I. PIANO WORKS BY HAYDN AND BARTOK

Painting by Joan Farber
    Haydn Sonatas in A #12,
    D #51 and A #26

    Selections from Bartok:
    For Children, Vol. II
    (based on Slovak folk tunes)

    The first Bartok track was
    among the top 50 picks on
    americanidolunderground,
    March, 2006.
This live performance presents side by side pieces based on Slovak melodies by Bela Bartok (1881-1945) and piano sonatas by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Since we listen in the context of the here and now, it makes sense to use music of our time as a gateway to music written 200 years ago. For Haydn the newly invented piano offered myriad irresistible dramatic possibilities. By the time of Bartok the piano had become almost a folk instrument, its resonance so familiar that an entirely new musical syntax could be developed to objectify its unique sonorities. It is for the listener to decide which composer is the more radical.

Since the purpose of the CD is to capture the intimacy of the music, none of the performances has been edited. Musical imagination was not restrained for the sake of accuracy. Background sounds locate the performance where it took place, in a living room for an audience of friends-the setting for which this music was intended.

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