Porat- For Piano (2006)

Two Arias are in the core of my new piece for piano, which receives tonight its world
premiere. In four movements, loosely connected to each other thematically, an attempt
is made to explore the different sonorities and the different expressive approaches to
the instrument.
The concise opening Prelude presents the pieces main thematic material: two motifs
of three-note each.
The first Aria, In Memoriam Claude Vivier, is a tribute to the late Canadian composer.
Slow and meditative, a repeated E note is the base for all ideas and sound spectrums.
The following short Toccata returns to the percussive approach of the Prelude. The
mechanical rhythmic vitality and the prepared piano make the instrument resemble a
harpsichord.
The second concluding Aria is freely based on the Prelude materials. An extensive
solo cadenza for the right hand is divided into five continuous variations. A final
section comes back to the meditative mode of the first Aria, quietly concluding the
whole piece.
Webern- Variations op. 27
Weberns Variations op. 27, composed in 1936, is his only piece for piano solo.
Consisting three short movements, the title Variations in its strict meaning can be
implied only to the third one, although all movements are built from the same fournote phrase of the opening measures.
The first movement is in ABA form, widely using mirror-inversions and palindromes
(playing in one direction and then backwards).
The second fast movement is composed as a canon in contrary motion, creating
complex right-hand/left-hand crossing patterns, in a simple binary form: a repeated
11-bar statement followed by its repeated 11-bar variation. All is mirrored towards the
repeated A note.
The third movement is the longest of the three, and has a theme with five continuous
variations. Each variation becomes faster and denser, but the last one returns to the
quiet and spacious mood of the beginning.

Schoenberg- Suite op. 25

"The very first [compositions] were some movements of the Suite for Piano which I
composed in the fall of 1921. Here I became suddenly conscious of the real meaning
of my aim: unity and regularity, which unconsciously had led me this way."
(Schoenberg to Nicholas Slonimsky, 3 June 1937)
The Suite for Piano op. 25 (1921-3) came as a final breakthrough for Schoenberg,
who was striving for an order and a method to organize his new ideas. With the
creation of the Suite he could convince the world and himself that his new 12-tone
theory is working, ensuring, as he thought, a Germanic musical hegemony for another
century. Schoenberg has already used a set in the last movement of the op. 23 pieces
for piano and in the fourth movement of the op. 24 Serenade, but it was the op. 25
suite to be the first complete dodecaphonic work, where he already discovered most
of the potential of a 12-tone row, including its divisions into sub-groups.
It is clear that Schoenberg wanted to show the world what his new writing style can
produce, and therefore chose known classical forms. The dances chosen for the suitePrelude, Gavotte, Musette, Intermezzo, Menuett and Gigue are all rooted in the
baroque, apart from the Intermezzo, which was a popular middle movement in the
works of Schumann and especially Brahms.
The Suite was first performed in Viennas Konzerhaus, on 25th of February, 1924, by
Eduard Steuermann, and drew immediate responses in the works of Berg and Webern,
who both applied Schoenbergs serial compositions in their own ways.
Schubert- Sonata in B-Flat Major D960, op. post.
The last three piano sonatas (c minor, A Major and B-Flat Major) were all composed
in September 1828, only two month before Schuberts death.
Although all three are profound and epic in their scopes, it is the last sonata in which
death is most obviously present - whether it is in the solemn, eerie g-flat trill in the
first movement; the funeral marchs feeling of the second movement or the unsettling
G octave that constantly appears in the Finale.
However, unlike other composers last works that deal with that theme (Mozarts
Requiem, Tchaikovskys Pathtique Symphony, Mahlers Ninth), Schubert chose his

last big composition to be intimate throughout, creating a long, peaceful journey to

the unknown.
The long first movement has all the qualities of that kind of journey. Broadly
spacious, mostly quiet and serene, the constant flow of its melody is only disturbed by
a mysterious and disquieting long trill in Schuberts lowest register, followed by a
suspended stillness.
The movement begins with a beautiful, simple melody that appears three times: in Bflat, in the remote G-flat key and again, triumphantly in B-flat. The second theme
does not begin in the dominant tonality, but in f# minor. Only towards the third
section, which comes in a lighter mode, does the anticipated F Major come.
The development begins in c# minor, exploring many different tonalities, using
mainly the third sections theme. The mysterious low G-flat trill appears before the
recapitulation, as well before the final concluding chords of the movement.
The slow movement in c sharp minor is hypnotically still in its pace, creating a most
remarkable accompaniment for its lamenting melody.
These four heartbeat notes, going through four octaves below and above the melody
make the music held in sorrow.
The second A Major section seems almost like a resurrection- the music is flowing
and tuneful, and there is no trace for the sadness of the beginning.
The first section returns with an accompaniment addition of three upbeat notes,
reminding us the funeral mode of the movement. Two of the most magical moments
in the piece are created by two harmonic shifts- from c# minor to C Major and from
c# minor to the ending C# Major.
The joy of life comes back for the Scherzo, marked pp con delicatezza. Short and
light (unlike the first two movements), its trio section is a syncopated dance in b-flat
minor.
As in his late G Major String Quartet, Schubert deals with the connection between
major and minor in the Finale.
This Rondo-Sonata begins with a G octave, and a 4-measure phrase that suggests the
key of c minor, only to be resolved immediately to B-flat Major.

The second theme is a beautiful long melody in F Major. Minor comes furiously as
the third theme emerges, again to be resolved into a joyful major section.
This wonderful movement finishes in a surprise- the repeated octave is suddenly
lowered to G-flat and then to F, serving as a question mark. The piece ends with a
brilliant Beethovenian Presto, masterfully concluding Schuberts piano oeuvres.