Igor Markevitch: Variations, Fugue, et Envoi sur un Thème de Haendel (Fujii)

Igor Markevitch (1912–1983): Variations, Fugue et Envoi sur un Théme de Haendel (1941) Kazuoki Fujii, piano (rec. 1990) 00:00 – Tema. Andantino 01:19 – Var. 1. Allegro sostenuto 02:13 – Var. 2 02:48 – Var. 3 03:16 – Var. 4 03:45 – Var. 5. Crotchet = 144 04:28 – Var. 6. Quaver = 144 05:35 – Var. 7. Moderato, ma allegramente 06:32 – Var. 8. Doppio tempo 06:53 – Var. 9 07:22 – Var. 10. Scherzoso 07:55 – Var. 11. Quaver = quaver 08:42 – Var. 12. Risoluto, con bravura 09:13 – Var. 13. Più allegro, con molta bravura 10:09 – Var. 14. Andante adagio 12:12 – Var. 15. Con fuoco, ma sempre maestoso 13:09 – Fuga. Crotchet = 160 17:43 – Envoi. Adagio, ma non troppo An absolute thrill ride of modern pianistic technique, packaged as a set of variations on the final movement of Handel’s E-major harpsicord suite (itself a theme and variations, popularly known as ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith’). Markevitch writes in a neoclassical style similar to that of Stravinsky, but with a plethora of inventive textures that are entirely his own. See for example var. 4 (3:16), where the theme is placed inside a kaleidoscopic construction of glistening scales, which seems to gradually dissolve it. The increasing amount of octave displacement is as aurally disorienting as it is delicious. Some variations are humorously playful takes on older forms (see the French ouverture of var. 7, 5:35, or the wonderfully ornamented var. 10, 7:22), while others are sharp and jagged transformations of the original theme. Var. 13 (9:13) with its echo-y Seufzer-figurations is especially fascinating to me. The fugue has a distinctly Hammerklavierian flavor, and reaches its zenith with the final full statement of Handel’s original theme (16:58). In the preface to the score, Markevitch himself writes of the work: “I wanted to honour a tradition which seems to me unjustly discredited: that of the piano treated as a heroic instrument. In fact, it seems that when writing for it today we are too much inclined to lose any feeling for the instrument itself; it will be a pity if we entirely overlook the pleasure to be got from paying homage to it, in developing its resources. For it is surely this pleasure, this fondness for the reality of the piano to which we owe the chief masterpieces as well as the many works that make its literature so attractive. This then is a work which I above all wanted to make pianistically interesting. In spite of their of their off-putting appearance, I have proposed some fingerings as an aid to study, in addition to explanations for those variations which pose new technical problems. I have also notated the pedaling with some care, since it often deviates from traditional usage, whether employed as a dynamic element or to connect combinations of notes which, from my point of view, form part of the same harmony. (…) The Theme requires special playing: immaterial, veiled, rather slow and remote; more a memory of the theme than the theme itself. A long pause on the last chord. It is only with the start of the first variation that the piano reveals its true colours.”