This is the closest I've ever heard a composer get to Franck's unique harmonic style of writing. Dukas from the start modulates through all these wonderful exotic keys, all the while maintaining a perfect balance between travelling to these far-off, almost atonal lands yet always staying close to the home key of e-flat minor. Far as writing goes, it is an absolute masterpiece; the mood is dismal, even "spooky". This ranks right up there with Sorcerer's Apprentice and probably even surpasses it. Only the ending disappoints slightly.
Great comment. However, I'd have some remarks on Franck's harmonic style, which is very much derived from Wagner, so I don't know if his style is so much unique harmonically. However, I definitely agree that he is probably the one who most convincingly adapted it to the absolute genre of music and cyclic form. I love Franck's music for its very unique ability to generate a lot of suspense and tension within a classical form while being very chromatic and constantly modulating on short notice, two aspects that often tend to undermine each others in their aims, because formal clarity often calls for simplicity and a clear tonal center, while the rich Wagnerian style often tends to prefer momentary richness. Wagner is of course a different breed, because he himself was incredibly gifted in his orchestral preludes and interludes that tend to be both very clear in structure and exploratory in their harmonics. But many of them are Adagios and actually shorter than they seem in performance. The most notable exeption is the overture to 'Die Meistersinger', which is way more grounded in its harmonics and applies a lot of sequences to deal with its counterpointal qualities. Orchestration and sheer dynamic mass seems to be another aspect to increase clarity in form, for instance to have great climaxes and recapitulations that ring in even the least educated listener's ears. Wagner is amazing at that, but so is Franck. Max Reger on the other hand really walks a very thin line when it comes to this balance, to give another example. Many of his pieces get a little messy and even boring however elaborate they are, that is especially true of some of his chamber music. His stronger pieces use similar cyclic and 'accumulative' strategies, e.g. his wonderful organ choral fantasy 'Hallelujah, Gott zu loben bleibe meine Seelenfreud'. A fantastic piece, but more conservative for Reger's standards when it comes to harmony, even if other people still consider it to be an epic harmonic clusterf**k. If you don't know it already, Louis Vierne is someone who definitely took Franck's harmonic style within classical form to another level, especially from his 3rd organ symphony onwards, which is amazing in its harmonic which being crystal clear in its structure. The first movement with its aggressive, almost Beethovenian unisonos, later to be harmonized gorgeously in the recapitulation, the epicly chromatic and suspenseful Adagio (4th movement) or the Toccata (5th movement) that somehow manages to modulate away before the first fortissimo-outbreak of the theme, only to shortly arrive at the tonic before getting there even more triumphingly. Just awesome music. Please check it out if you don't know it yet. Vierne was also Franck's student. Olivier Latry or Ben van Oosten did terrific recordings of Vierne's organ symphonies.
I saw Hamelin perform the sonata last week in London and found the conclusion of the piece wholly convincing but I know what you mean. My goodness, this man has miraculous hands, I was moved to tears by the end, unforgettable.
@@robertwarwick3294 I'm just blown away by his ability to memorize these intricate harmonies. This is a 45 minute piece, the length of a Tchaikovsky symphony or Rach 3rd Concerto. And it certainly doesn't harmonically go from a to b to c to d as you would expect those works to do. It's always taking a turn completely different from what your ear would expect if it's been trained in the Mozart tonal style. Yet it IS tonal. As a young pianist I once memorized the 1st mov. of Schumann's Sonata in G minor in less than a week for an assignment. This I don't think I could memorize the first page in twice the time.
unfortunately there are so many gems he has never even heard of, let alone played! I have some of them in my playlists under my channel if your interested
The styles are totally incompatible, so no. Brahms' style is much more sober, especially in his late works, his last being organ choral preludes that are strongly mirror Bach's output in this genre. Brahms' wasn't really interested in harmonizing stuff as spicy and juicy as possible as is the case in this very franckesque piano sonata, also his rhythmical experimentation is mostly derived from his study of early music. Few people actually know that Brahms had quite a musicological interest before this discipline was actually a thing. Franck's chromaticism is more interesting from the Wagnerian perspective. This sonata and its very liberal use of modulation clearly indicates where Dukas was aligning himself.
