|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| The Midland Chamber Players are a musical society who play regular Friday lunchtime concerts at the Birmingham & Midland Institute in Birmingham. They are currently in their 46th successful season of concerts. |
| |
Only two of Mozart's piano sonatas were written in a minor key and both are highly dramatic.
This sonata, K 310 in A Minor, was written around the time that the composer's mother died and and is unremittingly dark and tragic in mood. Even the slow movement has a tempestuous middle section, while the finale is bleak and despairing.
Chopin started composing his mazurkas in 1825, and continued composing them until 1849, the year of his death. The number of mazurkas composed in each year varies, but he was steadily writing them throughout his life. He based his mazurkas on the traditional Polish folk dance, also called the mazurka ("mazur" in Polish). However, while Chopin used the traditional mazurka as his model, he was able to transform his mazurkas into an entirely new genre, one that was suitable for the concert hall.
Both the traditional mazurka and Chopin's version contain a great deal of repetition, which makes sense for a dance form; but Chopin's genius for chromatic harmony results in a series of miniature masterpieces.
The term Impromptu, fashionable for a short time in the first half of the 18th century, designates a free-form composition, for the most part highly organized, but retaining something of the sense of being the result of a sudden inspiration.
Schubert’s Impromptus are among the most famous examples of the genre, but the title Impromptu was not assigned to these pieces by the composer himself but by the Viennese publisher Haslinger.
The two sets D. 899 and D. 935 were both written in 1827.
|
| |
| |
| |
| For a full listing of this seasons concerts, please select the 2011-2012 Season menu item or click here. |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The Midland Chambers Players Society is a Registered Charity: HT/500193/R
|