REMINDERS
Piano Concerto in D minor
1. Mind your time
Make sure that you arrive before the concert starts. Please stay in your
seat until the end of the performance. Avoid standing up, wandering
about or leaving the concert hall before the end of the performance.
2. Stay quiet
This is the most important rule in concert etiquette. As best you can,
avoid talking, whispering, whistling, singing along or humming to
the music while the concert is ongoing so as not to distract other
people. Listening attentively to the music and paying attention to the
performers on stage will help you appreciate the concert more.
3. Stay still
Of course nobody expects you to sit perfectly still; however, stretching
while you’re seated, tapping your feet, cracking your knuckles or
chewing gum are inappropriate. These actions also distract other
viewers and the musicians themselves. Try your best to stay put while
the concert is ongoing.
4. ALARM OFF
Please make sure to turn off or set to vibrate/silent mode your mobile
phones or other gadgets before the concert starts.
5. Flashes off
Please avoid flash photography so as not to distract the performers.
6. Hold your applause
It is common practice when watching classical concerts to hold your
applause until the end of a music piece. However, this might get
confusing if you’re unfamiliar with the piece being performed. Your
safest bet is to clap when most of the audience starts clapping.
7. Take advantage of intermissions
Concerts usually have intermissions; this is the time when it’s OK to
leave your seat. If you need to, you can go to the restroom, get a drink
or a snack, or call someone on your cellphone during intermissions.
By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Mozart completed this concerto in February 10, 1785, and
performed the solo in the premiere the next day in Vienna.
Beethoven admired this piano concerto above all others, it being
the only one he played in public (and the only one for which he
wrote cadenzas). It’s easy to understand what attracted
Beethoven, as well as later 19th-century musicians, to this
concerto. It belongs to a few of Mozart’s works that suggested he
was the earliest great romantic composer. It’s also his first
concerto in a minor key which in itself was an unusual, forward-
looking choice.
Considered as one of the greatest concertos in the repertoire- even
retaining popularity for over two centuries, it is a masterpiece of
form and structure and a work of drama and beauty.
Mozart boldly opens the first movement with an unsettling “non-
theme” in the orchestra, which the soloist never plays. The piano
enters with an entirely new material that the orchestra also never
plays, which results to a sense of conflict between orchestra and
soloist that lasts through the entire work.
The second movement begins with the piano alone, evoking a
serene romance that brings relief but without completely getting
rid of the tragic mood. In particular, an explosive G minor
interlude—“the noisy part with the fast triplets,” as Leopold
Mozart called it—recalls the unrest that came before—and will
soon return.
The unaccompanied piano once again launches the drama in the
third movement. A rondo, though not conventionally cheerful,
brings a highly charged and forceful conclusion to the work.
Polonaise no.1 in C-sharp minor, Op.26
by Frederic Chopin
PROGRAMME
During the early Baroque era, pieces called "Polish dances" were
written by numerous composers; those that would become known WELL TEMPERED CLAVIER BOOK I:
as the "polonaise" did not appear until the 17 th century. By the 18th Prelude and Fugue in c minor, BWV 847
century, the polonaise has become an instrumental work Johann Sebastian Bach
independent of its dance origins and characterized by triple meter,
moderate tempo, lack of upbeats, and repetition of rhythmic
figures. In the Classical era, polonaises came to possess broader, Etude Op. 25 no.1 in Ab Major
more expressive melodies and sometimes included a trio section Frederic Chopin
(as in a minuet) or were set in rondo form. Chopin's works in the
genre have become the most prominent examples. Harana
The Op. 26 Polonaises in 1836 and were dedicated to Josef
Francisco Buencamino
Dessauer, an Austrian-born composer and Chopin’s friend. The
first polonaise in C sharp minor opens with aggressive rhythm and
bare octaves played in fortissimo. The work’s climax is brought by Polonaise no.1 in C-sharp minor, Op. 26
the second of the trio’s melodies which doesn’t only have one Frederic Chopin
melody, but two, which dialogue with one another.
Prelude from Pour le piano, L. 95
Prelude, Pour le Piano, L. 95 Claude Debussy
By Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Pour le piano (for the piano) is a suite written for the piano
consisting three individual movements, the Prelude, Sarabande,
------------INTERMISSION------------
and Toccata. Completed in 1901, the suite marked a turning point
Piano Concerto no. 20 in d minor, K. 466
in Debussy’s creative development who now turned to a prolific
production of piano music. Pour le piano is regarded as his first Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
mature piano work and as a reviewer described, it “foreshadowed
the neo-classical Debussy that emerged in his last years”. The I. Allegro
Prelude was dedicated to Mlle Worms de Romilly who noted that II. Romanze
the movement “tellingly evokes the gongs and music of “Java”. The III. Rondo, Allegro Assai
movement is a showpiece right from its first notes to the climax
*Collaborating artist: Asst. Prof. Mary Anne Espina
with the glissandi and contrasting chordal motives.
PROGRAMME NOTES
WELL TEMPERED CLAVIER BOOK I: Prelude and Fugue
No. 2 in C minor, BWV 847
By Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach was greatly recognized for his
performance and teaching abilities during his lifetime and the
period immediately following his death. However, composers
from the early classical era viewed Bach’s compositions as old-
fashioned. It was not until the late 18 th century that his
compositions were revived through musicians such as Mozart and
Beethoven who began to study his works.
The Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 847, is one of many pairs
in The Well-Tempered Clavier-a collection of two books of
keyboard music published in 1722 and 1724, containing 24
preludes, each of which precedes a fugue. Bach aimed to showcase
the possibilities of “well-temperament” through writing a prelude
and fugue in each major and minor key. He wanted to demonstrate
the possibilities of equal or near-equal temperament and open up
a lot of possibilities for keys and modulations between keys that
composers had previously avoided because of tuning issues.
Etude op. 25 no. 1 in Ab Major (“Aeolian Harp”)
By Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
This etude belongs to Chopin’s 2nd set of 12 etudes published in
1837, the Opus 25. As a study and a pianistic exercise, the A flat
major Etude is aimed to develop the melodic proficiency of the
little finger of the right hand.
Robert Schumann, who was also an influential music critic, coined
this etude “Aeolian Harp”, and called it “a poem rather than a
study”. The sound of the Aeolian harp was described by the
ancients as “music played without human hands”. Romantic poets
considered the instrument a source of natural and divine
inspiration; English poets saw it as source of inspiration and
societal change. In German lands, it gave listeners a longing for.
heaven and otherworldly things.  The piece has an alternate
nickname, “The Shepherd’s Boy,” suggested by a Chopin scholar
who claimed that the composer envisioned a boy playing the
melody on a flute to guide his flock.
Harana by Francisco Buencamino (1883-1952)
Francisco Buencamino was born to a family of musicians from San
Miguel de Mayumo Bulacan. His mother Luisa was a singer. His
father Fortunato, a church organist and band master, taught him
music at a very early age. Buencamino studied composition and
harmony at the Liceo de Manila, mentored by Marcelo Adonay, an
eminent composer and conductor in the late 19 th century. He
composed a number of sarswelas after graduating from the Liceo.
Buencamino taught at Ateneo de Manila in the early 1900s and
at the Centro Escolar de Senoritas where he headed the Music
Department for 30 years. He founded the Buencamino Music
Academy in 1930 where Nicano Abelardo was one of his students.
He also became a musical director for sarswela productions and
composed music for films by Sampaguita Pictures, LVN, and
Excelsior. Many of Buencamino’s piano works have become a
staple part of the Philippine repertoire of today’s young students.
He passed away in 1952 after which a posthumous award
regarded him as “Outstanding Composer”.