@@maniak1768 "Styles"? The surging aspect is 100% Brahms in his solo piano pieces even the harmonic material. The first movement here is VERY sober and tormented. Spicy? Hardly. The corny stuff reminds me of Benjamin Godard. What is the purpose of all the bombastic undercurrent for some pleasant melodic riffs?
Hard to believe the way this man play this masterpiece. There is no fraseggio, there is no knowledge of the music, no awarness of the deeps. It is just too complex I guess.
And what is 'fraseggio', a special kind of Italianate phrasing that the fin de siècle French felt compelled to adopt? This is pretentious nonsense. I've never been a fan of Hamelin, but find that here he's in complete sympathy with the piece. The movement is tortured and volcanic, and he plays it as such, without ever going outside the lines.
@@robertschaaf8606 Really you don't know what fraseggio is? If you did you should admit that, copntrary to what Clemente says, this performance is full of fraseggio (a bit too much for my taste!)
My first and last hearing of this work prior to today was about 30-40 years ago.Decided to give it another chance. My mistake , again.What a bunch of pointless, aimless noise.
![Paul Dukas - Piano Sonata in E flat minor: First Movement [Part 1/5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/x2a5e8IzJlQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Schubert - The Complete* Piano Sonatas (Audio+Sheet) [Kempff]](/img/1.gif)
what a wonderful piece for a one-year-old to have written!!! (it says on the score Paul Dukas (1899-1900))
+alexander koldo-lewis As in that's the time interval in which he wrote it.
lmao
Unfortunately this one-year-old genius didn't make till his 2nd year. It made me wonder the height he would reach if he could live till his 30s.
Duruflé's teacher and you can certainly hear the influences in D's music, as well as the obvious debt to Franck here. A wonderful find, thank you!
This is the closest I've ever heard a composer get to Franck's unique harmonic style of writing. Dukas from the start modulates through all these wonderful exotic keys, all the while maintaining a perfect balance between travelling to these far-off, almost atonal lands yet always staying close to the home key of e-flat minor. Far as writing goes, it is an absolute masterpiece; the mood is dismal, even "spooky". This ranks right up there with Sorcerer's Apprentice and probably even surpasses it. Only the ending disappoints slightly.
Great comment. However, I'd have some remarks on Franck's harmonic style, which is very much derived from Wagner, so I don't know if his style is so much unique harmonically. However, I definitely agree that he is probably the one who most convincingly adapted it to the absolute genre of music and cyclic form. I love Franck's music for its very unique ability to generate a lot of suspense and tension within a classical form while being very chromatic and constantly modulating on short notice, two aspects that often tend to undermine each others in their aims, because formal clarity often calls for simplicity and a clear tonal center, while the rich Wagnerian style often tends to prefer momentary richness. Wagner is of course a different breed, because he himself was incredibly gifted in his orchestral preludes and interludes that tend to be both very clear in structure and exploratory in their harmonics. But many of them are Adagios and actually shorter than they seem in performance. The most notable exeption is the overture to 'Die Meistersinger', which is way more grounded in its harmonics and applies a lot of sequences to deal with its counterpointal qualities. Orchestration and sheer dynamic mass seems to be another aspect to increase clarity in form, for instance to have great climaxes and recapitulations that ring in even the least educated listener's ears. Wagner is amazing at that, but so is Franck.
Max Reger on the other hand really walks a very thin line when it comes to this balance, to give another example. Many of his pieces get a little messy and even boring however elaborate they are, that is especially true of some of his chamber music. His stronger pieces use similar cyclic and 'accumulative' strategies, e.g. his wonderful organ choral fantasy 'Hallelujah, Gott zu loben bleibe meine Seelenfreud'. A fantastic piece, but more conservative for Reger's standards when it comes to harmony, even if other people still consider it to be an epic harmonic clusterf**k.
