Hindemith thus confirms a research focused on tonal polyphony, already established with Mathis der Maler a few years earlier. The most intense moment of great magnificence is reached in the last episode, Incipiunt laudes creaturarum, which sanctions the victory of the principles of faith and the grandeur of the saint’s work. The ballet was composed in close collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Léonide Massine, who, having shared Hindemith’s emotion in front of the frescoes, wanted to recreate in the choreography a gesture similar to medieval figurative art.
Ludovica Gelpi
