Antoine REICHA (1770-1836)
Rediscovered - Volume Three
L’Art de varier ou 57 variations pour le piano, Op 57 (1803-04) [86:50]
Ivan Ilić (piano)
rec. 23-25 February 2020, Potton Hall, Dunwich, UK
CHANDOS CHAN20194 [86:50]
Antoine Reicha’s L’Art de varier ou 57 variations pour le piano, Op 57 - the number of variations and the opus number are not coincidental - is a mammoth work that stretches the limits of what can be put on a single music CD these days. Size and duration need not be daunting however. Ivan Ilić has made a little YouTube video which points out aspects of the theme and some of the ways in which Reicha uses it in his variations, and even without some advance tuning of your ears this is a piece that inhabits comparable breathing space with Beethoven, applying the antique compositional techniques of J.S. Bach while at the same time being “a dazzling and visionary forerunner of Chopin, Schumann, Alkan, and Liszt.”
Marc Vignal’s booklet notes give us background and context for L’Art de varier, being composed after Reicha had withdrawn from performing and focussing entirely on composition. He had already met Haydn and Beethoven in the 1790s, and discussions between the latter and Reicha show that variations on a ‘grand’ scale were very much in the air in the early 1800s. Unlike Beethoven, Reicha’s variations tend to stick largely to a twelve bar structure, indeed demonstrating the art of variation, rather than embarking on more extended voyages of fantasy. The range of these variations is however all the more remarkable for this framework. Reicha’s own writings outline a technical approach that embraces varying of the theme itself, transposition into different keys, using different registers, tempi, time signatures, accompaniments, in using augmentation, diminution, decoration, rhythmic and harmonic changes, as well as transforming the theme into dance forms and fugues, while “always allowing it to be recognised.” Such a list might sound dry and academic, but Reicha’s limitless inventiveness takes us by the hand and leads us through his creation in ways that always stimulate the ear and the mind, contrasting textures and techniques in ways both unexpected but also considerate of our ability to concentrate. He can spread one variation in front of us like a carpet-seller, “see - you can do this…”, and then create something that could be a cadenza plucked from a concerto: “this one is harder, but you hear where it comes from?” Our answer more often than not will be, “wow, yes…”
The theme and 57 variations are bundled into nine access points on the disc. Most are not given expression markings, but there are a few variations that have some additional information, such as a centrally placed Marche funèbre. It’s tricky to pick out highlights, but if demonstrating the work to a newcomer I would certainly play Variation 7 at the start of track 2, which sounds disarmingly simple but draws us into a quite intricate counterpoint which twice leads to an inevitable but Erik Satie-like cadence - a confluence that still has the power to inspire over two centuries on from its invention. Talking of Satie, also take a listen to the opening of Variation 22, a tiny three-note sequence worth stealing if ever there was one. Hearing Variation 27 or indeed Variation 38 and others blind I can imagine most people identifying these as Schumann, and if the rich chord voicings and repose of Variation 29 don’t make you melt then the jocular Variation 30 won’t make you laugh either.
There seems to be just one other recording of this work available, with Mauro Masala on the Dynamic label released in 2000. This is also a fine recording, but Ivan Ilić’s more subtle touch and wider variety of approach is represented in a timing from Masala that packs the whole thing into just over 75 minutes. Recorded with Chandos’s usual impeccable high standards and performed with superlative musicianship, this is an addition to Ivan Ilić’s Reicha Rediscovered edition that will always be one of its crowning achievements, whatever comes next in the series.
Dominy Clements