If you don't know it already, Louis Vierne is someone who definitely took Franck's harmonic style within classical form to another level, especially from his 3rd organ symphony onwards, which is amazing in its harmonic which being crystal clear in its structure. The first movement with its aggressive, almost Beethovenian unisonos, later to be harmonized gorgeously in the recapitulation, the epicly chromatic and suspenseful Adagio (4th movement) or the Toccata (5th movement) that somehow manages to modulate away before the first fortissimo-outbreak of the theme, only to shortly arrive at the tonic before getting there even more triumphingly. Just awesome music. Please check it out if you don't know it yet. Vierne was also Franck's student. Olivier Latry or Ben van Oosten did terrific recordings of Vierne's organ symphonies.
I saw Hamelin perform the sonata last week in London and found the conclusion of the piece wholly convincing but I know what you mean.
My goodness, this man has miraculous hands, I was moved to tears by the end, unforgettable.
@@robertwarwick3294 I'm just blown away by his ability to memorize these intricate harmonies. This is a 45 minute piece, the length of a Tchaikovsky symphony or Rach 3rd Concerto. And it certainly doesn't harmonically go from a to b to c to d as you would expect those works to do. It's always taking a turn completely different from what your ear would expect if it's been trained in the Mozart tonal style. Yet it IS tonal. As a young pianist I once memorized the 1st mov. of Schumann's Sonata in G minor in less than a week for an assignment. This I don't think I could memorize the first page in twice the time.
Terribly familiar somehow. Always loved the French late Romantics and post-Romantics. César Franck inevtably comes to mind.
Il faut être un mutant pour jouer ainsi ! C'est époustouflant !!!
5:22 is a wonderful moment.
댑악
There is no piano piece composed that M A Hamelin has not played. He will surely run out of them sooooon. Lets wait and listen and THEN seeeeeeeee.
unfortunately there are so many gems he has never even heard of, let alone played! I have some of them in my playlists under my channel if your interested
Would Brahms been writing this way had he lived to be 100? Maybe
no, Brahms was too perfectionistic
?
@@rachelzimet8310 As Dukas was
The styles are totally incompatible, so no. Brahms' style is much more sober, especially in his late works, his last being organ choral preludes that are strongly mirror Bach's output in this genre. Brahms' wasn't really interested in harmonizing stuff as spicy and juicy as possible as is the case in this very franckesque piano sonata, also his rhythmical experimentation is mostly derived from his study of early music. Few people actually know that Brahms had quite a musicological interest before this discipline was actually a thing. Franck's chromaticism is more interesting from the Wagnerian perspective. This sonata and its very liberal use of modulation clearly indicates where Dukas was aligning himself.
@@maniak1768 "Styles"? The surging aspect is 100% Brahms in his solo piano pieces even the harmonic material. The first movement here is VERY sober and tormented. Spicy? Hardly. The corny stuff reminds me of Benjamin Godard. What is the purpose of all the bombastic undercurrent for some pleasant melodic riffs?
Hard to believe the way this man play this masterpiece. There is no fraseggio, there is no knowledge of the music, no awarness of the deeps. It is just too complex I guess.
jealousy is a horrible trait
And what is 'fraseggio', a special kind of Italianate phrasing that the fin de siècle French felt compelled to adopt? This is pretentious nonsense. I've never been a fan of Hamelin, but find that here he's in complete sympathy with the piece. The movement is tortured and volcanic, and he plays it as such, without ever going outside the lines.
@@robertschaaf8606 Really you don't know what fraseggio is? If you did you should admit that, copntrary to what Clemente says, this performance is full of fraseggio (a bit too much for my taste!)
@@peterluth Oh, I see. Clemente is Italian, and not linguistically affected. Still disagree though, even if not a big fan of Hamelin.
@@robertschaaf8606fraseggio is the italian for phrasing
My first and last hearing of this work prior to today was about 30-40 years ago.Decided to give it another chance. My mistake , again.What a bunch of pointless, aimless noise.
Shh
Give it a few more listens.
@@Aaron-e6f9b life is too short