Fabian Panisello, György Ligeti: Piano Etudes

Fabian Panisello - Gyorgy Ligeti
piano etudes

The etude is originally a conceptually reduced composition that has a didactic purpose in particular and confronts the instrumentalist with a technical problem. A virtuosic as well as mechanical character are the defining characteristics of the numerous studies published at the beginning of the 19th century (Anton Reicha, Johann B. Cramer, Carl Czerny, Friedrich W. Kalkbrenner ...). With a poetic tonal language, Frédéric Chopin liberated this genre from its 'wooden' character.

Franz Liszt made the leap into the concert hall with his exceedingly virtuoso works Études d'exécution transcendante, in which it seems as if he wants to transfer the possibilities of an entire orchestra to the piano. Finally, in a further step, Claude Debussys aim Etudes pour piano (1915) on the conceptual area: virtuosity is relegated to the background and the technical element - a certain fingering, a certain interval or even a sound - becomes the generator of new types of sounds.

Had this forerunner Gyorgy Ligeti probably more or less concretely in the back of his mind when he wrote the first book of his Etudes pour piano composed. Other influences, no less significant, emanated from African polyphonies and Conlon Nancarrow's music, with the complex and restless polyrhythms he had discovered for himself.

His etudes therefore also mark a new phase in Ligeti's overall oeuvre. In the harmonic language he falls back on tonal phrases. Folkloric echoes that evoke memories of Béla Bartók emerge. The overall sound appears brighter, but at many moments the musical events detach themselves from the 'pleasant and entertaining' moody sonority that Ligeti valued so much in Nancarrow's music.

Ligeti's continuing interest in rhythmic elements and paradoxes of perception is also significant for the Etudes. This is where the central idea of ​​the etudes experimenting with ›illusory rhythms‹ comes into play. Several layers of different order and speed are superimposed, as in the first study Disorder. The asymmetry of this piece arises from the independent use of both hands, each acting rhythmically and tonally independently.

Cordes a vide treads a similar but more meek and expressive terrain in conjunction with a dominant interval of fifths. marching bands recalls Bartók by an ostinato ascending, eight-note figure (accented as 3+2+3), whereas the four-part polyphonic Rainbow binary and ternary rhythms superimposed - against the background of tonally transparent, calm sounds.

Während Metal the joy of irregular rhythms Disorder resumes, relates The Sorcerer's Apprentice on acoustic illusions of perception - similar to Ligeti's earlier work Continuum for harpsichord (1968). Outstanding is again a meek piece with transparent harmonies, whereas White on white and Canon be determined by strict canon techniques.

In the  Studio for piano from Fabian Panisello the generic concept of the etude regains its original meaning - in the sense of a preparatory work. Finally, the pieces were written as preliminary work for the orchestral work Aksaks, which premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2008. The composer was striving to deal with the for Aksaks to radicalize the intended materials, which led to an independent and coherent piano cycle as part of the preparatory work.

The technical virtuosity of these pieces - sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious - makes them particularly attractive for a concert program. Panisello's musical language is based on the development and overlapping of three material types - diatonic, chromatic and pentatonic - which the composer relates to the harmonic (frequency) spectrum. This harmonic spectrum thus functions as a seed from which diverse systems can grow and as a link for modulations between these related systems.

Panisello's preference with regard to temporal forms of organization applies to the 'unstable balance' and finds an influential model for his music in the 'aksak', that irregular rhythm in the music of the Balkans and Turkey. For this reason, forms of ›organized asymmetry‹ based on prime numbers are also included here.

The first four studies deal with chromaticism. In the first etude, the left hand plays an ascending chromatic scale across the entire piano range. Above this, in the right hand, there is a descending chromatic movement in smaller, discontinuous units, the chromatic-parallel tone sequences of which increase in distance with each repetition (second, third, fourth, fifth...). In the second part, the relationship between the two hands is reversed with an intensification through ›polyaccents‹ in the bass.

The second study works the chromatic indirectly in the form of arpeggiated, quasi-spectral harmonies. The third etude is limited to just four chromatic notes, which are combined by octave transpositions into any shape imaginable. For the first time in a slow tempo, the fourth etude focuses on a lyrically expressive expression. The Fifth Etude (Pentafonias) is included as a middle section in the following piece, but can also be heard independently. The ›polypentaphony‹, which develops from a strictly maintained rhythm and submits to asymmetrical models, has a central position here.

In the sixth etude, chromatic, pentatonic and diatonic are mixed, but retain a certain independence. At first, a plastic tone asserts itself, which, entering the middle section, acquires an insistent profile and finally a rhythmically mobile (patter) Conductus leads. Cluster-like accents reinforce the existing drama.

Etudes 7 and 9 create the matrix of the first movement of Panisello's orchestral piece Aksaks. Originally conceived as layers of a whole, they were subsequently reworked into individual pieces. The rhythmic ›aksak‹ organization is particularly evident here, for the sequences are always unvarying and clearly audible, despite being overlaid with rhythmically irrational proportions.

While the seventh etude has a linearly continuous character, the ninth and final piece in this cycle develops a vertical conception based on chords. Both perspectives are different, but also complementary and therefore suitable for an overlay. The eighth etude (Armonias derivadas) is a piece animated by minimal articulations, with abrupt and detached gestures set against a timbral background of resonating and still chords.

Stefano Russomanno
Translation from Spanish: Till Knipper